Jamison Savage: Producer, Finca Deborah
Jamison Savage, Finca Deborah
In the aftermath of World of Coffee and the World Brewers Cup in Budapest, the coffee world is excited by the emergence of new brewing techniques, apparatus and new coffees. One particular name was heard repeatedly throughout the performances at the WBrC: “…Jamison Savage.”
The region of Volcán in Panama might be the last place one expects to find someone from the United States, growing coffee… however, after leaving a career in finance in Florida, Jamison sought to establish a coffee farm in the Central American country. The result: Finca Deborah.
Many in the coffee world will know the name ‘Finca Deborah’ after the Taiwanese barista champion, Berg Wu, used one of its geisha coffees in 2016 to claim the World Barista Championship title.
This victory and Jamison’s ever-increasing reputation for quality coffee has definitely had a lasting impression; at the World Brewers Cup, no fewer than ten of the national brewers cup champions were using coffees from Finca Deborah or Savage’s other farm, Morgan Estate.
When speaking to Jamison on the side of the World Brewers Cup stage, he spoke about the experience of working with competitors.
“Each competitor is unique and has their own style, preference, and perspective,” he said.
“So, it’s enjoyable to learn what their goals are with the coffee on how they want to approach comp[etition].”
This year, Project Origin was proud to supply coffees from Jamison’s farms to several Brewers Cup champions from across the globe, for use on the world stage. Maciej Duszak of Poland used a natural processed coffee from Jamison, while Shaun Liew of Malaysia used a custom freezer-process coffee.
The Australian representative Sam Corra, who claimed 2nd place in the World Brewers Cup, also used a coffee from Finca Deborah, but one that was created with a brand new process.
Project Origin has enjoyed a close relationship with Jamison and the teams of Finca Deborah and Morgan Estate for several years. This relationship and Jamison’s desire to continue improving his coffees has enabled us to experiment with some new and exciting processes.
Sasa Sestic, Project Origin founder and coach of Sam Corra, worked with Jamison and the Finca Deborah team over the past few months to create a new process; whole cherry carbonic maceration.
This process, a development from Sestic’s own carbonic maceration coffee from Las Nubes, which he used to win the World Barista Championship 2015 involves placing whole coffee cherries into sealed containers, which are then pressurised with CO2 at a stable temperature for measured periods of time.
Jamison says that he has different responses when customers or partners suggest experiments.
“Depends on the customer and their depth of knowledge of processing. I’ve heard good and bad suggestions,” he said. ”
“Everyone has ideas and the key is to work with the customer on their ideas and expectations while achieving the results we are trying to achieve.”
It seems as though the experiment worked well – the coffee impressed the judges and spectators alike.
Jamison says that the steps to organising experiments such as this are simple, but important.
“I listen very closely to the profile the client is trying to bring out in the coffee…and guide their understanding and expectations of how we can make their coffee the best it can possibly be.”
Geisha isn’t the only thing Jamison grows at the farms; they also produce Caturra, Bourbon, Pacamara and Moka. Jamison has plans to plant more varietals in the future.
“I have a few ideas in mind,” he said. “…I’m currently arranging for our latest arrival.”
We’re excited to see what else these amazing coffee farms can produce.
