The Panama Experience: Ten Coffees, One Morning in Basel
Saturday 14 November · Brü2, Sternengasse 19, Basel
In July we flew to Panama. Not to buy coffee off a spreadsheet, but to walk the rows, taste cherries off the branch, and ask producers the questions you can only ask standing in their field.
We went with Leo and Vedrana of Brewing Dealers, the roastery from Málaga who search for these coffees at the source. We came home with more than beans. We came home with coffees most people in Switzerland will never get the chance to taste.
On Saturday 14 November, we are pouring all of them — with Sibarist and Slayer both joining us in person at Brü2.
How the morning works
The cupping table seats fifteen to twenty — Swiss baristas, roasters, competitors and SCA representatives, working across four parallel lines so nobody waits their turn. That part is by invitation.
The rest of the morning is open to anyone who walks in. Once the bowls are cleared, every coffee from the table goes back onto the bar: brewed as filter through Sibarist papers, and pulled as espresso on the Slayer. Same lots, same roast, no charge.
So you do not need a seat at the table to taste a 90+ Lamastus Geisha. You need to turn up.
The lineup: three chapters
Brewing Dealers built the table as a journey in three parts. It begins with who they are, turns up the intensity, then travels to Panama.
Chapter one — BD Classic
- Tapa Dulce · Typica Lima, Black Diamond — crisp lemon, sweet panela, fresh spearmint. Bright and quietly surprising.
- Tezeta · Red Honey — juicy papaya, ripe pineapple, bright orange, delicate stone fruit.
- Teso — red currant meets the cool intensity of mint patties and a sharp citrus finish.
Chapter two — Top Line
- Savage · Sudan Rume, Edwin Noreña, Cauca — ancestral landrace genetics meet a hop-infused carbonic maceration. This one will challenge your idea of what belongs in a cup.
- Lalo · Natural — saturated with vibrant berries and rich maple sweetness.
- Tennessee · Washed, award-winning — sparkling clarity. A reminder of how much a clean cup can say.
Chapter three — the Panama Trip
The four coffees we carried back ourselves. Every one of them scores 90+, and three of the four are Geisha from different corners of Panama — which is exactly the point. Tasted side by side, you can tell where each one grew.
Icon · Geisha
In the cup: Delicate jasmine and rose against juicy strawberry and ripe tropical fruit.
The Lamastus family are Panamanian coffee royalty, and Aguacate is their high plot — the same sign you saw at the top of this page. This is the coffee that crowns the table.
Mambo · Geisha
In the cup: Jasmine and orange blossom moving through bergamot, white peach and golden honey.
Grown on the volcanic slopes of Barú, and notably 400 metres lower than Icon. Floral elegance with a rhythm to it — hence the name.
Primera · Geisha
In the cup: Coffee blossom and jasmine with ripe plum, fig and vivid fruit acidity.
From the team behind Finca Sophia, sourced direct from origin. A lifetime of curiosity in one cup.
Mist · variety unknown
In the cup: Coffee blossom, jasmine tea, juicy apricot and nectarine.
A botanical mystery from the Altieri lots. It is not a Geisha — and after three Geishas in a row, it will make you question how much of what you love is the variety and how much is the farm. Its identity is unresolved. Its appeal is not.
The Sibarist Extraction Lab
Once the cupping bowls are cleared, Sibarist take over the brew bar — and they are coming in person.
Sibarist are joining us physically for this one, founder included. This is the official launch of Sibarist Switzerland, with Brü as the Swiss showroom. It means you can ask the people who designed these filters why they designed them that way, and get a real answer.
All ten coffees are brewed as filter using Sibarist FAST and B3 papers, run side by side against a standard filter so you can taste what the paper actually does to flow rate, clarity and body. Most people have never tasted that comparison directly. It is more dramatic than it sounds.
Take a cup, let it cool a little, and notice what opens up as you drink. If you want the fundamentals first, our guide to brewing the perfect V60 pour over covers them.
Slayer: Steam LP against Espresso, side by side
Our bar runs a Slayer Steam LP, three group. For this morning, Slayer are bringing a one-group Slayer Espresso to stand beside it — and the brand are coming with it.
Two different Slayer platforms, on the same bar, pulling the same lots, with the same grinder and the same water. Every difference you taste belongs to the machine and the way each one moves water through the puck. The Espresso's manual paddle and needle valve are built for long, low-pressure pre-infusion — the shot the company was named for — and you will be able to taste that against the Steam LP directly, with 90+ Panama Geisha in the hopper.
There are very few places in Switzerland you could make that comparison on any coffee, let alone these ones.
The Slayer team will be on the bar with us. Pull shots with them, ask why flow profiling matters, and get properly into the settings — and there are a great many settings. Slowing pre-infusion to stretch a Geisha's aromatics instead of blasting straight through them is far easier to taste than to explain, which is exactly why they are coming.
Two coffees get dedicated espresso expressions: Barú (washed Panama — delicate florals, bright citrus, a splash of açaí) and Tezeta as its tropical counterpart. And for anyone still talking when the morning winds down, Offnight, our funky decaf, served as a flat white.
Who are Brewing Dealers?
Leo and Vedrana roast in Málaga, and they pick coffees the way you would build a record collection — by what makes them stop and pay attention. Their Top Line range is genuinely strange in places. A hop-infused carbonic maceration on Sudan Rume is not a safe commercial decision. It is the decision of people who are curious.
This is their Swiss introduction, and we are glad it is happening at our table.
If you have never cupped before
Cupping is tasting coffees side by side under identical conditions — same dose, same water, same time — so every difference belongs to the coffee and nothing else. You slurp loudly on purpose; it aerates the liquid across your palate.
You need none of this to enjoy the morning. But if you are curious, read how to cup coffee like a pro, and note that we run free sensory sessions at Brü year round. Wondering what makes any of this “specialty” in the first place? SCA scores and traceability, explained.
The practical bit
- When — Saturday 14 November 2026, from 11:00
- Where — Brü2, Sternengasse 19, 4051 Basel (inside Starbites Foodhall)
- Cupping table — invitation only, 15–20 seats
- Filter and espresso — free, open to everyone, no booking
- Cost — nothing
In July these coffees were on a hillside in Boquete. On 14 November they will be in a cup in Basel, and you can taste them for nothing.
Come curious.
Brü Specialty Coffee × Brewing Dealers × Sibarist × Slayer