Where Do the World's Top Coffees Originate? An Introduction to Panama's Premium Coffee Estates

On FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, Panama holds a prominent place on the blackboard, represented by several single-origin coffees. Some can be had for just a few tens of yuan, while others command prices in the hundreds - a spread that regularly draws the attention of first-time visitors, who keep asking our baristas what makes each bean unique. To answer them, FrontStreet Coffee is taking you on a journey to one of the world's most celebrated coffee regions, and sharing a coffee story from the far side of the globe.

The History of Panama Coffee

Compared with its Central American neighbors, Panama has a relatively short history of coffee cultivation, yet its reputation is remarkably outsized - especially within the specialty coffee community, where it is universally recognized. Today coffee is a fixture on Panamanian tables, served everywhere from roadside inns to high-end restaurants.

Records show that coffee first reached Panama in 1742. A ship from the French Caribbean island of Martinique arrived at Portobelo by way of Cartagena (which grew no coffee), and among its cargo was a registered barrel of coffee beans. Even so, the first recorded cultivation on Panamanian soil did not come until 1780. Settler Pedro Antonio de Ayarza tried to grow coffee at Portobelo between 1780 and 1790, but soon found the site unsuited to it. It was only in the 1820s that coffee began to be cultivated elsewhere in Panama, successfully displacing chocolate as the everyday beverage and competing with tea, which had already taken root in Europe.

Panama occupies a prime position in Central America, flanked by two countries famous for outstanding coffee - Costa Rica on the left and Colombia on the right. In that sense, Panama's coffee story began with a considerable head start. FrontStreet Coffee noted on the map that Panama sits between two ocean currents, where air flows from the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific converge above 6,500 feet in the Boquete Valley, creating a distinctive and changeable microclimate. Combined with volcanic soil, this yields moderate temperature and humidity, helping the coffee grown here develop rich, layered aromatics more readily.

The Panama Canal, as is well known, was built by the United States and remained under American control for some time after its completion. The canal project drew many American elites southward in the late 20th century, partly for work and partly to seek new business opportunities. Many of Panama's famous estates were founded by these newcomers; the owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda, for instance, was formerly a banker, and the owner of Hartmann Estate an engineer. These elites brought a standard of rigor and precision to estate management. Whether it was assigning coffee trees to specific plots by altitude to determine bean grade, or adopting manual harvesting and refined processing, these practices all helped build Panama coffee's worldwide reputation.

Panama Coffee Growing Regions

Coffee cultivation in Panama covers roughly 20,000 hectares, with nearly 16,000 hectares planted to Arabica varieties. The country's main growing areas are concentrated in western Panama near the Costa Rican border, in Chiriquí province, which contains three renowned regions: Boquete, Volcán, and Renacimiento. The three sit side by side along the Central American mountain ridge near the magnificent but largely dormant Barú Volcano, which rises to a maximum elevation of 3,475 meters. Thanks to its varied climate and fertile volcanic soil, Chiriquí has also become a province of enormous agricultural and livestock potential. It supports a range of activities - thoroughbred horse breeding, flower cultivation, and, most importantly, coffee, cherry, and banana plantations. Below, FrontStreet Coffee continues with an introduction to each of the three main growing regions.

The cool, picturesque Boquete Valley is the cradle of Panama's coffee industry. A wave of European immigrants arrived in the late 19th century - mainly Swiss, Yugoslavians, Swedes, and Germans. Seeing that coffee cultivation in nearby regions (Panama belonged to Colombia before 1903) had produced excellent results, they decided to devote themselves to coffee production. Today the Boquete region has roughly 50 to 75 coffee farms and about 15 processing plants.

Boquete covers 514 square kilometers and is home to approximately 15,000 residents, who grow mostly coffee, flowers, citrus, strawberries, and vegetables. Most coffee plantations here sit at around 1,600 meters. Nearly all of this land is nutrient-rich volcanic soil, providing ample nourishment for the coffee trees. The climate is cool and somewhat dry, with a fine, barely perceptible drizzle appearing daily - especially in summer - wrapping every plantation in mist. These mixed, rain-carrying winds are why Boquete coffee cherries ripen slowly, and the resulting cup is marked by medium to high acidity.

Because Chiriquí province is primarily a coffee-growing region, coffee culture runs deep among its people. According to Panama's Ministry of Agricultural Development, the country has more than 8,000 coffee growers, almost all of whom farm less than 30 hectares. Panama's harvest runs from September to December. During this period, plantations fill with indigenous groups known as the Gnobe Bugle, usually called Guaymíes by locals, who come to help pick the coffee. Their harvesting skill and expertise are relatively strong, so their labor costs more than others. The Guaymí also preserve their traditional culture, making and wearing necklaces and clothing of colorful beads, as well as the baskets used for harvesting - a beautiful sight standing among the coffee trees.

Before 1989, Panama's coffee prices were governed by the International Coffee Agreement. Through much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Panama also exported small quantities of raw coffee beans to Western Europe. That year, however, the agreement collapsed, triggering a crisis as world raw-bean prices plunged - falling from $1.20 per pound to as low as $0.74 per pound.

