A trip during harvest to visit the Ruiz family, Esmeralda Estate and other coffee farmers in Boquete Panama.
This was a small group that visited from California to see how the harvest was progressing in Chirqui and do some initial cupping
Cupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest.... ...more of the coffees.
I captioned the photos pretty well … too bad I didn’t rotate all of them correctly though! Sigh – Thompson 2020
Plinio Ruiz Sr. Looking across the valley, Plinio is a true Boqueteno old-timer in coffee. When a coffee retiree choses to build his house beside the roasting/packing plant, you know they have no intention of idling away the golden years. The other side of the house looks across the valley to coffee farms on the adjacent slopes. 
A January coffee trip to revisit favorite farms and mills in Panama to see the harvest in process, cup early lots, and affirm our ongoing farm relationships. The Group (L to R): Plinio Ruiz Jr. who oversees production of the Ruiz mill and farms, Karen of Gold Rush Coffee near Eureka, Plinio the Elder, Bob Fulmer of Royal Coffee, Myself (too jetlagged to stand without leaning) and Joe of Gold Rush. 
Casa Ruiz: The Riuz family has several farms, and offers expert wet-processing and dry-milling for many others. They roast their lower grade coffees for domestic consumption, offer a standard export grade called BEP, and then farm-specific Estate coffees at the top of the quality pyramid. Here are bags from some of the farms they have milled over the years. 
Coffee cherry is dumped directly into the bin which equals (if I remember right) 10 Latas. A Lata is how coffee cherry is measured and how pickers are paid. One Lata is about the size of a cubic foot. This cherry represents fairly good picking, since the machines and flotation channels will remove the underripe, yellow-green cherry in the image. Then again those could be Yellow Caturra or Yellow Catuai cultivars, which are … you guessed it … yellow, not red, when fully ripe. 
You can peel the skin off coffee and separate some of the unripe green on ine step, or in multiple stages. Most mills use a Peeler, then a Criba to separate the slimy mucilage-covered seed from the pulp. Pinhalense makes a machine that pushes ripe cherry through a perforated drum, whereas the green cherry cannot pass through (green cherry is hard and the skin won’t separate from the seed without a lot of effort). 
Plinio Jr. with the slimy coffee – Water is used to wash the coffee out of the fermentation tank when it is done. This water must not be returned to the stream until it is treated because the fermented content destroys the oxygen balance in rivers. It’s natural pollution. All mills used to simply run off this dirty water back into creeks – now nobody does. Ruiz mill has an elaborate pond system to reclaim water. 
Whenever weather permits, coffee is sun dried on the concrete patios. If there are storms in the area, it is collected and put into the mechanical dryers. Patio dry is always preferred (by me at least) because it makes the green coffee more durable over time. But slow, careful mechanical drying is definitely preferale to soaking coffee in a rainstorm! Raining on parchment coffee ruins it. Here, the parchment coffee (pergamino) is collected and covered at the end of the day. Then it is run over by the forklift … okay, that’s a joke. 
To collect the coffee at night they use a flat bladed shovel, or a street sign on a post, whatever is more convenient. Okay, I’ll stop … 
When coffee is on the patio, it is raked often to allow for even drying. Some big mill have motorized rakes now, like rider lawnmowers in size, but Ruiz does it the old fashioned way. In fact, Plinio Sr. carves each rake handle by hand at night, taking into account the hand size of the particular employee. Okay, that’s not true either. 
Here is the batch of parchment coffee below the drier, each lot kept separate, dried to 12% moisture content. 
A+ artwork at the Ruiz mill. If only this bag would come to Sweet Maria’s, it would hang on the wall of my office – brilliant! 
Inside are the large drum dryers, the preferred configuration. These are monitored to never exceed 130 f input air temperature, and keep the coffee in constant motion, basically imitating the environment of heat and raking on a warm concrete patio. 
When the coffee is dried to 12%, it is left to rest (reposo) for varying degrees of time, allowing moisture to even out, and the coffee to stabilize. Bad lots might not be rested at all. Good lots are rested 30-60 days in parchment. Then the “preparation” of the coffee starts with this, the Peeler, that takes the parchment off the green seed. The skin is burned, as you saw, in the dryers, and the green bean is ready to be screened, and sorted by denisty. 
