How Do These Two Panama Geisha Coffee Farms Differ?
El Burro Estate and Finca La Mula are two Panama coffee farms in the Boquete specialty region whose names are easy to confuse. El Burro belongs to the Lamastus family, run by Wilford Lamastus on the southwestern slope of Volcán Barú, growing Geisha and Catuai. Finca La Mula was bought in 2005 by Willem Boot and named after a muleback visit.
Most Panamanian estates sit in the western province of Chiriqui near Costa Rica, split between Volcán to the west and Boquete to the east. The two towns are only 22 kilometers apart in a straight line, but the drive around the main range runs close to 100 kilometers and takes at least an hour and a half. Both farms produce gesha green coffee, yet their founding stories and cultivation details differ.
In the Boquete specialty region of Panama, there are two estates whose names sound remarkably similar—El Burro Estate and Finca La Mula. Both produce high-quality Geisha, yet they have completely different family backgrounds and historical origins. Front Street Coffee walks you through the ins and outs of these two famous estates one by one: El Burro Estate belongs to the Lamastus family, run by Wilford Lamastus, located on the southwestern slope of Volcán Barú, with Geisha and Catuai as its main planted varieties; Finca La Mula, on the other hand, was purchased in 2005 by "the Godfather of Geisha" Willem Boot, and got its name because he visited on muleback—though small in size, it has won countless awards. This article compares their founding stories, terroir conditions, and cultivation details to help coffee lovers distinguish between these two easily confused Panamanian specialty estates.
Anyone with some knowledge of Panamanian specialty coffee will probably, like Front Street, immediately think of Boquete when mentioning this country's high-quality bean-producing regions. After all, a group of top Geisha producers—Hacienda La Esmeralda, Elida Estate, Duncan Estate, and others—are gathered here, and these names have long been familiar to those in the know.
However, on this fertile land, two estates independently named themselves after animals, and their Chinese translated names read remarkably similarly—one is called "El Burro Estate" and the other "Finca La Mula," and it's easy to mix them up if you're not careful. Today, Front Street takes you to visit these two coffee farms and experience the unique charm of Geisha.
First of all, it should be said that the vast majority of Panamanian estates are concentrated in the western province of Chiriqui, bordering Costa Rica, distributed on both sides of the Barú volcano mountain range: to the west is Volcán, and to the east is Boquete. The straight-line distance between Volcán and Boquete is only 22 kilometers, but driving requires going around the main mountain range, making the actual journey close to one hundred kilometers and taking at least an hour and a half.
Boquete is actually the name of a valley, nestled right between Volcán Barú and the Jaramillo mountain, running in a long, narrow direction. The scenery here is pleasant, cool and refreshing in the dry season, with constant drizzle in the rainy season. Even setting coffee aside, Boquete itself is enough to attract travelers from around the world. Local residents who have settled here long-term have built numerous hotels, villas, and resorts along the Rio Caldera, making this a place tourists love to relax and explore.
When Front Street checked the map, we noticed that Panama lies between two major ocean currents, and the air masses from the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean converge in the Boquete Valley above 6,500 feet in elevation, creating a unique and changeable microclimate. Temperature and humidity are just right, and combined with the nourishment of volcanic soil, coffee cherries grown here more easily develop rich, layered aromas.
El Burro Estate
El Burro means "donkey" in Spanish. This estate comes from Panama's renowned coffee family—the Lamastus family.
The Lamastus family's story began in 1918 and has been passed down through four generations. From the first generation, Robert Louis Lamastus, who founded the first coffee estate, to his and his wife Elida's son Thatcher, then to the more familiar Wilford Lamastus, and subsequently into the hands of the youngest fourth generation.
Over a century of time has passed, and the Lamastus family currently owns three estates: Elida, El Burro, and Louisito. Among them, Elida Estate, named after the first-generation matriarch, is both the family's earliest-established and most famous coffee farm, as well as a frequent winner at the BOP green bean competition.
As for the origin of El Burro Estate's name, Front Street has not found any definitive official record. It is said that because the estate's location was used for raising livestock in earlier years, the owner named it "El Burro."
