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About Panama Elida Loma Centro Geisha Natural
Panama's Elida Estate Geisha is one of today's most sought after coffees. The farm has produced world class Geisha coffees and in recent years, an annual private auction attracts elite buyers from around the world who pay hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of dollars per pound for Elida's hallmark green coffee offerings. After two back to back years, 2018 and 2019 in which Elida Estate won 1st place in both Natural and Washed Geisha categories in the Best of Panama competitions, access to their coffee became more rarified. It was an unheard of accomplishment when one considers the quantity and quality of the competition. The prices those coffees achieved at auction broke world records at the time. We have had a terrific relationship with the family for many years. In May of this year we visited the farm and cupped multiple tables of geisha with different preparations. The Natural that had us awed was this Classic Geisha Natural from the Loma Centro plot of their property. This would certainly be a high scoring, probably mid 90s point coffee on any table. This coffee is a powerhouse of floral elegance showing bergamot and mulitple layers of flavors.
Loma Centro is one of the newer, higher and wilder sections of the Elida Estate property. As its name implies, it is located in the center (Centro) of Elida and is also partially
located inside the Baru Volcano National Park. All of it is planted with Geisha and the elevation runs between 1,780 and 1,820 meters.
Elida Estate has been run by the Lamastus family for four generations, starting in 1918 when
the founder of the farm, Robert Lamastus, bought property along the Baru
Volcano. There are three farms in the Lamastus family: Elida Estate (in Alto Quiel), El Burro
Estate, and Luito Geisha Estate. With elevations between 5500 and 8200 feet
above sea level, Elida is the highest coffee farm in Panama, although coffee is
only grown between 5600 and 6200 feet. A large part of the farm is a dedicated
ecological reserve area in Volcan Baru National Park, a world heritage site. On a side note, Panama is one of a handful of countries that is carbon negative. Because of its enormous amount of forested, Panama absorbs more climate-changing emissions than it produces. This environmental awareness is top of mind by its coffee producers.
Barry Levine (Willoughby's/Roastmasters) and Wilford Lamastus (Elida)
Elida has broken numerous world coffee price records. In 2018 Elida's Geisha Green Tip Washed sold for $661.00/lb at
auction, and their Geisha Green Tip Natural sold for a whopping $803.00/lb. In the 2019 Best of Panama competition, Elida Estate won first place in
the two categories again, Natural and Washed Geisha, and again broke records when their
Natural Geisha sold for $1029.00/lb. at auction. The 2020 Auction saw Elida
place in the top ten of several categories; one Geisha Natural lot from La Torre
placed #6 in its Category. This year (2021) Elida held a private auction in which several more records were broken. Two lots of Torre ASD sold for $311 and $201 per pound. A special, small lot called Aguacatillo Geisha Natural ASD sold for --- wait for it --- $4,100 per pound! Most of this coffee is purchased by roasters in Asia. This year the highest price in the auction did not quite last years but sold for $3,606 with the majority of Geisha coffees in the $200 - $250 range.
Wilford Lamastus, owner of Elida in 2015
"Classic" Natural are fully ripe cherries that are washed then slowly dried on raised beds. Each day they turned over multiple times to promote even drying. The Lamastus family are absolutely masterful at not only growing great coffee fruit, but can finesse an outstanding array of flavors and nuances from the fruit through careful and experienced processing technique. Classic Natural represents the purest form dried-in-the-skin coffee, where the fruit's pulp penetrates the bean (seed) within. It takes a great hand, experience, intelligence and natural resources to produce a coffee this good! While this coffee is expensive to some it will be seen as a bargain to others but either way it is worth every penny.
- Farm: Elida Estate
- Producer: Wilford Lamastus Sr.
- Province: Chiriqui
- District: Boquete
- Micro region: Alto Quiel
- Township: Los Naranjos
- Altitude: 1,780 - 1,820 above sea level
- Coffee variety: Geisha
- Processing: Classic Natural
The vacuum packed boxes in which we receive this coffee.
Handmade wooden trays used for drying natural and honey coffees
Cup Characteristics: Big jasmine florals with lovely fruity candy, perfume and bergamot. This is gorgeous jasmine filled Geisha with layer after layer of floral notes and long, smooth, dry finish. Very elegant.
Roasting Notes: Our preferred roasting range for this coffee is midway between 1st and 2nd crack. The delicate qualities will be present throughout this range, with lighter variations highlighting piquancy and citrus notes, while Full City levels will enhance body. Keep in mind that natural processed coffees tend to roast a little quicker than washed, and plan your roast accordingly.
