Panama Ileta Coffee Flavor Profile - Panama Ileta Estate Characteristics

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Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee Address: No. 10, Bao'an Front Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou Manufacturer Contact: 020-38364473 Ingredients: In-house roasted Shelf Life: 30 days Net Weight: 227g Packaging: Bulk Taste Profile: Neutral Coffee Bean State: Roasted coffee beans Sugar Content: Sugar-free Origin: Panama Coffee Type: Other

Panama MC Santa Clara Eleta SHB Washed

Country: Panama

Grade: SHB

Region: Santa Clara

Elevation: Average 1,600 meters

Processing Method: Washed

To make Panamanian Eleta as a pour-over: use 15g of coffee ground to a medium size (Fuji Royal ceramic burr grinder setting 4) in a V60 dripper, with water at 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops halfway before continuing to pour slowly until the total reaches 225g. Discard the tail section. The water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, and the extraction takes 2:00.

The Eleta Estate

The Eleta Estate (Café de Eleta) sits in the small Santa Clara region, just one kilometer from the Costa Rican border and near La Amistad International Park, a major primary forest reserve within the Central American ecological habitat. The estate began acquiring land in the 1970s, covering roughly 130 hectares, and initially ran as a vegetable farm and livestock operation. In 1995 it started cultivating coffee and was named Café de Eleta S.A. The estate kept expanding until it now encompasses 420 hectares, making it one of Panama's large-scale coffee plantations and one of the country's most renowned premium coffees. Thanks to abundant water, it runs a private 530KW hydroelectric plant that not only meets its own electricity needs but also sells surplus power to Distribución de Electricidad Chiriquí S.A. for the grid.

Variety: Caturra

Estate: Eleta Estate

Flavor Profile: Creamy bread, sweet apricot kernel notes, rounded acidity

Panamanian Coffee Excellence

Over the past five or six years, Panama has become the most popular coffee country in Central America, primarily because of the Geisha variety grown at Hacienda La Esmeralda, run by the Peterson family. That coffee has driven enthusiasts worldwide to hail it as the finest bean on earth. For this reason, the Panama Coffee Excellence Competition auction is held separately from the Central and South American cupping competitions, and Panama was the earliest country to hold such an auction, taking place each year in mid-May. Panama impresses not only with Geisha but also with continuous innovation in processing. Alongside traditional washed processing, it offers the honey process popularized by neighboring Costa Rica, as well as small-scale natural-processed beans that are steadily gaining prominence in Central America, drawing attention from coffee professionals worldwide.

Coffee History in Panama

Coffee came to Panama in 1780, when Europeans brought the first Typica varieties. This mysterious and fascinating beverage quickly won over Panamanians, who began cultivating it widely. Panamanian coffee is exceptionally smooth, with full, lightweight beans and perfectly balanced acidity. Its premium beans offer pure, distinctive flavors. Because of that broad popularity, most of Panama's premium coffee beans are exported to France and Finland.

Panama's Major Coffee Regions

Boquete Region: This area produces coffee in large quantities and at excellent quality, making it Panama's most productive and highest-quality coffee region.

Volcán Region: Coffee from this area is characterized by mild, balanced flavors and has gradually drawn the attention of international experts and coffee enthusiasts. It is expected to rival Boquete before long.

Santa Clara Region: Fertile coffee plantations here are irrigated by the clear waters of the Chorerra waterfall, and proximity to the Panama Canal allows fresh, pure Panamanian coffee to be shipped conveniently worldwide.

Piedra de Candela Region: Considered to have the greatest potential for developing high-quality specialty coffee.

Tasting Notes and Processing

This particular coffee offers the purest original flavors. Because the Eleta Estate SHB washed coffee is harvested from high-altitude Caturra beans, it carries intense fruity and floral aromas. Its flavor characteristics include creamy bread, sweet apricot kernel notes, cane sugar sweetness, rounded acidity, a complex aroma, balanced sweet and sour notes, and a pleasant mouthfeel.

The Caturra Variety

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Arabica Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant structure is shorter and more compact than Bourbon. While it carries Bourbon's lineage, it has relatively weak disease resistance, but it yields more than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not well suited to Brazilian growing conditions and was never widely cultivated there. Instead it became popular across Central and South America, with large-scale plantings in Colombia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

More than these botanical traits, most people care about Caturra's flavor. The higher the elevation where it is grown, the better the quality, though yields fall accordingly. Lightly roasted, Caturra shows distinct acidic aromas and overall brightness. With proper processing, its sweetness can be exceptionally well expressed, though the body is relatively thin next to Bourbon and clarity in the cup can sometimes be lacking.

Caturra usually produces red cherries, but in very rare regions a yellow Caturra can be found. Hawaii, for example, cultivates a very small amount of yellow Caturra.

Coffee Bean Grading Systems

Coffee bean grading systems are not standardized worldwide. Each producing country has its own system and terminology, which is why you may see terms such as "SHB," "AA+," "Supremo," "Extra-Fancy" and "Peaberry" on coffee packaging. These are all grade names. Sometimes roasted beans sold on the market indicate the grade of a single-origin coffee. As a rule, the more detailed the grading information, the better the coffee quality, though most commercial coffees do not display it.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you enjoy the clean, washed expression of a Panamanian coffee like this Eleta Estate SHB, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Butterfly is a rewarding next cup. It carries half of Geisha's fine pedigree, composed of Geisha, Caturra and Catuai, and is planted in the Barú volcano area of Boquete. Panama's special microclimate brings abundant rainfall and a wide day-to-night temperature swing, and the region's volcanic rock soil, combined with careful harvesting and meticulous processing, gives this coffee outstanding body, citrus acidity and the jasmine aroma of Geisha.

It is equally at home as a pour-over or a cold brew: on the pour-over side, keep the grind medium and the pour gentle to protect the floral top notes, while a long, cool cold-brew steep draws out the citrus and cane-sugar sweetness with almost no bitterness.