International connoisseurs say that Panama's specialty coffee is some of the
finest in the world. The 16 judges at Panama's recent fifth annual cupping contest,
who came to decide the country's best tasting coffee of the 2001/2002 crop,
were almost unanimous in their admiration for the small Central American nation's
coffee, reports Reuters.
U.S specialty coffee chain store Starbucks Corp., which begun buying Panama coffee in the early 1990s, had high praise for the professionalism of Panama's small coffee estates. Each individual growers' ability to produce consistently good, clean coffee makes Panama coffee world class, says Starbuck's Peter Torrebiarte, a coffee taster for the region.
Moderator Comment: Can retailers increase sales from the shelf by promoting coffee grown in different regions from around the world?
What is the difference between a coffee drinker and a connoisseur (at least in the mind of the connoisseur)? The ability to distinguish a cup of Sumatran coffee from Columbian. See Starbucks. [George Anderson - Moderator]