Panama Elida Geisha Natural ASD

About Panama Elida Geisha Natural ASD

Arrived in October, 2022 new crop, vacuum boxed and shipped to us via airfreight. This is one of the top Geisha coffees in the world.  Needless to say, quantity is very limited.  Note: we also have washed process Elida Geisha from this same plot that we will soon offer separately.

We are bringing out the 'big guns' for the holiday season, Panama Elida Estate Green Tip Geisha Natural ASD.  Elida Geisha Natural took 1st place in both 2018 and 2019 Best of Panama competitions in the coveted Geisha Natural (Processes) category. This is from the same farm that gave the world its $1,029 per pound coffee in 2019 and has been one of the most heralded producers on the planet.  The internet auction of their coffee that was held this year on September 6 and 7.  The results were extraordinary with the top lot - only 7 pounds - selling for over $6.000 a pound! Twenty four other unique lots in the auction had an average price in excess of $300 a pound with those lots being up to about 150 pounds. While still expensive at our current selling price, by any standard, this is an awesome coffee, displaying power and finesse, fruit intensity and floral elegance, all at once. We were able to secure a small allocation through our longstanding Direct Trade relationship and friendship with the Lamastus family. This 2022 crop follows in the same quality tradition as its illustrious forebears.

This year the Lamastus family won the coveted Panama Cup at the Best of Panama 2022 competition.  It is awarded for the most overall points in the competition, as their coffee attained awards in multiple categories.  They are continually in the top tier of coffee excellence and represent one of the most notable coffee producers in the world today.

This coffee was grown on Elida's Plano plot of land. Plano sits between 1,675 and 1,725 meters on a flat (plano) or plateau of semi shaded land located around the Elida coffee mill. Wilford Lamastus and family have made artistry with their intimate knowledge of Geisha growing, processing and evaluating various lots from his family farm. There are two known sub-types of Geisha, green tip and bronze tip, so named for the appearance of the plant's leaves. The green tip variety - being offered here - is turning out to be a stunner from this world class farm. The Lamastus family are also great innovators.  While visiting there in August, as a judge in the 2022 Best of Panama competition, I observed their newly constructed mill and an innovation called a Reactor Fermenter (RF).

So, now about this particular micro-lot, Elida Estate Green Tip Geisha Natural "Plano" ASD. Let's break it down:

• Green Tip - There are two known variations of the Geisha varietal, green tip and bronze tip based on the color of the plant's leaves. Green tip flavors accentuate floral notes and have brighter acidity. Bronze tip are smooth and creamy, showing less floral and a little more fruit. In competition the trend has been for the Green Tip to steal the show, time after time.
• Natural - coffee can be washed where the coffee cherry's skin is removed, followed by fermentation and drying. Or, the entire coffee cherry can be dried out, in which case it is called Natural. As coffee beans are really its seeds, in the center of the cherry, the pulp drying on the beans imparts more, sometimes much more, of the coffee fruit flavor which penetrates to the seeds within.
• Plano - The plane or leveled off piece of land adjacent to their new mill.  It's steep to get get there and steep immediately after.  While you have a brief respite on this small piece of flat land, Elida property is a trek.
• ASD - abbreviation for Anaerobic Slow Dry. A relatively new technique where coffee cherries are placed into airtight containers for a period of time. The cherries in essence stew in their own juices, intensifying. That is the "A" part. Then comes the Slow Dry part, where the drying time is extended from 10-15 days up to 40+ days. Again, another way to intensify and increase flavors.

Wilford Lamastus Sr and Jr

Reactor Fermenter

The Lamastus' latest innovation is the product of their ever increasing knowledge of post harvest processing, the "RF" or Reactor Fermenter.  Their completely ripe geisha coffee cherries are anaerobically fermented in the proprietary Reactor Fermenter (RF), which is a sealed Stainless-Steel, constantly rotating tank, which evenly distributes the cherry's must over the fruit within.  CO2 is further introduced twice per day. The fruit inside the RF release their own concentrated liquid or coffee fruit juices, known in wine as must. This liquid is full of the flavors of the variety, the terroir where the plants are located,of natural yeasts, natural microorganisms, natural bacterias, and in concentration, just like when you take a grape and separate theconcentrated liquid from the seed and the juices are later used.The code they use, for example RF7D means that the cherries spent 7 days in the tank fermenting.  Afterward the cherries are dried on raised beds under the sun.  By using this device the producers can control, through completely natural processes, the fruit intensity that will contribute to the coffee's final taste.  Their coffees have been featured by numerous barista champions in competitions around the world and some of this most recent technologic enhancements have resulted from champions' input.  The Lamastus family continually pushes the envelope for what the highest levels of coffee quality and flavor.  

The latest Lamastus innovtion, the Reactor Fermenter

Wilford Lamastus Sr

Handmade wooden trays once used for drying Natural and Honey coffees on the farm

Cup Charasteristics: An explosion of tropical fruit and floral bouquet. Deeply floral and heady with very big fruit notes of papaya, pineapple, guava. Also evident are vanilla and black raspberry flavors finished with the smooth mouthfeel of milk chocolate.  A broad flavor palate that is at once powerful yet clean and refined. 

Roasting Notes: Geisha coffees need to be roasted on the light side in order to preserve their floral nature. Roast them too much and it will dissipate and much that you paid for will be lost. Let the coffee get fully past first crack, but if your roaster allows it, kick the heat down to nearly zero once first crack gets going and allow the coffee to slowly develop. You don't want to take this too close to second crack.