Phil & Sebastian's Project III sends one farm to three roasters

Phil & Sebastian's Project III returns for a second edition, pairing three roasters with one coffee producer so drinkers can taste how much roasting style changes the same raw material.

Each edition gives three roasters the same producer's coffee to buy and roast in their own way, then sells all three side by side as a box set. The inaugural edition featured Mauricio Shattah of Finca La Negrita in Colombia, roasted by Onyx Coffee Lab and La Cabra alongside Phil & Sebastian.

This round centres on Ratibor Hartmann, a grower in Panama who has spent decades experimenting with how his coffee is grown, fermented and dried. He has taken multiple first-place finishes at the Best of Panama competition, and his Geisha Natural scored 96.50 points in 2022. The coffees come from his Mi Finquita and Guarumo farms.

Ratibor is one of those producers who never seems satisfied with what he already knows.

Three roasters, one Geisha varietal

Phil & Sebastian, in Calgary, is roasting a Wine Globe Anaerobic Natural with notes of rose water, grape, butterscotch, blackberry and tangerine. Proud Mary, which operates in Melbourne, Portland and Austin, offers a washed Geisha with jasmine, lemongrass, black tea and orange candy. MAME, in Zurich, is roasting a Wine Globe Washed Geisha showing white tea, apricot and grape. All three use the same variety and producer, so the differences come down to processing and the roaster's own hand.

Sebastian Sztabzyb, Phil & Sebastian's co-founder, frames the project around the grower rather than the roasters. 'Ratibor is one of those producers who never seems satisfied with what he already knows,' he said, describing the collaboration as a way of 'celebrating the incredible work happening at origin.'

A short window to buy

The box set holds three 80g bags for $170 CAD, with pre-orders running from 20 to 29 October, closing at 9am Mountain Time, and shipping expected by 11 December. It is sold through philsebastian.com, proudmarycoffee.com and mame.coffee, timed to land well before competitions such as the US Barista Championship put next season's Geisha lots in front of judges. For roasters weighing margins against sourcing costs, projects like this sit at the opposite end of the ledger from the kind of pricing disputes behind Blueprint Coffee's recent tariff refunds.