06/18/2026
We're so proud of our own Ply, who placed 4th at the Canadian National Barista Championship!!! And now we're serving the very coffee he competed with!
Ply's competition coffee is a criollo variety grown at 1800 MASL in the Mount Totumas Cloud Forest, Chiriquí, Panama, produced by Karin De La Rosa.
Criollo isn't a single variety so much as a rediscovery — old coffee trees on the slopes of Volcán Barú, planted generations ago, forgotten as farms changed hands and records were lost. Left alone long enough, some of these trees mutated and drifted in flavour and phenotype. When producers found them again without knowing what they were, they just called it criollo — "traditional," coffee grown before their time.
Ply and Karin worked together on the processing: dried for 5 days down to 30-40% moisture, then sealed in containers and left in the forest for 7 days, fermenting between 15-25°C as the temperature shifted from night to day. From there, a slow 50-day indoor dry, finished with 80 hours in the dehydrators.
The result in the cup: apricot, mango, strawberry, with a floral finish. Medium acidity, medium body, juicy texture, long finish.
Available as espresso, split shot, or milk drink — including with our competition milk (freeze lactose-free, lactose-free, and coconut). Limited until it's gone!
