Coffee Bean Direct Panama Boquete, Whole Bean, 5lb Bag

I give it 5 stars because it is very evenly roasted, beans are of consistent size/color, and not stale. Brewing a pot brings the coffee drinkers out of the woodwork because of the aroma. Aroma plus smooth flavor combine to make a great cup of coffee. I can drink it all day long.

I lived in Boquete', Panama for a number of years and had a small coffee farm. I was excited to find this product and ordered a bag of medium roast whole beans. I opened the bag this morning and it smelled awful. Coffee that comes from this area has a beautiful fragrance and I knew right away that something was really wrong with this. But I decided as an experiment I would grind it and make it anyway. Coffee beans normally have some oil in them but these were dry and very lightweight. It was not a medium roast, it's blonde. I use a French press and the color of it was absolutely wrong. The larger grounds floated to the top like Styrofoam and the finished product was absolutely terrible! It was bitter and I've never tasted coffee this bad. I've also never given such a terrible review. I took one sip and it took me a couple of hours to get that bad flavor out of my mouth. The whole bag that I purchased went into the trash and I don't all the coffee I had made into the garbage disposal. I absolutely do not recommend this coffee to anyone. I don't believe it came from Boquete' at all, in the first place. It was a total waste of my time and money.

Having tried and purchased high elevation coffee from the heart of Panama itself while traveling abroad, I've been looking for a home alternative to relive this taste (only brought back enough for a few weeks when I was down there!). I found this coffee to be smooth and tasteful when prepared properly. As drip coffee I have enjoyed it more than most beans I have tried up to this point, but still is not on par with the high elevation coffee I purchased in Panama for almost half this cost (however, 10x this cost if bought in the states). If you are use to a dark roast, this bean won't satisfy your coffee desires. If you enjoy a true arabica experience, you may want to look elsewhere, but it could be worth a try. If you enjoy a more "blended" taste than local arabica, with a medium full bodied roast, I highly recommend this coffee. I have come from all the styles of Lavazza and Illy, have purchased many variations from Dick's Coffee, and Coffee AM, and have ordered many varieties from local roasters. For this to get 4 stars is worth checking out. But again, know the style of beans you're going into. This is not a pure arabica, this is a medium roast with full body. I use this for Drip Coffee / French Press Coffee / Espresso / Cappuccinos. Give it a shot, if you like it you'll love it, if you don't like it, you may just hate it! But if you enjoy Illy medium roast, I will say this is VERY comparable minus that unique arabica taste (and $31 per lb price point!).

I originally purchased this coffee a few years ago and was pleased that the characteristics represented on the sellers website matched what I received (medium body, low acidity, light roast.). I reorder the five pound whole bean package often, not wanting to be without this wonderful coffee.

We drink Panama coffee a lot (60lbs per year). This is better than American coffee, but not as good as other Boquete suppliers. This coffee was ok but not as smooth as others. It has a bit of the bitterness of American-chosen blends, however was still sweeter naturally (we don't add sugar to coffee, ever) than traditional American coffee suppliers. The coffee beans were slightly smaller than top-quality boquete coffees meaning less flavor and more chaff. If you like American coffee, this will be amazing. If you like true Boquete coffee, this will be disappointing.

I tried this coffee months ago and should have reviewed it sooner, but I've had a difficult time deciding how best to describe it. The title of my review probably sums it up best. This is coffee that is utterly inoffensive in every way. It's the opposite of bold. The roast is light. The flavor is extremely mellow, so mellow in fact that when this coffee is used as the base for a milk-based coffee drink like a latte, the flavor recedes into the background so much that it almost seems to disappear. Don't misunderstand, it's still readily identifiable as coffee, but...well...I'm still struggling with how to describe it. Think of it this way. This coffee can be brewed full strength with a very nice body and mouth feel to the resulting cup, and yet still have the kind of flavor profile that people who drink their coffee very weak (as in "Hey, shouldn't you put some coffee in your coffee?") might prefer. I don't mean that there is no coffee flavor, just that the coffee flavor is not bold, not robust and not the least bit assertive. Very mild. Almost meek. It's good coffee, but it's perplexing coffee. If you want a coffee that you can serve to people who don't like dark coffees, bold coffees or coffees that are just bursting with robust coffee flavor while preserving the ability to brew full strength for body and mouth feel (which in this coffee is downright silky), this is the stuff. The flavor is so submissive that it won't overwhelm anything. Most coffees I've ordered from Amazon have been good enough that I have ordered them again. I have yet to reorder this coffee, but at some point I am sure that I will, probably when I know I'll be needing to serve coffee for people who don't really like coffee. If that's the kind of stuff you're looking for, then I can recommend this without reservation. On edit (May 3, 2011)... I wish I could make this four and a half stars rather than just four. The last bag I ordered really grew on me as I learned more about the coffee's flavor profile and how to best make use of it. I now use this coffee as a base for blending with other darker roasts and find that it provides a really creamy mouth feel and balance. When I want darker, I add more dark roasted beans. And when I have company I use a higher proportion of the Panama Boquete and sometimes nothing else at all. If you're a person that makes homemade ice cream and you're looking for a coffee to use as a flavoring base, this is the stuff. (I pull shots of espresso and add that to the ice cream mix. My lady friend stops by to help churn and it all gets devoured post-haste.) If you like red-eye gravy but don't want any bitterness, this is great coffee to use. (For those that don't know, red-eye gravy is made by pan frying slices of country ham and then adding a cup or so of coffee to the pan drippings. Serve with biscuits or grits or even sop it up with toast. Yum!) As I said in other reviews of coffees I have ordered, the highest compliment I can pay is to re-order. I re-ordered this coffee today. So there you go...

I bought regularly the 25lb bag from Coffee Bean Direct. I'd thought to try the subscription service since It would save a few dollars on a per pound basis. First bag was my only bag. It tasted NOTHING like I had come to expect. Cancelled subscription service and back to buying the 25lb bag from Coffee Bean Direct. I had to rate it one star but this product deserved a zero. I do not know if Amazon stored this badly or Coffee Bean Direct gave them dregs. It was just BAD.

This coffee was shipped promptly and well packaged. The freshly ground coffee from the Boquete region is flavorful, aromatic and without the acidity of coffees from other regions. We have tried more expensive varieties of coffee but have yet to find a better coffee overall than the coffees from the Chiriqui highlands and Boquete. Well worth the money.