Panama Boquete Honey Process Geisha Coffee Flavor Characteristics and Pour-over Brewing Parameters

Honey Processed Geisha

Country: Panama

Region: Boquete

Processing Method: Honey Process

Altitude: 1600-1650 meters

Variety: Geisha

Panama · Boquete

by FrontStreet Coffee

Panama is a Central American country, bordering Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the east. Those familiar with single-origin coffee should know that Panamanian coffee is renowned in the coffee world for the Geisha variety from Hacienda La Esmeralda. It can be said to be a country that pursues excellence in coffee and produces high-quality coffee beans.

Boquete is a town in the Chiriqui province, located near the border between Panama and Costa Rica, close to the famous Baru Volcano. With its beautiful scenery, fertile and rich soil, and climate perfectly suited for producing high-quality coffee.

The Boquete region is home to many excellent estates. Besides the famous Hacienda La Esmeralda, there are other renowned estates like Elida Estate and Kotowa Duncan Estate, all producing high-quality specialty coffee. This not only benefits from the superior ecological conditions of Panama's Boquete region and the fertile volcanic ash soil of the Baru volcano area.

Another important factor is the unique microclimate in the highlands of Boquete, which is an exclusive resource for specialty coffee in this region. Panama's east-to-west environment causes cold air currents to converge above 6,500 feet through the central mountain range, creating various microclimates in the Boquete area. This makes the temperature and rainfall exceptionally suitable for plant growth, so coffee trees planted here grow in excellent condition.

Processing Method

by FrontStreet Coffee

The processing method of this coffee bean is honey process.

Honey processing is a method of producing green beans by sun-drying with the mucilage intact. After removing the outer pulp from coffee beans, there remains a layer of viscous gelatinous substance. In traditional washed processing, this would be washed away with water, but due to water resource limitations in some high-altitude regions, this method of drying directly with the fruit pulp was developed.

Green Bean Analysis

by FrontStreet Coffee

The variety of this coffee bean is Geisha. The green beans appear typical of honey-processed coffee beans, showing a yellow-green color, and smelling of fresh apple fragrance.

Geisha coffee is an original variety within the Arabica species, particularly selective about its growing environment, requiring high altitude, cloud shade, fertile soil, and sufficient accumulated temperature.

1931: A group of botanists conducted an expedition to southwestern Ethiopia and discovered the Geisha variety near Geisha village, bringing Geisha seeds to Kenya for cultivation in nurseries.

1936: Geisha seeds spread to Uganda and Tanzania.

1953: Costa Rica's research institution CATIE obtained some Geisha seeds from Tanzania for research purposes.

1960: Pachi Serracin, the former owner of Panama's Don Pachi Estate, brought Geisha to Panama from Costa Rica.

Later, Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda separated it from other varieties and won the national coffee competition championship.

Roasting Analysis

by FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee tested three roasting curves, all light roasts but with different development times and drop temperatures.

Curve One

Charge temperature 170°C, yellowing point at 5'30", first crack begins at 8'35" at 181°C, first crack development for 1'30" before dropping at 193°C.

Agtron bean color value 78.2 (left image), Agtron ground color value 86.4 (right image), Roast Delta value is 8.2.

Curve Two

Charge temperature 170°C, yellowing point at 5'25", first crack begins at 8'52" at 181.3°C, first crack development for 1'45" before dropping at 193.2°C.

Agtron bean color value 76.5 (left image), Agtron ground color value 86 (right image), Roast Delta value is 9.5.

Curve Three

Charge temperature 170°C, yellowing point at 5'25", first crack begins at 8'37" at 182.5°C, first crack development for 1'28" before dropping at 190.5°C.

Agtron bean color value 82.6 (left image), Agtron ground color value 90.3 (right image), Roast Delta value is 7.7.

Cupping Comparison

by FrontStreet Coffee

Curve One: When slurping, flavors of plum, lime, citrus, cream, with green tea sensation and fermented aroma.

Curve Two: When slurping, sweet orange, plum, citrus, tropical fruit acidity, cream with subtle fermented aroma and floral notes.

Curve Three: When slurping, lemon, plum, sweet orange, cream flavors, with jasmine floral notes and fermented aroma, finishing with oolong tea sensation.

After cupping, FrontStreet Coffee felt that Curve One's flavors were not concentrated enough and the flavor layers were relatively thin. Both Curve Two and Curve Three performed excellently in terms of acidity and sweetness, so we decided to brew pots of each using pour-over method to see how these two curves would perform in pour-over brewing.

Pour-over Comparison

by FrontStreet Coffee

Parameters: Water temperature: 90°C; Medium-fine grind: VARIO 5O (57% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve); Dripper: Hario V60; Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15.

Technique: Fractional extraction. Bloom with 35g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 130g and pause, continue pouring to 230g when water level drops to just expose the coffee bed, remove dripper when water level drops to just expose the coffee bed again (timing starts from bloom), extraction time is two minutes.

Curve Two: Entry shows lime, plum, pineapple acidity, mid-section brings out nutty flavors, finishing with cocoa and nutty notes, caramel sweetness and ginger flower aftertaste.

Curve Three: Aroma shows fermented notes and floral fragrance, entry has citrus and lemon acidity, mid-section brings out creamy sweet notes, finishing with green tea sensation, cane sugar and honey sweetness.

After cupping and pour-over comparison, FrontStreet Coffee felt that Curve Three was slightly superior in both aroma and acidity-sweetness balance, so it was selected to express the characteristics of this honey-processed Geisha.

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