Panama - Honey EP Mosto Lot 5, 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.

Among Lerida’s most recent Best of Panama accolades in the Geisha categories are 9th Place Washed and 11th Natural in 2023, 17th in Natural in 2022, and 9th in Washed in 2021. Notably too, Best of Panama archival records show that Lerida had achieved the top two highest bids in 2001.

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.

Cognizant that coffee farmers and workers’ well-being is a linchpin of Finca Lerida’s success, Maria Antonella has instituted quality of life inititiatives involving housing, food assistance, and a schooling program for their children, on top of competitive monetary incentives.

The 100-hectare expanse of the flagship Lerida plantation is situated among similarly revered heritage estates in prestigious Alto Quiel, where they maintain a healthy balance between eco-conscious production — having 70 hectares planted with Geisha alongside a diversity of varieties including Orange Bourbon, SL 28 & SL 34, Typica, and Catuai — and uncompromised environmental preservation, with 30 hectares of protected forests that safeguard natural habitats, supports biodiversity, and upholds ecosystem integrity.

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 expertise of seasoned and passionate producers like Maria Antonella Amoruso allows them to direct the flavor character of the Panama Geisha towards a seemingly endless diversity of delightfully surprising trajectories.

They do this through the purposeful implementation of traditional methods like the natural and honey processes, as well as intentional and innovative processing styles, such as this Honey ‘Estate Preparation’ Mosto process, which add to the complexity of the cup’s character — for example, more layers of flavor or better mouthfeel — without compromising its inherent qualities from terroir and variety.

For this Lot 5, Geisha cherries within the Lerida standards for ripeness were selectively hand-picked from the statuesque trees and further screened for suitability by flotation before being placed in fermentation tanks. Mosto, in this instance the liquids from the fermentation of another Geisha lot was then applied to these cherries and allowed to ferment for two days.

Following that, the cherries were only pulped and then spread out on raised beds — coffee seeds enmeshed in the viscous mucilage rich in sugars and flavor-developing compounds — to dry for 18 to 22 days.

As a result, this cup expresses the exotic florality beloved of a classic Panama Geisha but with novel tropical nuances, transparently fragrant sweetness, and the succulence of ripe stone fruit.