Panama

Panama is a tiny producer — well under 1% of global volume — but it has outsized cultural importance because of one farm and one variety. In 2004, Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete entered a washed Gesha lot in the Best of Panama auction. It scored a then-record 95 points and sold for $21 per pound green, roughly five times the previous auction record. The variety, originally collected from an Ethiopian forest in the 1930s and largely forgotten for decades, turned out to produce an unprecedented cup in Panamanian soil: intensely floral, bergamot-forward, almost tea-like.

The 2004 auction restructured the specialty coffee industry. Gesha became the most chased variety in the world. Panama's prestige grew. The Best of Panama auction now routinely posts records — the highest lot recorded sold for well over $10,000 per pound green in 2023, and $1,000 per pound has become almost commonplace at the top of the Boquete market.

Panama's growing regions are Boquete (the Chiriquí highlands near the Costa Rican border), Volcán, and Renacimiento, all in the shadow of Volcán Barú. Elevations reach over 1,800 meters, and the microclimate created by Caribbean and Pacific weather systems colliding produces the conditions Gesha seems to need to express its full aromatic range. Caturra, Catuaí, and Typica are also grown widely and produce high-quality, though less showy, lots.

Processing runs the gamut. Washed Gesha is the classic — bergamot, jasmine, candied citrus. Natural Gesha leans tropical (mango, papaya, lychee). Anaerobic and thermal-shock Gesha can get almost syrupy, with the kind of fermentation character that splits cuppers between "brilliant" and "too far."

Panama is where you go for a once-a-year tasting experience. The coffee is expensive, but the ceiling of what's possible in a cup is higher here than almost anywhere else.