Geisha Coffee Estate - Panama Elida Estate

Elida Estate is a renowned coffee farm in Panama with a century-long history of producing premium quality coffee. Last year, a Geisha coffee from Elida Estate won the championship in the Geisha Processing Category at the BOP competition. FrontStreet Coffee selected Geisha coffee from the same plot and altitude at Elida Estate for tasting. When it comes to Geisha, we must mention the famous Esmeralda Estate, also in Panama. By comparing these two Geisha coffees from different estates, FrontStreet Coffee found that due to different processing methods, Elida Geisha exhibits more complex layers than Panama Geisha. FrontStreet Coffee conducted a comparative tasting of Geisha and Typica coffees from Elida Estate to explore the differences between varieties from the same estate.

Panama - Elida Estate Geisha

Region: Boquete, Panama
Estate: Elida Estate
Altitude: 1900 meters
Variety: Geisha
Processing: Anaerobic Fermentation Low-Temperature Slow Natural Process

Panama - Elida Estate Typica

Region: Boquete, Panama
Estate: Elida Estate
Altitude: 1850 meters
Variety: Typica
Processing: Natural Process

Boquete Region

Panama's Elida Estate is located in the renowned specialty coffee region of Boquete. Boquete is a town in the Chiriqui province, situated near the border between Panama and Costa Rica, close to the famous Baru Volcano. With its beautiful scenery, fertile and rich soil, and climate and soil conditions ideal for producing high-quality coffee, the microclimate in Panama's Boquete highlands is a unique resource for the region's specialty coffee. The east-to-west environmental pattern causes cold air currents to converge above 6,500 feet through the central mountain range, creating various microclimates in the Boquete area with temperature and rainfall levels perfect for plant growth.

Elida Estate

Elida Estate covers a total area of 65 hectares, with more than half located within the Baru Volcano National Park. Only 30 hectares of the estate are used for coffee cultivation, while the remainder remains as primary forest. Coffee is grown at altitudes ranging from 1,670 to 1,850 meters, making it one of the two highest altitude coffee farms in Panama (the other being Carmen Estate in the Volcán Valley).

In such high-altitude environments, low temperatures delay the maturation of coffee cherries by about a month compared to normal maturation periods. The fertile volcanic soil provides ample nutrients for the coffee, and combined with the excellent microclimate brought by Baru Volcano, enables Elida Estate to consistently achieve outstanding results in cupping competitions.

Elida Estate's history dates back to 1918. This estate is owned by the Lamastus family, and the name "Elida" was named after Mrs. Robert Louis Lamastus, who was the estate owner at that time.

Coffee Varieties

Elida Estate primarily cultivates three coffee varieties: Catuai, Typica, and Geisha. The processing plant is located halfway up the mountain, allowing coffee cherries to be transported immediately for processing after picking to ensure quality is not affected. Of course, Elida Estate's environment is also suitable for growing other high-quality temperate crops, especially tree tomatoes and some uncommon high-altitude fruits.

At this point, FrontStreet Coffee often encounters people asking whether coffee grown alongside other crops will take on the flavors of those crops. For example, Elida Estate grows tree tomatoes and other fruit crops, and coincidentally, when FrontStreet Coffee tastes Elida coffee, we detect rich, full fruit flavors. However, FrontStreet Coffee wants to remind everyone not to be misled by such coincidences. In general, coffee flavor formation is composed of variety, altitude, processing method, and roasting—all essential components that form the basis for specialty coffee evaluation today. This has always been what FrontStreet Coffee emphasizes: understanding coffee goes beyond surface appearances.

In addition to the exceptionally high altitude and unique microclimate, the estate owner Mr. Wilford has invested considerable effort in harvesting and processing. To achieve the highest standards, Elida Estate's coffee is only hand-picked at the ripest stage (Ripe on Pinton). High fruit maturity naturally means higher sugar content in the mucilage, which is the foundation for Elida's premium flavors. Besides being extremely strict about coffee cultivation and processing, Mr. Wilford's approach to "purification" of green beans after processing is more rigorous than that of peers in the industry.

