How is Panama Elida Coffee Bean Market? Which Panama Coffee Brand is Best?

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This batch of FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Elida Estate uses natural processing, with the classic Typica variety. Typica: The oldest native variety from Ethiopia, originating from southeastern Ethiopia and Sudan. All Arabica varieties are derived from Typica. It features elegant flavors but has weak physical constitution, poor disease resistance, and low fruit yield. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Sumatra Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Hawaii Kona, and other excellent estate coffees all belong to the Typica variety. Typica has bronze-colored young leaves, known as red-tipped coffee, and belongs to the Arabica species.

Over half of Elida Estate is located within the protected area of Panama's National Park. It is a rare ultra-high-altitude estate in Central America, cultivating coffee between 1,700 and nearly 2,000 meters elevation based on terrain feasibility. It is renowned for its "rich, umami" flavor profile.

Elida Estate belongs to owner Wilford Lamastus. This estate cultivates three varieties, including Typica, Geisha, and Catuai, with nursery areas nurturing seedlings of these varieties. The journey to the estate is beautiful. At 1,700 meters elevation, the air becomes crisp and cold, like enjoying a forest bath at high altitude while breathing very fresh air. The estate's 2,000-meter terrain is steep and rugged, but after crossing the ridge line and reaching the saddle area, it's surprisingly flat and open terrain that can shelter from the howling mountain winds. Wilford says this is the perfect place to grow Geisha!

FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete Elida Estate Natural Typica

Flavor Notes: Rich tropical fruits, strawberry aromas, black plums, apricots, peaches, longans, with intense fruity wine aromas.

Brand: FrontStreet Coffee

Net Weight: 227g

Packaging: Bulk

Coffee Bean State: Roasted coffee beans

Sugar Content: Sugar-free

Origin: Panama

Roast Level: Medium roast

Typica Variety Characteristics

Typica is a tall-growing variety of Arabica, originating from the branch that spread from Yemen to Java. It began circulating on Java Island in the early 18th century.

It is the oldest native variety from Ethiopia, with all Arabica varieties derived from Typica. Typica has bronze-colored young leaves, and the beans are oval or slender-pointed in shape. It features elegant flavors but has weak physical constitution, poor disease resistance, and low fruit yield. FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain, FrontStreet Coffee's Indonesia Sumatra Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee's Hawaii Kona, and other excellent estate coffees all belong to the Typica variety.

Its plant is very similar to what we call Java today, with bronze-tipped young leaves, large fruits and seeds, very low yield, and is susceptible to all major pests and diseases.

Panama Boquete Elida Typica Natural

Product Name: FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete Elida Estate Natural Typica

Country: Panama

Grade: SHB

Region: Boquete

Roast Level: Medium roast

Processing Method: Natural

Variety: Typica

Flavor: Rich tropical fruits, strawberry aromas, black plums

Elida Estate's Unique Terroir

Baru is a young volcano with an altitude exceeding 3,400 meters, belonging to an active volcano type. It has seven different microclimates in its surrounding areas, nurturing rich and diverse ecosystems. The diverse microclimates have both advantages and disadvantages for coffee cultivation. However, for Elida, its flavors are more intense and aromatic than most Panama coffees, with black berry aftertaste and varied mouthfeel, making it extremely beloved by connoisseurs.

However, high-altitude terrain also has disadvantages. For example, Elida's average coffee cultivation altitude exceeds 1,700 meters. The high altitude combined with low night temperatures means coffee takes five years after planting before it can be harvested, making the waiting period extremely long. Once entering the harvest season, coffee often takes over a month to ripen. If abnormal weather occurs before ripening, such as typhoons or heavy rain - irresistible factors - despite knowing it will cause significant losses, because the beans haven't ripened, under quality insistence, not rushing to harvest leads to sharply reduced yields. The risk is actually much greater than for low-altitude estates.

Brewing Recommendations

Hand-poured FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Elida. Use 15g of coffee, medium grind (Fuji Royal ceramic burr grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g total. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Boquete Region Excellence

Panama coffee is famous for the Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda, and the region where La Esmeralda is located is also quite famous: the Boquete region in Chiriqui Province. Boquete is a town in Chiriqui Province, situated near the border between Panama and Costa Rica, close to the famous Baru Volcano. It boasts beautiful scenery, fertile and rich soil, with climate and soil conditions perfectly suited for producing quality coffee.

Exceptional Quality and Recognition

Since 2006, Elida's select batches have consistently ranked among Panama's best winning batches year after year, with prices increasing annually. Among Central American estates, Elida should be considered the most "Kenyan black berry tone." Its black berry and persistent complex fruit flavors often leave people full of praise. Judges also flock to Elida's unique "umami" flavor - this term comes from "Umami." Currently, many experts include "umami" as the fifth taste (sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami). Umami's effect is similar to monosodium glutamate, enhancing flavors or in foods like high-quality broths, dried shiitake mushrooms, aged cheese, and kelp, where umami presence can be detected. Umami in coffee is related to good "aftertaste" - for example, having a long and pleasant aftertaste after sipping all belong to the perception of delicious flavors.

Elida's processing facilities, equipment, and processing steps are all meticulously executed. Generally, when coffee cherries reach a certain stage of post-processing, if their moisture content exceeds 20% for extended periods, not only do the quality components easily escape, but there's also the possibility of off-flavors developing. Additionally, Elida's processing station is still at high altitude, so it has dedicated processing equipment to control temperature and timing during drying. All of this must be controlled perfectly and is also a crucial key step affecting quality.

Important Notice :

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