Panama - Elida Estate 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 the intricacies and flavor potential of their coffees.

Elida Estate is the original and flagship farm. It is also the company's headquarters, where the family spends most of their time and where Wilford Sr. would be found working every day. It was named as a tribute to the Lamastus family matriarch, Elida, who single-handedly raised her children and took charge of all farm operations after her husband Robert passed away in the early 1930s. It would take almost two decades before any of her children would be able to assist.

About half of Elida Estate is located within the Volcan Baru National Park, one of Central America’s highest volcanoes, which is also a protected ecological reserve and sanctuary for exotic flora and fauna.

Among the Estate’s unique world conditions are: high elevation, volcanic soils, low temperatures, beneficial microorganisms, mist during the dry season, and virgin-native cloudy rain forest surrounding the coffee trees. The low night-time temperatures allow for protracted ripening of the coffee cherries, which help make them healthier and the resulting coffee beans sweeter.

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 containers 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.

ASD intensified the floral aromatics and honeyed sweetness of the Elida Estate Geisha, complemented by piquant citrus and tropical fruit accents.