Characteristics, Flavor Description, and Processing Methods of Panama Natural Typica Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee: Panama · Elida Estate Coffee Beans

Region: Panama, Boquete

Estate: Elida Estate

Altitude: 1850 meters

Variety: Typica

Processing: Natural

The Geisha coffee from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda has gained widespread recognition in the specialty coffee market. According to FrontStreet Coffee, if you only drink Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda when drinking Panamanian coffee, you'll miss out on many excellent coffees. This is because Panama has famous estates beyond just Hacienda La Esmeralda—Elida Estate is equally outstanding. This time, FrontStreet Coffee is recommending a natural-processed Typica from Panama's Elida Estate. Let's see how this bean performs.

Boquete Region

Panama coffee typically has a high degree of traceability, often traceable to single estates, and unique batches from specific estates are quite common. Panama coffee is sweet and balanced, occasionally with floral or citrus aromas, making it well-rounded and easy to drink. Higher-quality coffees feature citrus and floral notes, light body, and delicate, complex flavors. Among these, coffee from the Boquete region receives the most attention. It is Panama's oldest and most renowned coffee-producing region, with cool, foggy, mountainous geography that creates unique microclimates. The cool climate and frequent fog help slow the maturation process of coffee cherries, similar to the effects of high altitude. The flavors range from cocoa to fruity notes with subtle acidity.

Elida Estate

Elida Estate is the most famous estate of the Lamastus family, founded in 1918. From the time Robert Lamastus, the founder of the Lamastus family's coffee estates, planted the first coffee tree, it has now passed through a century and witnessed the global spread of specialty coffee.

Today, Elida Estate is still operated by descendants of the Lamastus family, including estate owner Mr. Wilford, his father Thatcher, and Wilford's son/fourth-generation successor Wilford Jr. As a traditional coffee family, coffee has become part of their family heritage. Wilford was born on a small coffee farm, and his parents were also born on coffee farms. The coffee currently produced by the estate comes from Elida Estate, Don Nene Estate, and Luito Estate.

Elida Estate primarily grows three varieties: Catuai, Typica, and Geisha. The processing plant is located halfway up the mountain, allowing coffee cherries to be transported immediately after harvesting for processing, ensuring their quality is not affected. Of course, Elida's environment is also suitable for growing other quality temperate crops, especially tree tomatoes and some uncommon high-altitude fruits. Interestingly, the flavors of these fruits can often be found in Elida's coffee. This coffee from FrontStreet Coffee uses the Typica variety.

Coffee Varieties

Typica is one of the oldest discovered Arabica coffee varieties, with Bourbon being the other. Arabica originates from Ethiopia, where this variety still grows naturally in the local primary rainforest highlands today. Typica beans are slender, with tall trees, oval fruits, and slightly inclined branches. The tips of Typica branches are long and spread out at an angle of 50-70 degrees. The yield per tree is very low, but the cupping score is very high.

Catuai is a coffee variety hybridized from Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catuai has good resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. The Catuai tree is relatively short compared to other coffee trees, and its fruits grow more compactly, making harvesting difficult. The fruits come in both red and yellow varieties. To date, no difference has been found between yellow and red fruits in terms of flavor. On the contrary, some people have found in cuppings that although coffee processed from yellow fruits has good acidity, the cleanliness of the coffee taste is inferior to that of red fruits.

Geisha: Originally discovered in the Geisha forest of Ethiopia in 1931. Later, Geisha was sent to the Coffee Research Institute in Kenya, introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, introduced to Costa Rica in 1953, and approximately introduced to Panama in 1960. Although Geisha has strong disease resistance, its yield was low, so it disappeared after people used this variety for plant improvement. It wasn't until the owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda rediscovered them in the windbreak and won the BOP cupping competition separately in 2004 that Geisha coffee became famous overnight. Since then, Geisha has been distributed to other regions of Colombia for cultivation. Although Geisha grown in other regions hasn't performed as amazingly as those grown in the windbreak, its floral notes and acidity are still excellently expressed.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

Because the beans are entered at a lower temperature, the flavors won't be as clean and intense as with high-temperature entry, but the benefit is that the mouthfeel will be very gentle and smooth. Since the development time after first crack is very short, the heat must be sufficient; otherwise, the expected drop temperature won't be reached, and caramelization will be insufficient. I would use coasting—this is where most beginner roasters have questions. Actually, coasting means reducing temperature or turning off heat, using the drum's temperature to continue roasting the beans. Throughout the roasting process, the beans are absorbing heat, with only first and second crack being exothermic actions. During these two stages, it's best not to increase the heat for roasting, otherwise the beans can easily have a spicy sensation. Coasting emphasizes turning off the heat and using the drum's residual temperature along with the heat generated by the beans during the crack period to continue slow roasting.

Yangjia 800N roaster, 600g charge: Heat drum to 170°C, set damper to 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 140°C, damper unchanged. Return to temperature at 1'25", adjust heat once at 140°C. At this point, the bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, dehydration is 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—this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'07", first crack begins, reduce heat to 90°C, adjust damper to 4 (be very careful when adjusting heat, not so low that crack sounds disappear). 1'45" after first crack, drop at 190°C.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

Dry Aroma: Caramel, roasted almonds, floral

Wet Aroma: Jackfruit, fermented wine aroma

Flavor: Smooth entry, with distinct raisin, peach, orange, melon, cane sugar, and caramel flavors, green tea sensation, high cleanliness.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Tips

Dripper: V60 #01

Water Temperature: 91°C

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind: Fine sugar size (80% pass through #20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method

First pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour 95g more (scale shows about 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (scale shows about 225g), completing the pour in about 1 minute and 35 seconds. Drip completes between 2'00"-2'10", remove the dripper, extraction complete.

Brewing Flavor: You can clearly taste peach, raisin, and orange flavors at entry, followed by cane sugar and melon sweetness that gradually emerges, finishing with grapefruit and green tea sensations.

Important Notice :

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