Panama - Chombi 290124, Altieri Coffee

Altieri Coffee is a 15-year-old, first-generation estate owned & operated by Panama resident & New York native, Eugene Altieri & his family. At the 2024 Best of Panama, they took 3rd Place for Geisha Natural. This continued the succession of their top-ranking finishes. In 2023 they placed in the Top 5 for both Geisha Categories — 5th for Natural & 2nd for Washed — as well as 9th Place for Varietals, & in 2022, Geisha Washed qualified in 16th place as an Auction Lot alongside a Catuai in Varietals 14th Place.

Their two farms, Pipim Estates in Alto Lino & Mima Estates in Alto Quiel are strategically sectioned by elevation & microclimate into 11 plots. Each plot, promisingly named after one of Eugene’s grandchildren, is cultivated with a specific coffee variety, either Panama Geisha, Catuai, Typica, or Caturra, based on the coffee’s potential to capture and express the finest qualities of terroir in the cup.

Notably, Mima Estates in Alto Quiel was featured by the New York Times as a 2023 must-visit destination in the annual 52 Places to Go.

Panama Geisha is a rare, delicate, and complex variety well-loved for its sweet florality and citrus highlights. Since its debut win at the Best of Panama auction in 2004, it has kept specialty coffee lovers everywhere captivated by its endless possibilities, delicacy, complexity, and clarity of flavors.

As such, it is often showcased on coffee competition stages by a great number of coffee champions, and it also continues to fetch the highest prices.

While a coffee’s truest intrinsic qualities are still largely believed to be showcased best by traditional washed processing due to the demucilaging, washing, and scrubbing steps removing all traces of fruit from the bean, the acquired expertise of award-winning emergent producers like the Altieri family allows them to direct the flavor character of the Panama Geisha towards a seemingly endless diversity of delightfully surprising trajectories through innovative techniques.