Panama Coffee Varieties: Panama Geisha and Panama Coffee Bean Brands

FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete Hacienda La Esperanza

Country: Panama

Region: Boquete

Grade: SHB

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai, Typica

Roast Level: CITY+ (Medium)

Processing Method: Washed

Growing Environment: Altitude 1400-1600M

Producer/Company: Hacienda La Esperanza

Certification: Organic Certified

Flavor Profile: This organic FrontStreet Coffee Panama Boquete shows nut and berry aromas in both the dry and wet fragrance. It has low, gentle acidity, high sweetness, and a fine, rich body with an exceptionally long aftertaste. Overall, it feels somewhat similar to Baby Geisha and Sweet Geisha.

Hacienda La Esperanza

Hacienda La Esperanza is located at an altitude of 1400-1600 meters and produces an annual output of 300-700 bags. Most processing is completed on the farm using washed processing and sun-drying, with the removed husks, pulp and mucilage used as fertilizer. The estate grows 60% Caturra, 20% Catuai, and 20% Typica and other varieties. Most famous is the Geisha variety, which won the championship at Best of Panama 2008. The estate also plants many local trees as shade that feed the soil, including orange trees and many tropical fruits such as lemons and grapefruits. It holds a huge tropical-rainforest nature reserve, with at least three different mountain wells rich in rainfall. Average annual rainfall is 3200 mm, with daytime temperatures of 16-23°C and nighttime temperatures of 14-20°C.

What sets Hacienda La Esperanza apart from other estates is its PhD botanist, three professional cuppers and 100 full-time employees, currently managing six affiliated estates. The estate is owned by the Herrera brothers. In fact, the brothers' grandfather operated a coffee farm in the Trujillo region of Colombia, which gradually declined and led the two brothers to leave Colombia, though they never gave up their dream of returning home to run a coffee plantation.

After returning home, the first estate the Herreras purchased was Hacienda La Esperanza in Trujillo, very close to their grandfather's original farm, which now serves as their regional headquarters. The estate is 100% organic, with different varieties of coffee trees including Colombia, Castillo, Caturra, and over 14,000 organic Geisha plants. The Herreras subsequently purchased four estates in Trujillo and Caicedonia north of Trujillo. Together with La Cardeida estate in Boquete, Panama, rented in 2005, they now manage six estates with a total coffee planting area of 213 hectares.

Innovation and Excellence

Cafe Granja La Esperanza's estates are located in eight unique microclimate regions across three mountain ranges in Colombia, giving their botanists excellent opportunities to experiment with different microclimates and terroir flavors, different processing methods and different coffee varieties, combining the rationality of scientists, the business acumen of merchants and a persistent focus on coffee quality. For example, they create different processing steps and specifications for different microclimates and varieties. From seedling cultivation to export, they manage all information through 95 data points.

The team led by chief botanist Hernando Tapasco has established climate stations on the estates to track weather data and assist with harvesting decisions. Farm data is collected continuously and analyzed weekly. After harvest, they compare weather data, production data and cupping data to analyze correlations. Geisha harvesters receive strict training to pick only mature cherries, and they are paid by the day rather than by weight as on other estates, which prevents workers from harvesting unqualified cherries to meet performance targets. Half of the harvest workers have more than six years of experience. After harvest, the fruit is sent to the central processing plant within Hacienda La Esperanza, where each batch of Geisha is marked and processed separately. The cherries first undergo a three-day pre-drying stage on the sun-drying field before being moved to small towers for drying. Strict quality control is another key factor: at Cerro Azul estate there are 40,000-45,000 Geisha trees, but only 5-7,000 of them produce beans that carry the Cerro Azul brand.

Hacienda La Esperanza's experimentation with varieties seems endless, continuously testing new ones. Besides the organic Caturra that originally occupied most of the area, they grow Geisha, organic Geisha, Mocha, Bourbon (including red, yellow and Tekisik types), Pointed Bourbon, Pacamara, San Bernardo and Pache. They truly bring the serious attitude that wineries have toward grape varieties into coffee. After Geisha, the Pacamara, Bourbon and even Pointed Bourbon from Hacienda La Esperanza continue to create surprise and admiration in the specialty coffee industry.

Their approach finally paid off. As early as the 2008 Best of Panama competition, La Cardeida, rented by Hacienda La Esperanza, won the championship with a high score of 93.16. In the 2012 Coffee of the Year Triple Crown, three estates then mainly growing Geisha placed separately: Cerro Azul second, Las Margarita third, and Buenos Aires Experimental Estate seventh.

FrontStreet Coffee Panama Selection

FrontStreet Coffee Panama SHB Cereus Luis Medium Roast Washed - Floral notes, subtle citrus acidity, clean and bright mouthfeel

FrontStreet Coffee Panama SHB Illeta Estate Medium Roast Washed - Creamy bread, apricot kernel sweetness, rounded acidity

FrontStreet Coffee Panama SHB (Containing 30% Geisha) Cupid Estate Medium Roast Honey Process Washed - White grape, caramel, honey, black tea

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama's reputation rests largely on Geisha, but as this look at Hacienda La Esperanza shows, the country also grows excellent Caturra, Catuai and Typica. If you want to explore Panamanian coffee by variety, FrontStreet Coffee offers a few clear starting points. The FrontStreet Boquete Geisha is the entry-level introduction to the country's signature bean, delivering the orange-blossom honey sweetness and oolong-tea mouthfeel of a classic high-quality Panama Geisha with delicate fruit acidity and clear layering at an approachable price.

For the top of the range, the Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label "Esmeralda Special" is drawn from single plots grown at 1,600-1,800 meters and every lot must cup above 90 points, while the Green Label "Private Collection" blends several plots to express the same estate's high-altitude Geisha character more affordably. If you would like to taste Geisha from its Ethiopian homeland instead, the FrontStreet Gesha Village Gold Label is a refined natural-processed lot of the Geisha 1931 variety that accounts for 10% of the village's production, and the FrontStreet Gesha Village Red Label "Growers Reserve" uses the Gori Gesha variety at 15% of production with full traceability. The FrontStreet Grana Geisha rounds out the selection as a single-variety Ethiopian estate coffee with bright citrus acidity and an elegant ginger-flower aroma.

Panamanian Geisha is usually roasted medium-light, and because the bean is dense it can sink and block the drain hole. Grind to about 78% pass-through on a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve, roughly fine granulated sugar, and brew at 91°C with a 15g dose in a small Hario V60 at a 1:16 ratio. Pour 30g for a 30-second bloom, then pour in circles to 125g, wait for the bed to drain about halfway, and continue to 225g; the full brew finishes in about 2:10 to 2:20.