All this coffee in the image is like that crap at the low side of the density table. This is used (sadly) for roasted-ground coffee sold in the country. It really should just be burned, but coffee growers need every penny they can get. About 10-20% of ripe, well-picked coffee is lost on the gravity table. Add to that all the coffee remve in the wet-process part (immature, floaters, etc) and a pound of picked coffee cherry might result in less than 1/4 pound of good, top-grade coffee. But that is what Specialty Coffee is all about folks … 
So here is a picture of the coffee on the high side of the machine you just saw …a nd … 
The dryers are heated by a combination of wood and coffee parchment peel. This is the back end of the furnace where the peel is blown into the ignition chamber. 
Ah, headed back to the Panamonte, the usual afternoon sun-shower results in the usual afternoon rainbow over Boquete. I can’t blame the retirees for wanting to visit here. I just wish they would adapt a little, not just try to remake this place into another gated community…. 
We start our trip in Boquete in the state of Chirqui, right at the border with Costa Rica. This is the Panama highland were small estates have been producing coffee since the late 1800s in the area centered on the volcano Baru. We are going to a few nights to visit farms around Boquete, then some time on the other side of the Volcan Baru to visit farms in the Bambito and Volcan region. Now, I used to rave about the Panamonte, and it is still nice. But my room that was $80 is now $135 a night, thanks to the invasion of the retirees from the US. … 
This is old Boquete, a typical board-and-batten house on the road. This use to be hidden back in the trees, overgrown, but I am sure the vegitation was cleared to catch some visitors eye, to be sold. Ah well… 
I marveled over this amazing book in the collection at the Collins farmhouse: Colombia Cafetera by Diego Monsalve. It is from 1927 and does not deal eniterely with coffee, but in addition it is an overview of trade, politics and the entire Colombian economy. Someone in the coffee trade was clearly supposed to be a person of letters (okay, probably a man), and have a broad knowledge base. 
The back cover, which helps you locate Colombia in case you are having trouble. The deco illustrations in the book are amazing. 
John Collins runs Lerida Estate, and the family will be opening a new lodge for tourists on the farm too. The Collins family goes way back in Boquete and has one of the highest altitude farms in the region, winner of several Best of Panama competitions in the past and a perrenial top 10 coffee. 
Bob Fulmer and a bucket of coffee wood. It surprised me to find out that the coffee wood pruned from Lerida trees is actually very dense and burns for a long, long time in the fireplace. I always thought coffee wood was very soft, but once again, I’m wrong. 
Plinio the younger, and his daughter, hiding. 
So Now We Get a Map? I snapped this photo off the wallmap at the Ruiz cupping room to give an idea of the area we are talking about, and the relation between Boquete and Volcan. Basically, the drive to Volcan is simply skirting around the Volcan Baru to the other side. David is where the nearest airport is, by the way. Other areas I mention are underlined in blue. And so we are off to Finca Carmen in Volcan, and to stay the night in Bambito… 
Next morning it was time for cupping at the Ruiz lab. Maria Ruiz is one of the 4 children of Plinio Sr and is in charge of quality. She is an amazing cupper, but actually has a PhD in a field too technical for me to remember or, probably, even pronounce. She also sports a very nice “cupping bonnet”. 
Bob shows how dangerously close the nose gets to the coffee. I have dipped it in a few times, which is always fun. Bob also shows the special cupping skill of holding a spoon and a pencil in the same hand (a scoresheet in the other) – very important! 
Joe Paff breaks the crust. This is the part of cupping where you push the floating grounds down to release a concentrated aromatic burst (hopefully). So you need to get your nose right down there, near the cup. There are different techniques for this, and some involve smelling the foam on the back of the spoon, which has never worked for me. Cupping has standards, but every person finds a unique style. 
Karen Paff, crust-breaker. Karen and Joe started around ’78 in roasting but were actually the original home coffee roasting people! They bought green coffee from Alfred Peet, Harold King and other Bay Area green coffee oldtimers, and he sold a stovetop drum roaster that someone or other was manufacturing. They have used Sivetz roasters from day one. 
