Panama - El Burro Estates Geisha ASD

The Lamastus Family Estate has accrued the most Best of Panama awards to date. They won the Producer of the Year Award in 2022. This followed their two peat victories in 2018 for the Washed Geisha category and in 2019 for both Washed and Natural.

Lamastus Family Estates is a coffee company founded in 1918 by Robert Lamastus. They have evolved with the times under the leadership of Robert's son Thatcher, grandson Wilford Sr., and great-grandson Wilford Jr. and have accrued the most BOP awards to date.

Their four farms are Elida, El Burro, Luito, and Sendero. Each one benefits from discrete microclimates which, together with variety, are primarily responsible for their coffees' intricacies and flavor potential.

El Burro Estate is among the southernmost coffee farms in Panama, nearest to the Pacific Ocean. Part of the Estate falls within the protected ecological forest reserve, Baru Volcano National Park (BVNP). It benefits from abundant forest cover, nutrient-rich volcanic soils, and a specific combination of different temperatures, winds, and precipitation, comprising its unique microclimate.

Recognizing they have been blessed with the ideal terroir, the Lamastus family profoundly believes their coffees are a gift from mother nature. Respectful of that, they veer away from inoculating the cherries during fermentation and instead favor innovation through refinements in drying, supported by a strict protocol at every stage.

The Anaerobic Slow Dry (ASD) process optimizes a traditional method where cherries are first fermented in sealed tanks before being transferred to multi-layered drying beds. Apart from the deliberately prolonged drying phase that takes at least 60 days, another innovation is using a special plastic mesh and metal in the beds’ construction, and not wood, as used by the first Lamastus Family Estate generation.

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.

Through ASD, the El Burro Estate Geisha showcased darker and deeper dimensions, perceived as multi-layered acidities, heightened dry-fruit sweetness, and a winey character in the cup.