Panama Natural Process Beans | Boquete Region | Graciano Cruz Family | Emporium Estate

FrontStreet Coffee Panama Coffee Bean Recommendation | Emporium Estate and Panama's Natural Coffee

Farm Features

Farm Name: Emporium Estate

Farmer: Graciano Cruz

Awards: Top 10 in "Best of Panama" 2004/2005

Region: Boquete

Location: Eastern slopes of Volcan Baru

Country: Panama

Farm Size: 14 Hectares

Altitude: 1,600–1,650 meters

Annual Precipitation: 3700 mm

Soil: Volcanic clay

Type of Shade Trees: Inca trees, orange trees, tangerine trees, lemon trees, etc.

Labor Practices: Local Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous people stay in dormitories on the farm during harvest season

Certification: Organic certified by Bio Latina

Coffee Characteristics

Variety: Mixed cultivation of Caturra, Yellow Catuai, Pacamara, Typica, etc.

Processing System: Natural processing, African raised beds

Flowering Period: March–June

Harvest Period: December–January (annual harvest)

NATURAL: Natural sun-drying method

Aroma/Flavor: Water pear, green apple, pineapple, mango, fermented fruit aroma, brown sugar, maple aroma, caramel aroma

Acidity: Citric acid, plum acidity, tartaric acid, grapefruit astringency, vibrant and lively fruit acidity, orange flavor

Complexity and Other Characteristics: Very complex and varied, with a delicate, powdery texture, plum and fruit-wine fermented mellow aroma, a clear, strong and persistent aftertaste and a dark chocolate aroma, carrying the characteristics of Sleeping Beauty Estate

Cupping Scores and Overall Evaluation

Dry Aroma: 10

Wet Aroma: 9

Cleanliness: 9

Brightness: 9

Mouthfeel: 9

Balance: 8

Complexity: 10

Sweetness: 7

Acidity: 10

Aftertaste: 10

Cupping Score: 91

Overall Evaluation: The Graciano Cruz family grows coffee in Panama's remote Boquete mountain region. The farm produces washed, honey-processed and natural coffee, with each processing method named differently. The natural beans from Emporium Estate show clear, strong and vibrant characteristics, indicating that this is an exceptional Panama natural coffee.

Panama Coffee Excellence

The Best of Panama and Hacienda La Esmeralda have drawn global attention not only for the appeal of the coffee itself but for their astonishing prices. Some small farms producing Geisha varieties attract coffee lovers around the world with their unique floral aromas. Panama does not produce excellent coffee with Geisha alone — most of its varieties are Typica and Caturra, and coffee is grown in almost every region. Panama coffee has strong floral aromas and clean fruit flavors, with cupping quality far exceeding that of other expensive coffees, delivering remarkable flavors and stable quality.

Panama coffee is widely used in both specialty and commercial roasting, but the market is flooded with low-altitude Panama beans that do not interest us. What catches our attention are the family-run small farms around Boquete in the Chiriqui district, which genuinely produce distinctive coffee cherries. During harvest season, these farms hire local Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous people, following Central American labor laws and reasonable wage standards.

The reputation and success of honey-processed coffee from Boquete in the Chiriqui district comes from Emporium Estate and Los Lajones Estate, both owned by the Graciano Cruz family. The farm was named in 2007, with the 14-hectare holding divided into three parts co-owned by the three Cruz brothers. 40 years of growing various crops created the source of today's diverse tree species. Coffee is not the farm's only crop — half of its agricultural output is oranges, citrus, lemons, guavas and avocados. During the flowering season all the flowers bloom like a large garden, with different fragrances and colors intermingling. The Panama natural coffee the farm produces is rare, unique and distinctive.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama's natural coffees owe part of their fame to a single moment: in 2003 the owners of Hacienda La Esmeralda discovered how distinctive their Geisha was and entered it in the Best of Panama competition, where it stunned the judges and won with an average cupping score of 94.6, breaking the competition record. Overnight, Geisha became the most sought-after variety in the world. FrontStreet Coffee's Esmeralda Red Label Geisha carries that lineage — grown between 1,600 and 1,800 m, with every lot required to cup above 90 points and drawn from a single small plot, each with its own lot number, so buyers can choose by subtle flavor differences. For the same house style at a friendlier price, the Esmeralda Green Label blends several plots rather than one, expressing the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character as a whole.

If you want an easier entry to the Geisha flavor, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Boquete Geisha is an estate-level Geisha grown at 1,600 m, offering the classic Boquete orange-blossom honey profile — oolong tea, delicate fruit acidity and clear layering — without the auction-lot price. For a different origin entirely, FrontStreet Coffee's Genlana Gesha comes from Ethiopia, where the Genlana processing station was established in 2014 by Israel Degefa in a region of around 700 hectares, much of it uncultivated, with fertile soil and shade trees throughout. Hand-picked ripe cherries dry on raised beds for 14 to 20 days, and a medium-light roast reveals bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger flower and the full sweetness of ripe fruit with a fine, silky finish. Because Genlana also roasts beautifully at a medium level, it doubles as an excellent single-origin espresso, where the same florals and dried-fruit sweetness turn into apricot, caramel and nut in the cup.

Geisha brews best treated with care: grind to about 78% pass-through on a Chinese standard #20 sieve — close to fine sugar — and use water at 91°C, 15 g of coffee in a small Hario V60 at a 1:16 ratio, pouring in a 30 g bloom for 30 seconds, then to 125 g, then to 225 g once the bed drains to half, for a total of roughly 2:10 to 2:20. For an espresso, FrontStreet Coffee sets 20 g of coffee at a 1:2 ratio for 40 g of liquid in 25 seconds; diluted 1:5 with 200 g of hot water it becomes a Geisha SOE Americano with orange, nut and blueberry notes, and with 200 g of milk it turns into a latte with a creamy shortbread texture. If cold brew is more your style, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy — a blend of Costa Rican honey-processed coffee and Panama Geisha — makes an unusually refreshing version: 30 g of beans ground to fine sugar (an EK43s at setting 9, or a C40 at 24), stirred into 360 g of room-temperature water at a 1:12 ratio, sealed and refrigerated for 8 hours, then filtered and left to rest in the fridge for another 3 hours, giving a cup of grape juice, rose, sweet orange and fruit wine.