013 - Demetrio Sanchez Pino

About This Coffee

This coffee was roasted exclusively for 2025 season subscribers on May 5, 2025. The fourth coffee of our 2025 season continues this year's exploration of non-Panamanian Geshas and comes to us from the Copa de Oro competition hosted by Osito Colombia. Demetrio Sanchez Pino's washed gesha scored second-place in the Western division but was consistently among the highest-scoring coffees each round of the competition. From Christopher: "Though I was not able to attend this year's Copa de Oro competition, I asked the team at Osito if they'd be willing to share the cupping and offer sheet from the competition afterward so that I might have the opportunity to purchase any unsold lots. "Following my analysis of last year's competition and my experience in Garzón, I knew the type of coffee I was hoping for: one that scored consistently high in each round of the competition and among the top 5 of each individual cupper. Cupping scores are impacted by table placement, but I was curious if this sort of comparative analysis from a large enough data set and based on my own experience could lead me to the coffee I was looking for—without ever dipping a spoon. "The coffee I ended up selecting turned out to be in keeping with the theme I'd established for this season of Aviary—an exploration of geshas grown outside of Panama, where the prices paid, while still higher than traditional varieties, were a far-cry from the prices paid during the Best of Panama auctions. "To be honest: I prefer Demetrio's to those record-setting coffees. "As far as producing regions of Huila go, La Plata is the dark horse of the Copa de Oro competition—not as well known for its microclimates as San Agustín, or elevations and varieties as Palestina, or famous producers like Gigante and Cauca—but as Osito's purchasing manager Didier Pajoy has consistently shown me in our nearly decade of work together, its quality potential is staggering. "Demetrio's 5 hectare farm is at soaring elevations in La Plata—2100 to 2200 masl—where he grows Gesha originally brought to Colombia by Banexport from the Esmeralda estate (the same program from which Lino Rodriguez / AVIARY#011 got his gesha) as well as Colombia, Caturra, Pink Bourbon and Arushi intercropped with corn, avocado, and arracacha. "Aviary's first release of 2025 from Nancy Mendoza and fourth from Maria Nieves were Geshas from the CATIE collection in Costa Rica resulting from the FAO Mission to Ethiopia in 1964; the mythology of the gesha germplasm grown by Demetrio and Lino Rodiguez, sourced from Panama, is that it originated earlier, collected from Ethiopia in the 1930s and then sent to Tanzania and Kenya, from where it made its way to Panama and infamy. "This coffee is juicy, vibrant and complex with notes of just-ripe mango and candy-like sweetness in a cup dominated by nectarine, jasmine, pineapple, and orange blossom."