Savage Natural Bourbon — Ships on Nov. 22

The coffee is produced in Panama, in a region called Volcan. We visited there in July 2019 to meet the Savage family behind the operations and to better understand what they're doing. Savage Coffee is a project started by Jamison Savage in Panama. Jamison has positioned himself as one of the most sophisticated coffee producers, globally, with his farm Finca Deborah winning prestigious coffee competitions around the world. He is now pre-booking his coffees well before the season starts.

This project allows Jamison to increase his scope and purchase from neighboring producers who don't have the same vision for processing that he does. Currently working with four estates in Volcan, Jamison is growing the Savage Coffee brand. These are top-quality, vibrant, and varietal-driven coffees.

The Carbonic Maceration process has been used in the wine industry for several decades. Yet, the application of this process in coffee is only a few years old.

The process starts with harvesting overly ripe cherries reading above 24 on BRIX. The cherries are then carefully selected for a second time before processing. After selection the cherries are tanked for an extended period with constant monitoring and cataloging of PH, temperature, and CO2 levels.

After the required time inside the CO2 infused tanks, exceeding 100 hours, the coffee is then removed, and placed on raised African beds. The cherries are agitated every 30 minutes and carefully monitored to ensure even drying throughout the cycle.

Temperatures are controlled inside the dryhouses and are not permitted to exceed certain levels as excessive heat can rupture the cell walls of the coffee. Rupture causes oils to escape into the corpus of the grain and shelf-life of the coffee to dramatically shorten.

After the coffee is dried to 10.5-11% it is bagged in grain-pro and stored in Bodega for 60-90 days where temperatures are cool and stable. This seasoning process is critical to quality control. Reposo/rest provides the coffee an opportunity to settle and equalize its moisture content as well as absorb more flavor from it’s shell or parchment. After the requisite rest coffee is machine milled, sorted by size and density, then hand selected for optimal quality assurance.