High Five Hunter - Black Moon Chiroso Tasting Set

Five Chirosos. One process. Five different questions. Each bag contains 30g

Hunter and Linda run Black Moon Farm in Boquete, Panama, and they are deep in a run of experiments on Chiroso, trying to work out what actually drives the cup. Not roast, not brew, not even fermentation recipe. The trees themselves.

So they picked by tree height. They picked by tree shape, tall and lean only. They picked by cherry color, bright Ferrari red in one bin and deep burgundy in another, and then processed both exactly the same way so the color was the only thing left standing.

That last pair is the one that broke my brain. Red Ferrari is peach juice. Rojo Uva is hibiscus and plum. Identical cold ferment, identical drying room, identical everything, and they land in different zip codes.

Every lot here is Anaerobic Natural, so the process is not the variable. The tree is. This set puts all five side by side so you can taste the variable instead of reading about it. Cup / brew them together if you can. It's the closest most of us will get to standing in the block with them.

1. Tall Boy
Yellow peach, mango, delicate florals. Score 90.
Harvested only from the tall lean trees. The softest cup in the set and the best place to start, because it shows you what Chiroso tastes like before any of the other variables start shouting.

2. Red Ferrari
Super sweet peach juice. Score 92.5.
Only the cherries from trees running bright Ferrari red. One idea, executed perfectly: peach juice all the way down. Highest score of the five and the smallest lot, at one kilo of green total.

3. Rojo Uva
Hibiscus, ripe plum. Score 92.
Deep burgundy cherries instead of bright red. Same cold ferment, same drying room, same everything as Red Ferrari. Cup these two back to back and the only variable left standing is the color of the fruit. They taste nothing alike.

4. Lot 88
Sour patch kids watermelon, green grape, rosemary. Score 92.
Every tree height picked together, no oxidation step, cold ferment straight into the drying room. The loudest and most candied lot here, with just enough rosemary at the edge to keep it from being a lollipop.

5. Lot 30
Bergamot, clean and floral, huge finish. Pineapple dole whip as it cools. Score 92.
Clean the whole way through with a finish that refuses to quit. 

*This set is not part of the Season 2 members lineup