According to information publicly available on the official website, El Burro Estate was established in 1925, and its original owner was Thatcher's father-in-law, Amado Boutet, who was also the maternal grandfather of the current third-generation manager, Wilford Lamastus. At that time, global coffee prices were low, and the family had to sell off large tracts of coffee farmland. Wilford and his younger brother Patrick could not bear to see the family business sold, so they put up funds to buy it back and continue managing it. To keep the estate running, Wilford's family also had to rely on other work to supplement their income. After years of persistence, it has become the "big-name estate" that has been shortlisted in major green bean competitions year after year.
El Burro Estate is located to the southwest of Elida and is one of Panama's southernmost plantations, with a total area of 65 hectares. Because part of the land falls within Barú Volcano Park, only 30 hectares are actually used for growing coffee, while more than half of the rest is surrounded by primary forest. This has also preserved rich biodiversity on the estate, making it a habitat for numerous rare plants, birds, and mammals. For decades, hunting has always been strictly prohibited on this farm.
El Burro Estate mainly cultivates two varieties: 50% Geisha and 50% Catuai. The coffee trees grow between 1,575 and 1,800 meters above sea level, with an average elevation of about 1,675 meters. The high altitude brings significant temperature differences between day and night, and combined with fertile volcanic ash soil, heavy fog in the dry season, and a cold, shaded nighttime environment, temperatures at the highest points sometimes even drop below 10 degrees Celsius. Therefore, the coffee trees here need four to five and a half years to begin bearing fruit, and the ripening period of the coffee cherries is about a month later than in lower-altitude producing regions, allowing the beans to fully accumulate flavor compounds.
To taste the flavors from the competition, Front Street also purchased a sun-dried Geisha from El Burro Estate, using a medium-light roast. After brewing, it presented a round acidity like green grapes and apricots, accompanied by the high sweetness of oranges and dried longan, with delicate floral notes and a slight fermented sensation throughout. As the temperature dropped, the sweet-and-sour orange flavor became increasingly clear.
Finca La Mula
Compared with El Burro Estate, Finca La Mula's origin is clearly documented, and it has a deep connection with Geisha. The story begins in 2004. In the year Geisha first took the stage, Willem Boot, serving as a judge, tasted Geisha coffee for the first time and was immediately moved by its exquisite orange aroma and honeyed charm, which also inspired the idea of establishing his own estate.
Willem Boot is a highly respected figure in the coffee industry. Born in the Netherlands, he grew up in the small town of Baarn near Amsterdam and has had a strong interest in coffee since childhood. Friends familiar with Geisha will not be unfamiliar with Willem, and may even find him familiar-looking—he is the very person who led Gesha Village to the Gesha forest, and is even known as the "Godfather of Geisha."
At the age of 14, he roasted his first batch of coffee. After earning a master's degree in business economics from the University of Amsterdam, he co-owned and operated a specialty coffee business with his family. In 1989, he moved to San Francisco in the United States and worked at Probat, then founded Boot Coffee in 1998, providing consulting services to coffee companies, industry associations, development banks, and governments around the world. In 2016, he founded Boot Coffee Campus, a leading training institution located near San Francisco, California, serving the coffee industry throughout the Pacific region.
Through an introduction by Panamanian estate owner Graciano Cruz, Willem found a piece of land adjacent to Volcán Barú, at very high altitude and highly suitable for growing coffee—what is now known as Finca La Mula—and bought it in 2005. Because he rode a mule the first time he went there, the estate was named "La Mula."
Finca La Mula is located in southern Chiriqui Province, Panama, close to Barú Volcano Park, on slopes at an elevation of 1,700 to 1,800 meters. The soil here is rich in minerals, the surrounding natural scenery is beautiful, and it retains a rather primitive jungle atmosphere. These conditions provide unique advantages for coffee cultivation, but they also mean that clearing the land was extremely arduous.
Because the road leading to the forest was not yet fully developed, all coffee seedlings had to be mixed manually and then carried on foot through winding forest paths before they could finally be planted in the fields. It was not until 2007 that Willem and his team successfully planted more than 6,000 Geisha coffee trees on this mere 5-hectare plot. Today, Willem owns three estates: Finca La Mula, Finca La Cabra, and Finca Sofia. Although Finca La Mula is the smallest, it has won countless awards since entering competitions in 2014 and has become a high-quality famous estate that many Geisha lovers long for.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
