When I visited Panama in 2012, it turned out to be a pretty good trip and I ended up meeting some of the big names in specialty coffee, even though I had no idea at the time. When I came back I thought this would be a great place to live someday because you could go surfing, drink gesha all day at the farm and sleep on a deserted island. The first day I arrived I had no real plan for how to visit a coffee farm, but I accidentally walked into this cafe called “Bajareque”, named after the cool mist that glides over the mountainside coffee farms and slows cherry ripening. It turned out to be Wilford Lamastus’ cafe. Wilford is the owner of Finca Elida, one of the most famous gesha-farms out there, and even though I had no idea who Wilford or Elida were, he was kind enough to show me around. Wilford has two other farms in the same area around the Volcan Baru National park in Boquete. One of them is where this coffee is from, Finca El Burro, where he grows Gesha and Catuai at an altitude of 1575 - 1800 masl. This area in Panama is where gesha trees thrive, the cold, the altitude, the volcanic soil, the mist that keeps the humidity up even in the dry season and extends the ripening time. All of this adds to the unique cup quality of this coffee.

When I visited Panama in 2012, it turned out to be a pretty good trip and I ended up meeting some of the big names in specialty coffee, even though I had no idea at the time. When I came back I thought this would be a great place to live someday because you could go surfing, drink gesha all day at the farm and sleep on a deserted island. The first day I arrived I had no real plan for how to visit a coffee farm, but I accidentally walked into this cafe called “Bajareque”, named after the cool mist that glides over the mountainside coffee farms and slows cherry ripening. It turned out to be Wilford Lamastus’ cafe. Wilford is the owner of Finca Elida, one of the most famous gesha-farms out there, and even though I had no idea who Wilford or Elida were, he was kind enough to show me around. Wilford has two other farms in the same area around the Volcan Baru National park in Boquete. One of them is where this coffee is from, Finca El Burro, where he grows Gesha and Catuai at an altitude of 1575 - 1800 masl. This area in Panama is where gesha trees thrive, the cold, the altitude, the volcanic soil, the mist that keeps the humidity up even in the dry season and extends the ripening time. All of this adds to the unique cup quality of this coffee.