Panama Iletta Estate SHB Catuai Premium Coffee Beans Flavor, Taste, and Aroma Characteristics Description

This batch of coffee offers pristine, original flavors. Because the SHB washed coffee from Eleta Estate is harvested from high-altitude Catuai trees, it carries intense fruity and floral aromas. Flavor characteristics: creamy bread, apricot kernel sweetness, cane sugar sweetness, rounded acidity, complex aroma, balanced sweet and sour, and a pleasant mouthfeel.

Product Information

Roaster: FrontStreet Coffee

Ingredients: In-house roasted

Shelf Life: 30 days

Net Weight: 227g

Packaging: Bulk

Taste Profile: Neutral

Coffee Bean State: Roasted

Sugar Content: Sugar-free

Origin: Panama

Coffee Type: Other

Coffee Details

Panama MC Santa Clara Eleta SHB Washed

Country: Panama

Grade: SHB

Region: Santa Clara

Altitude: Average 1600 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Catuai

Estate: Eleta Estate

Flavor Notes: Creamy bread, apricot kernel sweetness, rounded acidity

Panama Coffee Heritage

Coffee arrived in Panama in 1780, when Europeans brought the first Typica varieties. This mysterious, extraordinary beverage soon conquered the senses of Panamanians, who began cultivating it widely. Panama coffee is notably smooth, with full-bodied yet lightweight beans, perfectly balanced acidity, and exceptional flavor purity that sets it apart. Given its popularity, most premium Panama beans are exported to France and Finland.

Main Coffee Growing Regions in Panama

Boquete Region: Produces abundant quantities of high-quality coffee, making it Panama's most productive and finest coffee region.

Volcan Region: Coffees here are mild and balanced, gradually attracting the attention of international connoisseurs and enthusiasts; many expect it to soon rival Boquete in prominence.

Santa Clara Region: Fertile coffee plantations nourished by clear water from the Chorerra waterfall, with the nearby Panama Canal making distribution of fresh, pure Panama coffee to world markets wonderfully convenient.

Piedra de Candela Region: The area with the greatest potential for developing high-quality specialty coffee.

Panama's Rise to Coffee Prominence

Over the past 5-6 years, Panama has become the most talked-about coffee country in Central America, largely thanks to the Peterson family's Hacienda La Esmeralda and their Gesha, which has captivated enthusiasts worldwide and earned Gesha acclaim as the world's finest bean. For this reason, Panama's Best of Panama auction stands apart from the Central and South American Cup of Excellence competitions and is among the earliest auctions held each year, in mid-May.

Panama impresses not only through Gesha but also through continual innovation in processing. Beyond traditional washed methods, growers use honey processing popularized by neighboring Costa Rica, and they are producing small quantities of natural-process coffees that are gaining traction across Central America and drawing attention from coffee professionals worldwide.

Eleta Estate

Eleta Estate (Café de Eleta) lies in the Santa Clara region, just one kilometer from the Costa Rican border and adjacent to La Amistad International Park, a major primary forest reserve that forms part of the Central American ecological corridor. The estate began acquiring land in the 1970s, covering approximately 130 hectares. It initially focused on vegetables and livestock, with coffee planting starting in 1995 under the name Café de Eleta S.A. The estate has expanded continuously and today encompasses 420 hectares, making it one of Panama's large-scale coffee plantations and one of the country's most renowned premium coffees.

Rich in water resources, the estate operates a private 530KW hydroelectric plant that not only covers its own needs but also sells surplus power to Distribución de Electricidad Chiriquí S.A. for the grid.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama's finest coffees grow in the west of the country — Boquete and Volcán in Chiriquí Province, right in the center of the coffee belt, where cloud cover keeps days humid and nights cool and the Baru Volcano enriches the soil. Higher altitudes mean slower ripening and more accumulated nutrients, which is precisely why FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Washed Gesha, planted at 1600 meters, delivers such vivid jasmine florals with green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

For the pinnacle of Panamanian Gesha, FrontStreet Coffee's Esmeralda Red Label is harvested from a single plot above 1700 meters at the estate that discovered and championed Gesha worldwide, cupping at 91 points with exquisite orange-blossom sweetness and honeyed depth. If you prefer a non-Gesha option with the same estate pedigree, FrontStreet's Diamond Mountain coffee — Caturra and Catuai from the Jaramillo and Canas Verdes farms — offers rich fruit aroma and sweetness from volcanic soil and old-forest shade.