Catuai

Catuai comes from the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC) in São Paulo, Brazil, and is a hybrid of Mundo Novo and Caturra varieties. Because of its short plant size, it can be planted densely in large-scale cultivation, with a planting density nearly double that of Bourbon coffee, making its yield much higher than Bourbon. Additionally, although its disease and pest resistance is not strong, the advantage of its plant shape makes manual pest and disease control relatively easy. Besides higher yields, Catuai does not easily drop after maturing and has strong resistance to wind and rain, making it popular in regions with frequent storms.

FrontStreet Coffee conducted a cupping and tasting of Elida Estate's Catuai. The coffee exhibits fermented wine aroma and rose fragrance, with berry, citrus, and green tea flavors on entry, creamy and nutty aftertaste, and sucrose sweetness, with overall balance.

Typica

Typica is one of the oldest native varieties of Ethiopia, with bronze-colored young leaves and oval or slender-pointed bean shapes. Typica offers elegant flavor but has weak constitution, poor disease resistance, and low fruit yield. Well-known varieties such as Mandheling, Blue Mountain, Maragogipe, Yunnan Peaberry, and Geisha are all derived from Typica.

Geisha

Geisha was discovered in the Geisha forest of Ethiopia in 1931 and later sent to a coffee research institute in Kenya. In 1936, it was introduced to Uganda and Tanzania, then to Costa Rica in 1953, and subsequently entered Panama along the southern route. Panama's Esmeralda Estate isolated it from other varieties and it went on to win the national coffee competition championship, bringing Geisha into the spotlight. Geisha coffee is particularly particular about its growing environment, requiring high altitude, cloud cover, fertile soil, and sufficient accumulated temperature. Geisha beans have a slender-pointed shape, making them easily recognizable.

When discussing Geisha variety, we cannot bypass the Geisha coffee from Panama's Esmeralda Estate. Panama's Esmeralda Estate Geisha can be described as one of the top estates in the specialty coffee field, known to everyone in the coffee world. FrontStreet Coffee believes that无论是as the discoverer and promoter of Geisha flavor or for repeatedly breaking auction records, these achievements have established Esmeralda Estate's current success.

FrontStreet Coffee — 2020 New Harvest Panama Blue Label Geisha

Region: Boquete
Estate: Esmeralda Estate
Altitude: 1500m
Variety: Geisha
Processing: Washed Process
Flavor: Subtle jasmine fragrance and citrus aroma, with distinct citrus and plum flavors on entry, fresh and bright acidity, nutty notes in the mid-section, honey sweetness in the aftertaste, with persistent sweetness.

Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Natural Process

The natural process reduces the moisture content of coffee through a certain period of sun-drying. The natural process is the oldest processing method in coffee history, passed down since coffee entered large-scale production. To this day, a considerable portion of the world's coffee production still uses the natural process. However, Elida Estate has made detailed adjustments based on the natural process. After processing the green beans, they require more than 5 months of low-temperature resting to remove greenness, allowing the coffee flavors to develop more balanced and full. Low-temperature resting is a green bean purification concept strongly promoted by coffee master George Howell since 2006. Different processing methods and altitudes will change the low-temperature resting time. For Elida Estate, 5 months of low-temperature resting is optimal.

Anaerobic Fermentation Low-Temperature Slow Natural Process

Elida Estate, known for its expertise in traditional natural processing, after years of experimentation, finally mastered the NATURAL-ASD (Anaerobic Fermentation Low-Temperature Slow Natural Process) technique last year. With this processing method, their Geisha won the championship in the Geisha Processing Category at last year's BOP competition. The process involves fermenting harvested coffee cherries in sealed containers for 4-5 days, then spreading thick layers of coffee cherries on drying beds to allow slow drying. By controlling the "drying rate" to encourage the activity of specific types of microorganisms, they can control the type and degree of fermentation to some extent—this is the specialty of current estate owner Wilford Jr.

The low-temperature slow natural processing requires producers to invest more time and energy. Over time, slow drying allows coffee cherries to develop optimal water activity during this process, resulting in better flavor development and allowing green beans to maintain longer during seasonal storage cycles. However, this method not only depends on favorable weather conditions but also extends the production time required for each batch, increasing the cost of green beans.

Green Bean Analysis

Elida Estate Geisha

This bean is of the Geisha variety. The green beans appear yellowish-green and smell of snow pear, orange fragrance, and a subtle fermented aroma.

Green Tip Geisha variety and Bronze Tip Geisha variety: Green Tip Geisha is characterized by floral fragrance, strong acidity, and sweetness. In contrast, Bronze Tip Geisha emphasizes body weight and sweetness, with less prominent acidity.

