The Story of Panama Kotowa Coffee Estate - History and Information about Panama Kotowa Estate

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A True Specialty Coffee Estate - Panama Kotowa

When mentioning the Kotowa Estate located in Boquete Valley, most coffee enthusiasts' eyes will light up!

This is also the favorite Panama coffee estate of FrontStreet Coffee's partners!

First, look at its excellent competition achievements - not only winning awards year after year, but just looking at the recent five years of BOP (Best of Panama), regardless of whether the competition was divided into two/three/four groups that year, the Kotowa contingent has been able to achieve grand slams - winning award batches in every group category each year, which is truly impressive!!

The Legacy Behind Kotowa

In fact, behind the legends of Kotowa Don K, Duncan, Las Brujas... there is an absolute coffee man - Ricardo Koyner. He inherited the coffee plantation founded by his mother's grandfather, Alexandar Duncan, in 1917, as well as the wet processing mill built by his grandfather Don K...

However, Panama coffee was relatively unknown back then. Not only were the Geisha coffee trees waiting to be discovered, but many high-quality beans were also being disguised as Hawaiian Kona in 90s America, innocently caught up in the most famous coffee fraud case in history... Meanwhile, New York coffee futures prices continued to decline year after year after the Cold War ended... The prospect of running a coffee farm was actually quite pessimistic at that time~

However, Ricardo, with his university economics degree, deeply understood that only by producing the highest quality green beans could Kotowa Estate break free from the constraints of futures prices and have a foundation for sustainable operation and even greater development~ Thus, he embarked on the path of specialty coffee...

A True Coffee Farmer at Heart

Unlike many "estate owners" who own large tracts of land and hire farmers to produce coffee, he is the "most farmer-like" coffee plantation owner we've ever met: When we first visited him, it was already night after a round of cupping. Just as we were regretting not having the chance to actually walk through his coffee plantation, he proactively suggested taking us up to Don K and Duncan at six o'clock the next morning! He said not to be polite - that was his usual time to go up and check on the coffee plantation~ These two coffee plantations, located on opposite sides of the same mountain ridge, were named to commemorate his great-grandfather and grandfather. They were land purchases made later under his management and were once the production gardens for Kotowa Estate's flagship products... At an altitude of 1700 meters, leaning against Volcan Baru, belonging to the western side of the valley, there is a sunny area on the ridge planned as a high-altitude drying field, responsible for processing all high-altitude natural and washed beans~ The rest are slopes on both sides planted full of Caturra and Catuai... But on the highest altitude ridge platform, it's all the famous Geisha variety!

Organic Cultivation and Rich Biodiversity

Although the two adjacent gardens are not certified, the entire estate is cultivated using organic methods: The bidens that have grown to shoulder height haven't been weeded yet, sticking burrs all over your body; a three-story-tall shade tree emits the buzzing sound of tens of thousands of bees! It turns out that tree was in full bloom, and nearby bees all came to gather nectar~ This shows the richness of ecological resources... Ricardo casually picked ripe red Geisha berries and gave them to us to taste, and the pulp actually released a rich aroma mixed with passion fruit/lychee/pineapple in our mouths!!

As the fruity flavors wafted through our nasal passages, he walked us closer to different Geisha trees with slightly different characteristics and shapes, like showing off his treasures, telling us this one had longer fruit seeds, and over there was a mutant with yellow fruit skin... -- I couldn't help but wonder - he seemed to recognize every coffee tree and know their exact locations?!

Most interestingly, when I met a harvester and asked for a photo together, Ricardo actually asked me to first take a picture of "him with the harvester"! Only then was it my turn for a photo with the harvester... -- I had never seen such an approachable coffee estate owner!

The Pursuit of Quality and Altitude

When asked about whether the relationship between altitude and coffee quality is absolute? Ricardo said "At least in Boquete Valley, this is certain!" This is also why he already owned large coffee plantations at 1350 meters altitude below Jaramillo on the east side of the valley, yet still bought this higher altitude land... But I saw even more Ricardo's precise judgment and subsequent efforts to advance on the path of specialty coffee!

Therefore, when coffee futures prices hit rock bottom in 2002 (futures prices once only 50 cents/pound, less than half of current prices!), Panama coffee was ready to emerge~ At that time, Ricardo and other excellent Panama coffee estate owners like Wilford from Elida Estate, Francisco from Don Pachi Estate, Daniel and Rachel siblings from Esmeralda Estate... first initiated the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP) together to share and learn cultivation and processing techniques, then held the BOP competition... In just a few years, it attracted the attention of many specialty coffee enthusiasts, and later the dazzling Geisha coffee debuted, actually gaining global recognition and pursuit!

Innovation and Continuous Improvement

This was certainly no coincidence, but more about silent effort, open-minded sharing and learning! As a core and leading coffee plantation, Kotowa also quickly received Geisha seeds from Esmeralda, investing in Geisha coffee production and technology improvement... For example, the natural processing method, which was extremely unfavorable to SCAA cupping experts, became another shining star in just a few years!