In the early 1990s, as commercial coffee prices fell, Panama began looking toward the emerging specialty market. In 1996, seven local estate owners banded together to form the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), among them Ricardo Koyner, Price Peterson, Jaime Tedman, Marcos Moreno, Tony Vasquez, Hans Collins, Josue Ruiz, Wilford Lamastus, Francisco Serricin, and Ratibor Hartmann. They also staged the first raw coffee competition and an online raw coffee auction, aiming to promote high-quality Panamanian coffee by rallying small growers nationwide.

Best of Panama (BOP)

Best of Panama is one of the world's earliest established raw coffee competitions - essentially a coffee "auction." Estate owners submit high-quality batches produced locally, and the best, highest-scoring beans are selected. Sellers from around the world then bid based on the assessed scores, with the highest bidder winning. In recent years, bidding for BOP championship beans has reached thousands of dollars, making it a focal event for the industry.

Unlike major producers such as Brazil and Vietnam, Panama follows a low-volume, high-end specialty path. In the 1990s, with Panama's coffee industry in decline and world raw-bean prices in crisis, producers struggled to stay afloat. So the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP) organized local farm owners to unite and held the first Best of Panama raw coffee competition in 1996, selling specialty beans through bidding. This transformed Panama's coffee industry and also influenced the direction of the global specialty coffee market.

Because Geisha scored far higher than other varieties in the competition, submitted beans are now divided into Geisha and non-Geisha categories, then further split into natural and washed groups by processing method. Judges conduct blind tastings and scoring, and the bean with the highest average score becomes that year's Best of Panama. In 2022, Guayguá Estate's Geisha took first place in the natural Geisha category with an exceptionally high average score of 95.96, while the washed championship went to Aurora Estate's Geisha with an average of 96.15.

The Flavor Profile of Panama Geisha

FrontStreet Coffee believes that as the place where Geisha rose to fame, Panama's mature cultivation techniques and processing methods continue to produce Geisha with an industry-wide reputation for quality. That is why FrontStreet Coffee has introduced a Geisha from the Boquete region, processed using the washed method, hoping to let everyone experience the classic Geisha flavor profile.

The washed process begins by running selected coffee cherries through a depulper to remove the skin and pulp. The beans, still carrying some pulp and mucilage, are placed in water to ferment for about 24 hours. After fermentation, the beans are moved to flowing water channels to wash away the remaining pulp and mucilage. Once washed, they are dried either in the sun or with drying machines until moisture content drops to about 12%. Finally, the parchment is removed.

As one of the most traditional processing methods, washing not only makes quality more consistent but also lets Geisha show greater clarity and a fresher profile. After roasting, FrontStreet Coffee tasted Geisha's elegant white florals, uplifting citrus and lemon acidity, and a subtle green tea character - like a gentle cup of Tieguanyin tea. With such rich characteristics, how should Geisha be brewed so its potential isn't wasted?

Geisha is renowned worldwide for its rich florals and complex fruit. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters want to preserve more of its desirable acidity, so they choose a light to medium roast (with slight adjustments between batches). This roast level does not significantly alter the high density of beans grown at altitude, so brewing calls for higher extraction rates to reveal fuller layers - making it well suited to a fine grind and high water temperature.

To raise the extraction rate without over-extracting, and to highlight sweet-and-sour layers, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use the V60 dripper. The V60 has flow ribs connecting top and bottom and a large circular opening at the center to speed up water flow, while its spiral air grooves extend the water path, increasing contact time between grounds and hot water. Each stream converges along the grooves toward the center point, concentrating pressure on the coffee bed and producing richer layers in the cup.

Below, FrontStreet Coffee demonstrates the in-store brewing steps for Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Natural Geisha, which you can use as a reference against your own approach.

The pour-over parameters for Red Label Geisha are:

Dripper: V60
Water temperature: 91-92°C
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Fine sugar size (80% passes through a #20 sieve)

Three-stage extraction: First, add 15g of grounds to the dripper and zero the scale. For the first stage, pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, starting the timer at the same time. Use a small flow from the center point, spiraling outward so the entire bed is moistened. For the second stage, use a slightly larger flow to pour 120g, aiming to lift the whole bed; the stream should be vertical and even, bringing the scale to 150g in about 55 seconds.

When the water level drops halfway, begin the third stage by pouring 90g with a small flow in tight circles. Keep the circles small; overly wide ones can scatter the bed and cause under-extraction. The total pour is 240g, with a complete drawdown of about 2 minutes 10 seconds. Remove the dripper, then swirl the coffee in the server to even it out before tasting.

The pour-over Panama Washed Boquete Geisha shows distinct citrus, lemon, and bergamot clarity with a creamy, smooth mouthfeel on the swallow, finishing with green tea and honey sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If this article has you curious about Panama, FrontStreet Coffee suggests starting with the Boquete Washed Geisha. Grown at 1,600 meters on fertile volcanic ash soil in the Boquete region, this estate-level entry Geisha is a fine first taste of the terroir, delivering Geisha's signature jasmine florals alongside green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

For a slightly different expression of Panama, try FrontStreet Panama Washed Butterfly. Blending Geisha with Caturra and Catuai on the Barú Volcano side of Boquete, it shows impressive heft, bright citrus acidity, and the jasmine aroma of Geisha - excellent for both pour-over and cold brew.

To go straight to the top of the range, FrontStreet Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is harvested from a single plot above 1,700 meters and is a prime example of the refined orange-blossom honey character for which Panama is famous.