Panama - Amelia Estate Pacamara, Finca Lerida

Maria Antonella Amoruso, Boquete-born mother of six, entrepreneur, and coffee lover, is at the helm of the five-plantation Lerida Coffee enterprise in Boquete, Panama, which spans the flagship Finca Lerida in Alto Quiel alongside estates Michella and Flora in Volcancito, and Amelia and Esplenderosa in Jaramillo.

Since taking over the 100-year-old legacy stewarded over three generations across three families, Maria has steered Finca Lerida toward global renown as a consistent Best of Panama producer of the highest-scoring lots within the Top 10 in both Geisha and Varietal categories.

Finca Lerida was founded in 1924 by engineer Toleff Bache Mönniche and his wife, Julia. It continued to thrive in the 1950s, supervised by Alfredo and Inga Collins, and through to the late 2000s with their sons Hans and Charlie.

In 2008, when Maria — who grew up witnessing her grandfather’s passion for coffee farming — met the opportunity to acquire Finca Lerida, she embraced it and has been dedicated to sustaining and amplifying its prosperity since.

Amelia Estate takes after the name of Maria Antonella’s great grandmother. In 2020, an Amelia Pacamara won 3rd Place at the Best of Panama. It spans 42 hectares of which 25% comprises preserved woodlands and 75% is dedicated to cultivation of different varieties apart from Pacamara, like Catuai, Typica, and Geisha following an agroforestry model.

Pacamara is a crossbreed of the Maragogype and Pacas varieties, characterized by very large bean size and potential for exceptional cup quality. These characteristics predispose it to express a diverse array of high-quality flavors that may be revealed through thoughtful processing. It is a varietal that frequently figures among the higher scoring non-Geisha lots at the Best of Panama.

For this microlot, only properly ripe Amelia Pacamara cherries were selectively harvested and then floated to ensure only the viable cherries would proceed further into post-harvest processing.

To tease out layered tropicality and candied complexity in this cup, the cherries were first placed in closed tanks for a two-day fermentation phase, before being laid out on raised beds to dry directly under the sun for 18 days.

Through the thoughtful production of Pacamara and other varieties alongside the Geisha, Amelia Estate caters to specialty coffee enthusiasts who may be at earlier stages in their journey of sensory discovery, or simply are looking to taste the best of Panama apart from the Geisha.

Consequently, this contributes to expanding appreciation of Panama as a specialty coffee origin of a diversity of coffee varieties and their myriad flavor profiles.