IMAG5498 New Reserve coffees Panama and Sumatra 17June2013Two new Starbucks Reserve coffees were introduced into the Reserve-Clover locations, this past Tuesday the 18th.  I went to a coffee seminar to explore these new coffees and thought I’d share a little bit about them.

The first new Reserve Coffee is Sumatra Wahana Estate.  It’s actually a wash processed coffee, which is very rarely found from Sumatra growing region, and hasn’t been offered by Starbucks before.  I like the description from StarbucksStore.com:

“But the Wahana Estate is doing things a little differently. By using a fully washed processing method, they’ve coaxed amazing flavors we’ve never tasted in a Sumatran coffee. In the cup, it’s a little brighter than we expected, lighter-bodied too. The taste has the green herbal overtones of tarragon or bell pepper. Delicious!

The Wahana Estate is located on the northern end of Sumatra, high in the mountains by Lake Toba – the world’s largest volcanic crater. The combination of soil, altitude and climate are perfect for great coffee.”

For this coffee tasting at the East Olive Way Starbucks, Coffee-Master-In-Training Jesica (she’s in her “last ten feet”!) compared the Sumatra Wahana Estate side by side with the Starbucks core Sumatra coffee.  Tge core Sumatra had more of a spice cupboard aroma, and lingered a lot more in the mouth than this new Reserve.  The Wahana Estate is described as having bell pepper flavor notes – and that it is an excellent description.  It has a cleaner finish, hit on the front of my tongue, and but still had a full-bodied mouth feel.  One person in the group described it as a little “brothy,” which is not a bad description – it’s full of flavor, but a little lighter in the mouth than the core Sumatra.  One person in this coffee event tasted some cinnamon notes to the new Starbucks Sumatra Wahana Estate.

The second new Reserve coffee is the Panama Carmen Estate offering.

We tried this coffee both iced and hot.    This is an amazingly complex coffee for a single-origin Latin American coffee.  To me, it seemed to share flavor characteristics often more commonly associated with African coffees.  As a hot coffee, one individual described it as sweet, like with a maple syrup flavor.  It definitely has some black tea and orange flavors.  Citrus is a predominate flavor note.  Unlike many Latin American coffees, it has almost no cocoa flavors.  By the way, I think this coffee would be fascinating to pair next to a traditional Orange Pekoe Black Tea.

This Panama is amazing iced.  It’s refreshing, and has those beautiful orange and citrus notes.  It’s very smooth and low intensity.  You will love it iced.

The next East Olive Way coffee seminar will be on July 1, 2013, and will feature the new Kati Kati coffee.  I hope you will be there!

If you enjoy reading about coffee seminars, scroll through the articles here.

Thank you Jesica for a wonderful event!

Have you tried these two new Reserve coffees, and if so which one did you like best?

IMAG5537 New Starbucks Reserve Coffees Sumatra and Panama and their whole bean 17Jun2013IMAG5501 Panama coffee info cards - Starbucks 17June2013IMAG5529 Iced Panama 17 June 2013IMAG5510 Jesica pours Sumatra coffee 17Jun2013IMAG5511 Jesica leading coffee seminar 17June2013