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Front Street Coffee: Panama · Elida Estate · Typica

Panama Elida Estate

Country: Panama

Region: Boquete Elida Estate

Elevation: 1850 meters

Variety: Typica

Processing: Natural

Flavors: Peach, Orange, Raisin, Caramel, Green Tea

| Boquete Region

Boquete is a town in the Chiriqui Province of Panama, located near the border with Costa Rica and close to the famous Baru Volcano. It boasts stunning scenery, fertile and rich soil, and a climate and terrain highly suitable for producing high-quality coffee.

The microclimate in the highlands of Boquete, Panama, is a unique and vital resource for the exceptional specialty coffee of the region. The east-to-west environmental setup in Panama allows cold air currents from the central mountains to converge above 6500 feet, creating diverse microclimates in the Boquete area. These conditions provide ideal temperatures and rainfall for plant growth, enabling the coffee trees here to thrive exceptionally well.

| Elida Estate Elida Estate

Panama’s Elida Estate is situated in the renowned specialty coffee region of Boquete. Covering a total area of 65 hectares, over half of which lies within the Baru Volcano National Park, only 30 hectares are used for coffee cultivation, while the rest remains pristine forest. Coffee is planted at elevations ranging from 1670 to 1850 meters, making Elida one of the two highest-altitude coffee farms in Panama (the other being the Carmen Estate in the Volcan Valley).

In such high-altitude environments, the low temperatures delay the ripening of coffee cherries by about a full month compared to normal. The fertile volcanic soil provides ample nutrients for the coffee, and the excellent microclimate brought by the Baru Volcano enables Elida Estate to consistently achieve outstanding results in cupping competitions.

Elida Estate primarily grows three varieties: Catuai, Typica, and Geisha. The estate’s processing facility is located midway up the mountain, allowing freshly picked coffee cherries to be transported to the mill immediately to preserve their quality. The environment of Elida is also suitable for cultivating other high-quality temperate crops, especially tree tomatoes and some rare high-altitude fruits. Interestingly, the flavors of these fruits are often also found in Elida’s coffee.

Elida Estate is the most renowned farm of the Lamastus family, established in 1918. Since Robert Lamastus, the founder of the Lamastus coffee estate, planted the first coffee tree, it has passed a century and witnessed the global spread of specialty coffee.

To this day, Elida Estate is still managed by descendants of the Lamastus family, including the owner Mr. Wilford, his father Thatcher, and his son / fourth-generation successor Wilford Jr.

As a traditional coffee family, coffee is deeply ingrained in their DNA. Wilford was born on a small coffee farm, as were his parents. Currently, the estate produces coffee from Elida Estate, Donkey Estate, and Luisito Estate.

In addition to the naturally superior ultra-high altitude and microclimate, Owner Mr. Wilford has put considerable effort into harvesting and processing. To meet the highest standards, only the ripest coffee cherries (Ripe on Pinton) are handpicked at Elida Estate. The high maturity of the fruit naturally leads to high sugar content in the mucilage, which forms the foundation of Elida’s premium flavors.

Beyond his stringent standards in coffee cultivation and processing, Owner Mr. Wilford also enforces stricter “purification” processes after green bean processing than most industry peers. For Panama Elida, the green beans undergo more than five months of low-temperature resting after processing to eliminate grassiness, allowing the coffee flavors to develop more evenly and fully. (Low-temperature resting is a green bean purification concept strongly promoted by coffee master George Howell since 2006. We have found that while subtropical green beans do require low-temperature storage, different processing methods and altitudes can alter the duration of low-temperature resting. For Panama Elida, five months is optimal.)

The oldest coffee estate in Panamanian history and one of the highest-altitude farms in the Boquete region, growing Geisha at ultra-high altitudes (2050m). Not only has it won multiple BOP championships, but it also holds the BOP cupping score record (in 2018, Elida’s Green Tip Washed Geisha scored an unprecedented 94.66, breaking its own previous record of 94.15 in 2016).