Meet Denis Valenzuela, a passionate 43-year-old coffee farmer from the scenic region of Chiriquí, right in Boquete, Panama. For the past 6 years, Denis has been taking care of a beautiful farm nestled at 1300 meters above sea level, spanning 2.7 hectares, with 1.7 of them dedicated just for coffee. With a family of 5,500 trees, he lovingly tends to Catui and Catuai varieties. Denis's journey into coffee began quite simply – planting and nurturing a few seedlings all by himself, shouldering the costs of maintaining them. Even though he hasn't joined any coffee quality competitions, he's super committed to enhancing the soil's productivity with regular cleaning and fertilizing. Facing challenges like rising supply costs and ever-changing weather, Denis is on a mission to raise the bar for Panamanian coffee. This coffee venture? It's not just business; it's transformed his life in the most positive way. INTRINSIC CHERRY Here the cherry is fermented in the very same bags they come in. It is in this way the process maintains the essence of each micro-lot. The bacteria and yeast strains are unique and vary in each batch, and by involving them in the fermentation, it lets the essence of the cherry shine. The fermentation environment is opened to the air and allow nature to guide the temperature – which averages at 30° celsius. In this case, great care is taken to keep temperatures below 45° celsius, to prevent the cherries from overheating. Cherry fermentation time in anaerobic conditions for this coffee was 48 hours.