Panama Coffee Estate El Burro Geisha Located in Panama's Ethiopian Heaven

For professional barista communication, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

Finca La Mula: An Ethiopian Paradise in Panama

Finca La Mula was founded in 2006 by Willem J. Boot, who was born in the Netherlands. In 2014, it participated in the Best of Panama competition for the first time and made a stunning debut, winning first place and 11th place in the natural Gesha category, as well as 4th place in washed Gesha, causing a sensation in the specialty coffee world. Since Gesha originally comes from Ethiopia, Boot himself describes La Mula as: "An Ethiopian paradise in Panama!"

This paradise is located on the southern slopes of Baru Volcano in Panama, above the town of Portrerillos, at an altitude of 1,700-1,800 meters. From Finca La Mula, one can see the Atlantic Ocean. The farm itself is very small, only 5 hectares, making it a micro-farm. The hillsides were originally covered with primeval forest, and tall trees provided the best shade-grown coffee environment. In some areas, the vegetation was so dense that sunlight couldn't penetrate, affecting coffee growth, so they had to clear overly thick bushes in the past two years to allow Gesha trees to grow fully. The farm's volcanic soil contains high levels of potassium and phosphorus, as well as very high organic matter content.

To run the farm, Boot recruited Kelly Hartmann, the youngest son of Panama's most renowned coffee family, the Hartmanns, to manage farming operations. He also brought in coffee-savvy agronomists to help enhance cultivation expertise. The actual farming tasks are carried out by 15 Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous farmers, who come from the "Coffee School" (Escuela de Café) established by Panama's famous coffee farmer Graciano Cruz. Graciano personally teaches various coffee farming skills, and part of the curriculum he designed includes internships at La Mula. Since the 19th century, Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous people have been essential labor in high-altitude farms in the Panama region. La Mula has two permanent resident employees, for whom Willem Boot built quite good staff housing on the farm, said to be rare benefits among nearby farms. Four-fifths of the farm grows coffee, while the remaining one-fifth grows beans and vegetables as food sources for employees.

After coffee cherries are harvested, they are sent to the Hartmann Estate processing plant for post-processing. The natural drying process takes 14 days. During the natural processing, canopies are used to slow down the heating speed, and after drying, the beans are stored undisturbed. According to Boot's own experience, La Mula faces the Atlantic Ocean, giving it different flavor characteristics from other farms facing the Pacific Ocean. These Gesha beans also have particularly high density, making them quite challenging to roast.

If you think this first prize was an unexpected gift from heaven, that's not entirely correct. Willem Boot is himself a roaster, born in the Netherlands to a family that runs the Golden Coffee Box café in Baarn, making them truly a coffee family. He earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Amsterdam and started working in his father's café in 1989. Boot later moved to the United States, first to San Francisco, joining the German roasting machine brand Probat company. In 1999, Boot founded his own coffee consulting company, Boot Coffee Consulting, providing consulting services to coffee institutions and professionals worldwide, with footprints in Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, and Yemen. Besides offering coffee training courses teaching people how to evaluate green beans, cup, and roast, he also coached farms to improve green bean quality.可以说在建立自己的咖啡庄园之前，他已经是经验老道的咖啡达人。

When FrontStreet Coffee roasts La Mula Gesha, if they want to preserve more floral and fruit aromas, they can roast to a light level. Cupping notes: white ginger flower, jasmine, citrus, sweet orange, sucrose, cream aroma.

To achieve more sweetness, they can choose medium roast to get more sweetness and relatively rich body. Cupping notes: floral, sweet orange, toffee, pineapple.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473