Plinio, clearly enjoying his Ruiz aromatics! 
I showed this picture to coffee farmers in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Nobody could believe it was a coffee leaf. It looks like Citrus. It has a avocado-green color, and lacks the typical arabica leaf-ridges. Something makes me ponder if Gesha doesn’t have a bit of Liberica in it. 
New leafs are bronze on this tree – new leaf is called tips, so this tree is bronze tipped …. 
… but the tree right next to it is green-tipped. So it is not clear if the cultivar is entirely stable, or just arbitrary in some aspects. 
Picturesque shed at Hacienda La Esmeralda on the Jaramillo Gesha plot. Merril and hsi wife lived here while they were building their house nearby. 
Here is a photo of the clumping habit along the branch, once again showing low yeild. Actually, the tree form grows fast, with good production in 3-5 years. It is also tolerant to high wind and hard rain. It is a sturdy tree, and the cherry must be twisted off the branch (unlike cultivars like yellow Bourbon that fall off the branch by themselves.) 
And now for the Gesha – another purpose of my visit to Panama! Merril (right) and Daniel (left) with their beautiful Gesha trees at Hacienda La Esmeralda, Jaramillo area. This is up at 1550 meters, where the Gesha cultivar produces the special cup character that has won the Best of Panama competition for the past 2 years. 
This branch photo shows the yeild, which is far les than what you would see in other large bean coffees like Pacamara. Also, Gesha does not have good cup character at 800 or 1200 meters, only at the highest altitudes in Panama is it so unique in the cup. 
The best damn picture of coffee cherry I have taken in a long time. Can you ever tire of coffee pcitures like this? Gesha is a tall, beautiful tree with fairly low yields. Geisha was how I spelled it last year, which is wrong. Gesha is a town in Ethiopia where this large bean, long-form coffee cultivar was known to exist. I spoke with a coffee farmer from Bebeka who knew of the cultivar. 
On the same plot at Jaramillo are these massive Cashew Nuts; here Joe holds one up. Now, I did not know edible cashew came from such a pod, so either this is not commercial cashew or I just don’t know my nuts. 
Impatiens are cultivated flowers here and weeds in Panama. But what handsome weeds they are, and a good ground cover around the coffee. 
Profuse reseeding of Gesha under a plant. Gesha, as mentioned is in Ethiopia, located near Kefa where the Kaffa coffee of legend grows. It was collected by the FAO – Food and Agriculture Org. of the UN – as part of a diversity project and distributed to 3 locations: Lisbon, Africa and Costa Rica. 40 years ago the seed was brought to Panama and planted here and there, just a few trees. The Petersons planted it extensively on a plot that was damaged in La Nina storm, because it seemed most resistent to strong weather. 
Merrill is a furniture maker. He has accumulated some beautiful old cedar from fallen trees. We saw some of his chairs and tables and they were beautiful. He also makes smaller items from coffee wood, and gave me a great tray of this dense wood. 
Piglet a La Esmeralda. Near Merrill’s wood stack this little guy was doing a hella lottal damage to the turf. But how cute they are when they are young (see my Nicaragua Jan 06 travelogue for a perfect counter-example.) 
Merrills amazing home roaster. Well, it roasts like 20 Lbs. and looks precarious, but he says it works great. Yes, that is a forklift/RV sized propane tank for a drum, with the bottom cut out. 
The only problem is that roasting is a 2 person job, at least when the batch is done. One person watches the coffee in the front, the other must lift the entire top end of the machine (with the 20 Lbs coffee) to dump the batch into a cooling tray. As you can see by the grimace, it is a bit heavy. Joe looks on, bemused. 
Back at the Ruiz roasting plant. This is their 1 bag Sta Impianti roaster. 
Here is the Ruiz’ beautiful vintage Victoria roaster from Italy. Interestingly, I have only seen these machines in Latin America so their must have been a dealer there. The company is now owned by Sta Impianti I believe. 
Now this is a first; I have never seen a minature Royal roaster clone before, and it is from Japan! Made by a company called Fuji, it is a 2 kilo machine. 
