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 position on the blackboard, featuring several single-origin coffees. Some can be purchased for just tens of yuan, while others command prices in the hundreds, which has drawn the attention of many first-time visitors who frequently ask baristas about the unique characteristics of each bean. To answer these questions, FrontStreet Coffee will take everyone on a journey to this world-famous coffee-producing region today, while also sharing the coffee story from this distant hemisphere.

The History of Panama Coffee

Compared to other Central American countries, Panama has a relatively short history of coffee cultivation, yet its reputation is exceptionally prominent, especially within the specialty coffee community where it's universally recognized. Today, coffee has become a ubiquitous beverage on Panamanian dining tables, with coffee grown in Panama served everywhere from street-side inns to high-end restaurants.

According to records, coffee first arrived in Panama in 1742. At that time, a ship from the French Caribbean island of Martinique arrived at Portobelo via Cartagena (which did not produce coffee), and registered a barrel of coffee beans among its cargo. However, it wasn't until 1780 that coffee cultivation was first recorded on Panamanian territory. Settler Pedro Antonio de Ayarza attempted to grow coffee in Portobelo between 1780 and 1790, but soon realized this location was not suitable for coffee cultivation. It was in the 1820s that coffee began to be cultivated in other regions of Panama, successfully replacing chocolate as the primary beverage and competing with tea, which had taken root in Europe.

Geographically, Panama is located in Central America, surrounded by countries renowned for producing high-quality coffee - Costa Rica to its left and Colombia to its right. Panama's coffee journey can be said to have begun with significant advantages. FrontStreet Coffee observed on the map that Panama is situated between two ocean currents, where the airflows from the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean converge above 6,500 feet in the Boquete Valley, creating a unique and variable microclimate. This, combined with volcanic soil, produces moderate temperatures and humidity, allowing coffee fruits grown here to more easily develop rich and diverse aromatic characteristics.

As is well known, the Panama Canal was built by the United States and was under American control for some time after its completion. The construction of the Panama Canal led many American elites to move south in the late 20th century, partly for work demands and partly to explore business opportunities. Many famous Panamanian coffee estates were established by these elites; for example, the owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda was formerly a banker, and the owner of Hartmann Estate was previously an engineer. These elites adhered to principles of standardization and precision in coffee estate management. Whether it was allocating coffee trees to specific plots based on altitude to determine coffee bean grades, or implementing manual harvesting and refined processing methods, these factors all contributed to Panama coffee's worldwide fame.

Panama Coffee Growing Regions

In Panama, coffee cultivation covers approximately 20,000 hectares, with nearly 16,000 hectares dedicated to Arabica varieties. The country's main coffee-growing areas are concentrated in western Panama, near the Costa Rican border, in the Chiriquí province, which includes three famous coffee-growing regions: Boquete, Volcán, and Renacimiento. These three regions are adjacent to each other, all located on the Central American mountain ridge near the magnificent but relatively inactive Barú Volcano, which reaches a maximum elevation of 3,475 meters. Due to its diverse climate and fertile volcanic soil, Chiriquí has also become a province with enormous agricultural and livestock production potential. Various agricultural and livestock activities are developed there, such as thoroughbred horse breeding, flower cultivation, and particularly important coffee, cherry, and banana plantations. Below, FrontStreet Coffee will continue to introduce these three main growing regions.

The cool and picturesque Boquete Valley is the cradle of Panama's coffee industry. A large number of European immigrants arrived there in the late 19th century, mainly Swiss, Yugoslavians, Swedes, and Germans. They realized that coffee cultivation in nearby regions (Panama belonged to Colombia before 1903) had achieved excellent results, so they decided to dedicate themselves to coffee bean production. Currently, there are approximately 50 to 75 coffee farms and about 15 coffee processing plants in the Boquete region.

Boquete covers a land area of 514 square kilometers. Approximately 15,000 residents live there, primarily growing coffee, flowers, citrus fruits, strawberries, and various vegetables. Most coffee plantations in this region are located at an altitude of around 1,600 meters. Almost all this land consists of nutrient-rich volcanic soil, ensuring sufficient nutrients for coffee trees. The climate is cool and somewhat dry, with a mist appearing in the form of imperceptible drizzle every day, especially during summer, enveloping every coffee plantation. These mixed winds carrying rain are the reason why Boquete coffee cherries mature slowly. The resulting coffee flavor is characterized by beans with medium to high acidity.

Since Chiriquí province primarily grows coffee, coffee culture is deeply ingrained among the people. According to data from Panama's Ministry of Agricultural Development, the country has over 8,000 coffee growers, almost all of whom own farms of less than 30 hectares. Panama's coffee harvest period is from September to December. During this time, coffee plantations are filled with indigenous groups known as Gnobe Bugle, whom locals usually call Guaymíes. They come to help harvest coffee beans during the harvest season. Due to their relatively strong harvesting techniques and expertise, their labor costs are higher than others. Additionally, the Guaymí indigenous people maintain their traditional culture, making and wearing necklaces and clothing made of colorful beads, as well as baskets used for harvesting, creating a beautiful sight when standing in the coffee forests.