Elida Estate Typica

Typica is one of the oldest varieties of Arabica coffee discovered today, the other being Bourbon. Arabica originates from Ethiopia, where this variety still grows naturally in the local primary rainforest highlands today.

Typica beans are slender, the plant is tall, the cherries are oval-shaped, and the branches are slightly inclined. Typica has slender branches with a spreading habit at an inclination angle of 50-70 degrees. The coffee yield per tree is very low, but cupping scores are high.

Roasting Recommendations

Elida Estate Geisha

Elida Geisha beans are also slender-shaped. The green beans appear yellowish-green and smell of snow pear, orange fragrance, and a subtle fermented aroma. FrontStreet Coffee uses a light roast approach. These coffee beans have medium density and absorb more heat during the roasting process, with a relatively fast Maillard reaction. FrontStreet Coffee opens the damper when the beans begin to turn yellow to develop more fermented aroma, enhancing its sweetness and balance.

Preheat roaster to 160°C, set heat to 100, damper to 3. Return temperature at 1'42''. When temperature reaches 146°C, open damper to 4. At 146°C, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears. When temperature reaches 166°C, reduce heat to 80, keep damper unchanged.

At 7'31'', ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 8'28'', first crack begins, reduce heat to 50, open damper fully to 5. After first crack, develop for 1'45'', drop at 194.5°C.

Elida Estate Typica

Elida Typica beans are slender, with green beans appearing yellowish-green. FrontStreet Coffee uses a light-medium roast approach. The roasting concept is to introduce beans at lower temperatures. Although this doesn't have the clean, intense quality of high-temperature introduction, the benefit is a mellow, smooth mouthfeel. Since development time after first crack is very short, heat must be sufficient, otherwise the expected drop temperature won't reach adequate caramelization. FrontStreet Coffee uses a glide action—reducing heat or turning off heat while using the roaster's residual temperature to continue roasting the beans. Throughout the entire roasting process, beans are in heat absorption mode, only first and second cracks are exothermic phases. During these two stages, it's best not to increase heat for roasting, otherwise beans can easily develop spicy notes.

FrontStreet Coffee adds that glide action emphasizes turning off heat while utilizing the roaster's residual temperature and the heat generated by bean exotherm during crack periods to continue slow roasting.

Yangjia 600g Semi-direct Heat Roaster

Preheat roaster to 170°C, set damper to 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 140°C, keep damper unchanged. Return temperature at 1'25''. Adjust heat once at 140°C. At this point, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 110°C, damper to 4.

At 8'45'', ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the first crack sound. At 9'07'', first crack begins, reduce heat to 90°C, adjust damper to 4 (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that crack sound disappears). After first crack for 1'45'', drop at 190°C.

Cupping Flavors

Elida Estate Geisha

Dry Aroma: Floral fragrance
Wet Aroma: Berry, fermented aroma
Taste: Smooth entry with orange, guava, grapefruit, apricot, honey, and cream flavors, with high clarity.

Elida Estate Typica

Dry Aroma: Caramel, roasted almond, floral fragrance
Wet Aroma: Jackfruit, fermented wine aroma
Taste: Smooth entry with raisin, peach, orange, melon flavors, distinct sucrose and caramel notes, green tea sensation, with high clarity.

Brewing Demonstration

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing parameters: V60 dripper, water temperature 90°C, powder-to-water ratio 1:15, grind size calibrated to 80% pass-through through a #20 standard sieve.

FrontStreet Coffee uses segmented extraction, which is a three-stage water pouring method. Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds. Pour water in a small circular motion to reach 95g, then segment at 125g. Continue pouring to 225g when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Remove the dripper when the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed. Total extraction time is 2.00 minutes (including blooming time).

Flavor Description

Elida Estate Anaerobic Fermentation Low-Temperature Natural Geisha

It has a subtle fermented aroma and floral fragrance. On entry, it offers grapefruit, lemon, and guava flavors, with honey sweetness in the mid-section and black tea aftertaste.

Elida Estate Natural Typica

On entry, you can distinctly taste peach, raisin, and orange flavors. Gradually, sucrose and melon sweetness emerge, with grapefruit and green tea notes in the finish.

Important Notice :

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