Maybe next time: We saw this sign for Palimira Springs driving into Boquete, a resort or residence of some kind. In english it read “A Place Different and Furmy” so we were joking with eachother that we would ask for a furmy room at the hotel, and a furmy dinner, just to see what we got. So on the way out of town, they were fixing the sign to read “A Place Different and Funny.” Hmm … “Diferente y Acogedor” would be “Different and Cozy” actually. I like Furmy better though. 
Who cares, this is my favorite all-time roadside rock sculpture. Will I have one in my house soon – you bet. Maybe just a little smaller. I am so, so, so impressed with this kind of creativity, and hey, I have an MFA …This beats 97% of what I saw in grad school. Boquetenos are awesome! 
Carlos has a complete wet mill down below the farm. The coffee is pulped, then laid on the patio to dry, then finished in a mechanical dryer. This is actually our 1800+ meter coffee for the ’06 crop on the patio! 
Ripe cherry in the bag- Carlos pays by weight, and for ripe red cherry only. The quality of this picking shows that he is getting very good results. 
I took some pictures of the Red Catuai which might misrepresent the production on the farm this year. It is down from last year due to unusual rains that came in October. 
Carlos Aguilera runs the Carmen Estate on the Volcan side of mountain. The estate is on steep slopes above the well-known La Florentina farm. In fact, Carlos’ farm goes up to 1900 meters making it one of the higher farms in the area. As many of you know, we have been buying the coffee from 1800 meters and up. 
Carlos has a few Yellow Catuai interspersed with the red, but these are not planted on purpose. 
Once again, a tree that does not represent the scarcity of coffee at Carmen Estate. Farms are always at the mercy of weather, and coffee needs a distinct dry season, and colder weather too. Damage from wind, frost, hale or hard rain always poses a threat too. Or simply unseasonable weather, like this past year, can ruin production. 
Bob looks across the valley at the Baru volcano. 
Washing clothes by the roadside at Carmen Estate. Carlos said they built a special facility to wash clothes, but the seasonal workers, mostly Ngobe people, prefer the same spigot they used in years past … 
The flat and the steep terrain of Carmen Estate, with Carlos and the 3 gringos. 
There is a new schoolhouse at Carmen and some pretty fine artwork on the walls. 
My favorite… 
Yet another amazing view of the Paso Ancho, which is between the town of Volcan and Bambito. 
We had a cupping at the mill house, then headed up the hill to look at the coffee. The view from the farm down at the valley is beautiful. This region is called the Paso Ancho. 
Workers at Carmen, always curious about visitors but not quite ready to come out and say hello. I was embarassed on one trip of a couple roasters who made pickers pose with them. You could tell they are curious but shy. I even felt a little guilty snapping this picture. 
Across the patio at Bambito Estate, a workers house. 
Next we visited the farm of Rafael Amar, a beautiful place called Bambito Estate. He has an interesting mix of traditional cultivars in a garden-like setting. The coffee is planted in an old style (read as disorganized) with citrus trees. Here the pickers are weighing out the coffee brought down to the patio from the days harvest. His varietals are Caturra, Yellow Catuai and bronze-tip Typica. 
We had a fantastic meal that evening in honor of Carlos’ birthday. The restaurant, on a little dirt road outside of Volcan, would be a sensation in the Bay Area. In Panama, it is a bit pricey, but Mahi Mahi for a person with a US salary. The salads were amazing, the spicey dressing so complex; anise, dill, cumen, black pepper, in perfect balance. 
Next day, we had time for a walk in the national park area around the Volcan Baru. Panama and Costa Rica both have parks that abut eachother, called La Amistad. We didn’t have time for a real hike, jsut enough to get a feel for the dense forest canopy. Here a fern tendril … 
… massive leaves filtering the sun and creating some nice light. 
Back in David, waiting for the plane and walking around the central shopping district. I like commercial paintings a lot. I tried to find a Panama National Team futbol-soccer jersey. No luck. They didn’t make it to Germany so they are off the shelves in all the stores. Panama is still a baseball country, but soccer is gaining a bit. I guess the local Chirqui team, based in David, plays a mean defensive game, and is well worth the ticket.