Before 1989, Panama's coffee prices were controlled by the International Coffee Agreement. During most of the 19th and 20th centuries, Panama also exported small quantities of raw coffee beans to Western European countries. However, in that year, the agreement collapsed, and a crisis situation emerged with international raw bean prices plummeting, with coffee bean prices dropping from $1.20 per pound to $0.74 per pound at one point.

In the early 1990s, as commercial coffee bean prices fell, Panama began to turn its attention to the emerging specialty coffee market. In 1996, seven local Panamanian coffee estate owners united to form the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), including Ricardo Koyner, Price Peterson, Jaime Tedman, Marcos Moreno, Tony Vasquez, Hans Collins, Josue Ruiz, Wilford Lamastus, Francisco Serricin, and Ratibor Hartmann. They also held the first raw coffee bean competition and an online raw coffee auction, aiming to jointly promote high-quality Panamanian coffee by organizing small-scale coffee growers nationwide.

Best of Panama (BOP)

This is one of the world's earliest established raw coffee bean competitions, and can be described as a coffee bean "auction" - Best of Panama. Various estate owners submit high-quality coffee batches produced locally, with the highest quality and highest-scoring beans selected. Then, based on the evaluated scores, sellers from around the world bid, with the highest bidder winning. In recent years, the bidding price for BOP championship beans has reached thousands of dollars, making it a focal event in the coffee industry.

Unlike major producing countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, Panama follows a coffee route of low production and high-end specialization. In the 1990s, facing a downturn in Panama's coffee industry and a crisis in global raw bean selling prices, coffee producers struggled to maintain their operations. Therefore, the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP) organized local farm owners to unite and held the first Best of Panama raw coffee bean competition in 1996, selling specialty coffee beans through bidding. This greatly changed Panama's coffee industry while also influencing the direction of the global specialty coffee market.

Since Geisha beans scored much higher than other varieties in the competition, submitted coffee beans are now divided into Geisha and non-Geisha categories, and further categorized into natural and washed groups based on processing methods. Then, various judges conduct blind taste tests and scoring. The coffee bean with the highest average score becomes the Best of Panama for that year. In 2022, Guayguá Estate's Geisha won first place in the natural Geisha category with an exceptionally high average score of 95.96, while the washed category champion was taken by Aurora Estate's Geisha with an impressive average score of 96.15.

The Flavor Profile of Panama Geisha

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

The washed process involves first placing selected coffee cherries into a depulper to initially remove their skin and pulp; the coffee beans with remaining pulp and mucilage are placed in water to ferment for about 24 hours; after fermentation, the coffee beans with parchment are placed in flowing water channels to wash away their pulp and mucilage; after washing, the coffee beans are dried either by sun-drying or using drying machines until the moisture content is reduced to about 12%. Finally, the parchment is removed from the coffee beans.

As one of the most traditional raw bean processing methods, the washed process not only makes coffee production quality more stable but also allows Geisha to exhibit higher clarity and a fresher flavor profile. After roasting, FrontStreet Coffee experienced Geisha's elegant white floral notes, uplifting citrus and lemon acidity, with a subtle green tea character, reminiscent of drinking a cup of gentle Tieguanyin tea. With such rich flavor characteristics in Geisha coffee, how should it be brewed to avoid wasting its potential?

Geisha coffee is renowned worldwide for its rich floral notes and complex fruit profile. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters hope to preserve more of Geisha's desirable acidity, so they choose a light to medium roast (with slight adjustments for different batches). This roast level doesn't significantly change the high density of beans grown at high altitudes, so brewing requires increased extraction rates to present fuller flavor layers, making it suitable for pairing with fine grinding and high-temperature water.

To increase Geisha coffee extraction rates while avoiding over-extraction and highlighting sweet and sour flavor layers, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use the V60 dripper. The V60 dripper features flow ribs connecting the top and bottom and a large circular hole at the center to accelerate water flow, while the spiral-shaped air groove design extends the water flow path, increasing contact time between coffee grounds and hot water. Each water flow converges along the grooves toward the center point of the dripper, concentrating pressure on the coffee grounds and resulting in richer extracted coffee layers.

Below, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate the brewing steps for Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Natural Geisha as served in their store, which you can use as a reference to compare with your own brewing approach.

The parameters for pour-over Red Label Geisha coffee 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 #20 sieve)

Three-stage extraction: First, pour 15g of coffee grounds into the dripper and zero the scale. For the first stage, inject 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, starting the timer simultaneously. Use a small water flow to inject from the center point and spiral outward, ensuring the entire coffee bed is moistened. For the second stage, use a slightly larger water flow to inject 120g of water, aiming to raise the entire coffee bed. The water stream needs to be injected vertically and evenly, at which point the scale shows 150g, completed in about 55 seconds.

When the water level drops to halfway, begin the third stage by injecting 90g of water using a small flow in small circles. Try to control the water flow to avoid creating too large circles, which can scatter the coffee bed and cause under-extraction. Finally, the total injection amount is 240g, with a complete drip time of approximately 2 minutes and 10 seconds. After removing the dripper, shake the coffee in the sharing pot evenly before tasting.

The pour-over Panama Washed Boquete Geisha coffee exhibits distinct citrus, lemon, and bergamot clarity with a creamy smooth mouthfeel upon swallowing, finishing with green tea and honey sweetness.

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