Everyone knows top-quality coffees from the high altitudes of Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Costa Rica, etc.
Panama doesn't always appear on the list, but it has its place there.
It is probably because the amount of top-notch coffee from Panama is not so large that it plays a leading role economically. However, it is precisely here in the high elevations around Boquete (over 1,200m) that absolute top coffees grow and fight for first place every year. And the winners are then sold around the world for $ 2,000-2,500 a pound. The top premium brand is called Geisha, of all things - but it doesn't come from Japan, but from Ethiopia, originally. The biggest buyers of these expensive varieties are not Europeans or Americans, but (Southeast) Asia.
Yes, and at the marked point today I was in one of the relatively numerous coffee shops here in Boquete. I didn't get a GEISHA there, but a delicious cappuccino. I don't know what kind ...
Tomorrow I am looking forward to a guided tour through a private cultivation area with technical explanations about cultivation, harvesting, cleaning, further processing, right up to international shipping ...