Is Panama Lincoln Coffee Delicious? The Story and Award-Winning History of Panama Don K Coffee Estate

There is a coffee that feels like sipping a bouquet of fresh flowers.

It arrives with rich floral aromatics and bright fruit acidity, and it stuns you from the very first sip, which is why it has earned the title of goddess of the coffee world.

That goddess-level coffee is Panama.

Product Information

Product name: Panama Boquete Don-K Reserva Yellow Honey

Flavor description: Floral notes, lime, fruit tones, brown sugar, apple, cedar, caramel, a sweet and persistent aftertaste, delicate texture.

Kotowa Estate's Recent Award Record

2017 Best of Panama (BOP):
- Washed Geisha category, 8th place (Finca Duncan)
- Washed Geisha category, 9th place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Natural Geisha category, 13th place (Finca Duncan)
- Traditional Natural category, 2nd place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Traditional Natural category, 3rd place (Finca Duncan)

2016 Best of Panama (BOP):
- Natural Geisha category, 7th place (Finca Duncan)
- Traditional Natural category, 1st place (Finca Duncan)
- Traditional Natural category, 2nd place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Pacamara Natural category, 2nd place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Traditional Washed category, 3rd place (Finca Duncan)

2015 Best of Panama (BOP):
- Natural Geisha category, 2nd place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Natural Geisha category, 4th place (Finca Duncan)
- Washed Geisha category, 6th place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Traditional Natural category, 2nd place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Traditional Natural category, 6th place (Finca Duncan)
- Traditional Washed category, 4th place (Finca Kotowa)

2014 Best of Panama (BOP):
- Natural Geisha category, 5th place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Natural Geisha category, 5th place (Finca Don K)
- Washed Geisha category, 5th place (Finca Las Brujas)
- Washed Geisha category, 15th place (Finca Don K)
- Traditional Natural category, 4th place (Finca Duncan)
- Traditional Washed category, 3rd place (Finca Don K)
- Traditional Washed category, 5th place (Finca Duncan)

Detailed Information

Country: Panama

Region: Chiriqui Province, Baru Volcano, Boquete region

Producer: Don K Estate, under the Kotowa family

Variety: Caturra

Altitude: 1,700 to 1,750 meters

Processing method: Yellow Honey

Rainfall: 1,750mm annually, from May to November

Temperature: 13ºC to 22ºC

Introduction

Kotowa Estate was founded by the Canadian-born Alexander Duncan Mac Intyre, who learned about Panama's Boquete coffee region from newspaper columns in 1913. After traveling there to see it for himself, he fell in love with the area's exceptional environment and moved to start growing coffee, choosing an undeveloped hillside. Today the estate is run by the family's fourth generation.

Kotowa Estate owns four coffee farms in total: Finca Kotowa Duncan, Finca Kotowa Don K, Finca Kotowa Rio Cristal, and Finca Kotowa Tradicional. Finca Duncan takes its name from the pioneer who first worked this land. In recent years Las Brujas Kotowa has appeared frequently on results sheets, which reflects the estate's decision to enter its best plots as separate lots in the annual Best of Panama competition; the awards have piled up, and deservedly so, though the prices have climbed accordingly. The two best-known farms under the family's management are Duncan and Don K, named for the current owner's grandfather and father.

Set in the Baru Volcano region, the farms enjoy a distinctive microclimate and volcanic terrain. The growing season brings abundant rain and a clear split between wet and dry seasons. Volcanic lava flows have left a fertile black soil with excellent drainage, an unusually favorable environment that produces particularly captivating coffee aromas. The two farms actually sit on opposite sides of a ridge, where not only do the microclimates differ markedly but the coffee flavors do as well.

The name "Kotowa" comes from the local indigenous language and means "mountain." More than a hundred years ago, Alexander Duncan McIntyre arrived on this land in Panama. The sincerity of the people and the beauty of the surroundings won him over, and from then on the family grew coffee here. Today it is operated by the fourth-generation successor, Ricardo Koyner.

The Don K Estate under the Kotowa family sits at an altitude of 1,700 to 1,750 meters, on the El Salto plateau highlands on the western side of the Boquete region near Baru Volcano, facing Duncan across the volcanic ridge. Although the two estates occupy opposite sides of that ridge, the microclimate on each side of the canyon gives the two coffees completely different flavors.

The varieties cultivated include Geisha, Pacamara, and Caturra. Because the nights are cool without frost, the days dry and sunny, and the microclimate is shaped by Pacific and Atlantic air currents meeting, the growing season brings abundant rain and a clear division between wet and dry seasons. The coffee shows strong floral aromatics and clean fruit flavors, with cupping quality far above most coffees, delivering stunning flavor and consistently stable quality.

During harvest, ripe red-purple cherries are selected with care, and modern pulping equipment handles the green bean processing. Local natural, clean water sources wash the cherries and remove the pulp. Compared with other processing facilities, the estate uses only half a liter of water to produce each pound of green beans, saving roughly 10 to 20 liters of water per pound. The pulp and wastewater are then reused as organic fertilizer. After natural drying, the green beans are stored in constant-temperature warehouses at 45°C. Once they have rested for two months the moisture content becomes uniform, the flavors grow more mature and smooth, and the aroma and mouthfeel become even more captivating.

Every batch of green beans from the estate is traceable. Each bag of coffee on the farm carries detailed records covering cultivation, processing procedures, and more.

Winning competitions is only part of the story: Kotowa also takes the ecological environment seriously. In 2006 the estate was named "Cleanest Environmental Industry" by Panamanian national authorities. Nearly 500 mu of forest protection zone has been set aside around the estate, with careful fire prevention and a ban on hunting. Over 500 native tall trees have been planted as well, providing good natural habitat for wildlife and migratory birds and building a biodiverse agricultural environment.

The estate follows a set of strict agricultural production standards and carefully balances social and environmental development: protection of natural water resources and ecosystems, wildlife conservation, pest and disease control, soil maintenance, comprehensive waste management, community relations, free medical care, daycare services, and school curriculum, along with fair treatment and good living conditions for the farmers and their families. It has earned recognition from the United Nations Children's Fund for nine consecutive years.

This lot is the Boquete Don K Estate Yellow Honey private reserve selection.

Flavor description: Floral notes, lime, fruit tones, brown sugar, apple, caramel, a sweet and persistent aftertaste, delicate texture, and a smooth, refined mouthfeel with distinct layers.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama is where Geisha became famous, and if the floral elegance described above is what you are after, FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Geisha is the most accessible introduction. It is an entry-level Geisha that lets you taste the classic Boquete profile at a friendly price: the orange-blossom honey character that Panama is known for, an oolong-tea sensation, and a fine, layered sweet-and-sour fruit core.

To go up the ladder, FrontStreet Coffee carries the two grades of the Esmeralda Estate line. The Red Label, formally Esmeralda Special, is grown at 1,600-1,800 meters, must cup above 90 points for every lot, and is numbered individually, with each lot coming from a single small plot, so buyers can pick the exact parcel whose subtle flavor profile suits them. The Green Label, formally Private Collection, is a blend of lots from several plots that showcases the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character, which makes it a notably good value.

And for a different, Ethiopian-led reading of the variety, FrontStreet Coffee's Gesha Village lots come from the estate of that name, which sits beside the original Gesha forest and follows a strict internal grading system. The Gold Label, from the Gesha 1931 variety and representing 10% of the village's output, is its top non-auction coffee and is regularly chosen by competition baristas, while the Red Label comes from the Gori Gesha variety, accounts for 15% of production, cups at 88 points or above on the SCA 100-point scale, and is released as a single-terroir series with full traceability from farm block and variety to processing date.