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Our first step was to choose the coffees
that we were going to use for the experiment.
After a small discussion we decided to use three
coffees: Marabou (an Ethiopian Sidamo), Peña
Blanca (a Guatamala Huehuetenango), and
Finca Deborah (a Panamanian Natural Geisha).
All of them are great coffees that express them-
selves well in a Hario v60 pour-over and they
all have very different taste profiles. The
Marabou, is a delicate floral coffee with notes For the experiment there were three of us
of chocolate, caramel and brown sugar. The since Arthur invited his friend, Sebastian, to
Peña Blanca is a mix of the coffee varieties participate. We started with the Marabou. It took
bourbon and caturra from a very high elevation us about seven minutes to prepare the v60 and
farm. The coffee is complex with notes of to wait until the coffee was cool enough. Then
lemon, chocolate, roasted almonds, mandarin we began to eat and taste. The Marabou provided
and a round milky body. Finally the Finca interesting results, because even though Arthur
Deborah, is an outstanding natural Panamanian and Sebastian came up with similar results I had
Geisha that outshines almost any coffee that different ones. We had similar conclusions that
we both have ever encountered. It has a vibrant the chocolate, the dry banana and the honey were
mouth feel with floral elements and tea-like great matches. However, we differed on the
flavors that sing of ripe raspberry and straw- grapefruit and the lemon. I felt that the lemon
berry, but is equally balanced with lingering and the grapefruit overpowered the coffee with
dark chocolate and caramel notes. Overall we their acidity. On the other hand Arthur felt that
had a great selection of specialty coffees and the acidity of the grapefruit and the lemon re-
we felt they would lend themselves to an inter- ally complemented the coffee. This could have
esting experiment. been contributed to the fact that we were from
Next was to choose the different foods that different cultures and that we enjoyed certain
we would use to pair with. Since the L’Alchimiste pairings more than others.
roastery is located at the new grassroots concept The next pairing was the Peña Blanca. This
known as Darwin, we had a variety of great or- coffee also provided enlightening results, because
ganic and high-quality produce to choose from for the most part we came up with the same re-
the market “Magasin General”. Of course not sults. The dry banana, the honey, the grapefruit
all the ideal products were available, but we and the lemon were great pairings. However, we
had a large enough selection to do the experi- all concluded that the chocolate did not pair as
ment. We decided to use the following products: well as it did with the marabou, it was still good
Brazilian nuts, dark chocolate, dry banana chips, just not as good as before. Overall it seemed that
hass avocados, table oranges, grapefruit, honey, most of the pairings improved from the first tast-
and yellow lemon. ing and we all agreed that the honey was a very
The format of the tasting was relatively elegant pairing. We were all very excited to try
simple. It was a rating between 1 and 10, where the Finca Deborah, because we were having great
10 meant being completely compatible and 1 results with the previous coffees. Given that the
being not compatible at all. The tasting would Panamanian natural geisha is such a complex
follow a basic procedure: first select a small piece coffee we felt that it could lead to some interest-
of the food, eat it, chew a bit, take a sip of the ing palate combinations. Fortunately it did not
coffee and score the pairing. fail to beat our expectations. The overall trend
was that everything scored a higher pairing score
with the Finca Deborah, with the hands down
winner being the honey. The honey presented a
next to perfect pairing because it complemented
the structure and balance of the geisha. For me
the second best pairing was the dry banana, while
Arthur and Sebastian preferred the citric fruits
(lemon, orange and grapefruit).

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