Today, Ricardo not only deeply researches the reasons for various forms of Geisha but also collaborates with UC Davis, a top agricultural research hub in the United States, wanting to understand more secrets about Geisha producing great flavors! In recent years, he has invested heavily again, buying a coffee plantation Las Brujas at 1850~1900 meters altitude, also on the side of Volcan Baru... And named it Brujas (witches) in Spanish because of the interesting surface pits and holes in the area where groundwater levels change rapidly, sometimes dry, sometimes waterlogged, and strong winds passing through create whistling sounds, as if witches are hiding in the forest casting spells... This is particularly precious in Boquete Valley where land prices are increasingly expensive!!

(More often, farmers would rather sell land to receive large cash sums at once, then enjoy a luxurious life like winning the lottery!) But he said it was worth buying! Because higher altitude has elevated Geisha to another level~ The only drawback is that it's quite cold there, coffee trees grow slowly, and production increases are also relatively slow... Thus, Geisha from the Witch Estate remains quite rare~

Technical Innovations

He personally continues to invest in improving estate technology: such as the "new type hulling machine" specifically for natural beans, because ordinary hulling machines are designed for washed beans. Raisin-like dried fruit hulls will adhere and accumulate in these machines, causing the hulling machine to generate intense frictional heat, hot to the touch that can cause burns!! Such high heat is absolutely damaging to coffee beans, especially the higher the altitude, the thicker the berry pulp, the bigger the trouble!! The new type of natural bean专用 hulling machine, besides not easily accumulating dried fruit hulls, the specially designed air-cooling pipeline and powerful blower... are all to thoroughly solve the hot bean crisis during natural bean hulling~

Additionally, he recently invested in two sets of "recycling dry-cool dryers" that use precisely controlled relative humidity recycled compressed air to slowly dry parchment beans in a closed dryer system, completely avoiding green beans contacting higher temperatures during drying~ It's generally considered ideal to dry below 37°C, but Ricardo's two new toys can operate below 20°C! When asked about the effects? He said with a sly smile: "Maybe it's already effective, or maybe we haven't tested it out yet~"

Furthermore, regarding green bean storage... he generously opened the warehouse specifically for storing specialty green beans~ A small room, stacked two stories high -- surprisingly, an air conditioner was running! This was the first time I saw someone using an air conditioning system to preserve green beans at origin! (Of course, when I later saw some equally meticulous people, I was no longer surprised!)

He has also tested several wet/dry fermentation washed methods and obtained many key principles for quality improvement... And more... ... ... Perhaps, we cannot completely understand all the details of how to produce better coffee in Boquete Valley! In fact, these details are still being improved daily through greater understanding... But the only thing we understand is that a good cup of coffee doesn't come easily: from the green beans, it's that mountain/those trees/those people... working together! To reach our hands, from storage/roasting/grinding/brewing/tasting... How fortunate we are to be able to stride forward together on the path of the specialty coffee industry~

Panama Kotowa Duncan Estate

Kotowa has a total of four coffee estates: Duncan Estate (Finca Kotowa Duncan), Finca Kotowa Don K, Crystal River (Finca Kotowa RIO CRISTAL), and Finca Kotowa tradicional. Among these, the Duncan Estate is named after the pioneer who developed this land. The two most famous estates under its banner are Duncan and Don K. These two estates are actually located on opposite sides of the ridge, and not only do they have very different microclimates, but their coffee flavors are also quite different.

The Kotowa family was the biggest winner of the 2012 Best of Panama, winning a total of 5 batch championships. The Duncan Estate was founded in 1913, located at approximately 1,700 meters altitude in the Volancito area of Boquete. It's cool at night without frost, dry and sunny during the day, deeply influenced by the microclimate where Pacific and Atlantic air currents meet. The growing season has abundant rainfall and distinct wet/dry seasons; plus the volcanic belt lava brings fertile black soil and good drainage from the convergence of air currents... The growing season has abundant rainfall and distinct wet/dry seasons; with unique growing conditions, creating great Panama coffee. In addition, this estate is also a quite famous specialty coffee estate in Panama, awarded the cleanest environmental industry by Panama national authorities in 2006.

Duncan Estate is at approximately 1650-1750 meters altitude, located on the western side of the Boquete producing area beside Volcan Baru. It's cool at night without frost, dry and sunny during the day, deeply influenced by the microclimate where Pacific and Atlantic air currents meet. The growing season has abundant rainfall and distinct wet/dry seasons; plus the volcanic belt lava contains rich minerals, fertile volcanic black soil has sufficient nutrients, and good drainage is also quite good - the terroir conditions are exceptionally favorable.

In terms of Arabica characteristics, usually the higher the altitude, the better the coffee quality, because high altitude leads to lower average temperatures. Although quality improves, coffee harvest quantity actually decreases. The critical altitude is 1200 meters. Affected by temperature changes in the growing area, when temperature decreases, coffee quality increases, but low temperature should not be below 12°C, and high temperature should not exceed 30°C. At 1800 meters altitude, the estate designed a greenhouse for coffee tree seedlings, using four different microclimates to test variables like different altitudes and rainfall patterns to study temperature's impact on coffee flavor, then collaborating with Davis University to research and evaluate coffee genetics' impact on quality and flavor under different variables.

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