Panama La Berlina Typica Natural Process Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Guide_Estate Information Introduction

Panama Coffee Estate — An Introduction to La Berlina Estate

La Berlina Estate was founded by Diaz, originally a Colombian soldier sent to Panama in the early 20th century to suppress a rising separatist movement. When Panama won its independence, soldiers like Diaz faced a choice: return home to Colombia or stay. Diaz had fallen in love with Boquete — and with a local girl — so he stayed and took up coffee growing.

On the mountains outside Boquete, the Diaz family discovered wild Typica coffee trees — "purebred" Arabica — and built an 80-acre farm there. Much of the coffee grew completely wild, scattered through the rainforest's rich volcanic soil, because coatimundis (raccoon-like animals) would eat cherries from the farms below and deposit the seeds when they climbed back to higher ground. By the 1920s the family had established a fully sustainable smallholding to support themselves: a small waterwheel-powered sugarcane mill, corn fields, chickens, and pigs.

At first the children were the official coffee pickers, helped by neighbors and by Ngöbe Indians who came to work surrounding farms during harvest. Through harvest season the whole family picked cherries nearly around the clock, seven days a week, then carried them to the waterwheel-driven mill to remove the pulp and mucilage. The coffee was stored in a special attic, where the dry roof and rising warm air kept it ventilated. For the family, coffee often served as a currency of sorts, traded for "luxuries" like new shoes or the children's schooling. One year, a teenage son chiseled a hole in the attic ceiling, pocketed several pounds of coffee, and sold it to take his girlfriend on a date.

By the early 1930s La Berlina was producing a recognized high-quality coffee, but the self-sufficient farm could no longer feed a growing family with more children and new members. As the years passed and coffee prices stayed depressed, Diaz's son Don Manuel was eventually forced to sell the farm — the only way of life he had ever known.

Today La Berlina is run by the Ruiz family, who continue to champion heirloom coffee varieties in Boquete. The family's fourth generation keeps learning how to grow and process coffee, combining modern technique with the lessons of the past, with the goal of bringing La Berlina's delicious coffee to the world.

The dawn of the new century brought professional producers new challenges — and in 2004, Geisha was identified at the now-famous Hacienda Esmeralda. (Note: Esmeralda lies in Panama, not Nicaragua.) In 2005, Price Peterson sold 5 pounds of Esmeralda Geisha seed to Plinio Ruiz, who raised a nursery from them; by early 2006 about 3,500 seedlings were ready for planting mid-year. The best lots were planted in rows alongside the estate's ancient Typica trees, with great success. The planting expanded in 2008, and by 2010 La Berlina harvested its first 5 pounds of Geisha. The real surprise came in 2011, when the farm harvested 250 pounds — a portion of which won Panama's Best Harvest that year.

Coffee Details

Product Name: Panama La Berlina Estate Typica Natural

Estate: La Berlina Estate

Harvest Year: 2013/2014

Variety: Typica

Processing Method: Natural

Altitude: 1,920 m

Region: Boquete

Estate Owner: Casa Ruiz

Roast Level: Light roast

Flavor Description: Strawberry, whiskey, stone fruit, dark cocoa

How to Brew Panama La Berlina Typica Natural Perfectly

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-Over Reference

Measure out 15g of La Berlina Typica Natural and grind to a medium grind, slightly coarser than table salt. We use the BG grinder at setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), water at 90°C, and a V60 dripper.

Pour in clockwise circles around the center of the dripper, timing from the first contact with water. Within 15 seconds bring the brew to 30g, then stop. At the 1-minute mark, start the second pour — again clockwise circles around the center, keeping the stream away from the seam where the coffee bed meets the filter paper to prevent channeling.

Leave a dry ring at the outermost circle, then spiral back toward the center. At 2 minutes 20 seconds the brew should reach 220g, and it's done.

FrontStreet Coffee Iced Extraction Reference

For iced brewing of La Berlina Typica Natural (light-medium roast): BG grinder, grind level 3, 20g of coffee, water at 87°C, a 3-minute pre-infusion, brewed in a Chemex over ice, with 200ml of total water.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

More Estate Coffee from FrontStreet Coffee

Colombia is one of FrontStreet Coffee's favorite origins for estate lots, and its coffees cover every style — bright and fruit-forward, rich and full-bodied, or perfumed and aromatic — which is why they suit so many tastes. If La Berlina's Typica natural appeals to you, consider these Colombian picks:

The FrontStreet washed Huila comes from Colombia's most famous specialty region, the hilly, mountain-ringed south of Huila province, planted above 1,500 meters where the country's most important rivers converge to supply abundant water and humidity. Roasted medium-dark, it highlights black chocolate and nutty sweetness with moderate oils and a full body — excellent as pour-over or French press, and equally at home in a moka pot or espresso machine for Americanos and lattes. For something more adventurous, the FrontStreet Colombia Divide Line (Fenjexian) Estate Sidra uses anaerobic natural processing: the cherries ferment in sealed, pressure-rated stainless tanks where temperature, time, and pH are all controlled, transforming into intense tropical-fruit aromatics. At a medium-light roast it yields passion fruit, grape, apricot, and dried-fruit complexity whether you brew it as pour-over, cold brew, drip bag, or moka pot.