In August 2026, the 30th Best of Panama awards were held in Boquete. Elida Estate took the championship in the Washed Geisha category with a score of 96.25, which was also the highest score of the entire competition, while its Natural Geisha placed third with 95.25. For the Lamastus family, this was merely another entry in a long record book.
Elida's history dates back to 1918, when Robert Lamastus planted the earliest coffee trees in Alto Quiel, Boquete. The estate's name, Elida, comes from the wife of the then-owner Robert Louis Lamastus. More than a century later, the estate is now managed jointly by two generations, Wilford Lamastus Sr. and Wilford Lamastus Jr., and the family also owns farms such as El Burro, together forming Lamastus Family Estates. Elida sits on the high slopes of Barú Volcano, with growing elevations generally above 1,700 meters and some plots approaching 2,000 meters, making it one of Panama's higher-altitude coffee estates. Of the estate's total 65 hectares, more than half lies within Barú Volcano National Park: 30 hectares are planted with coffee, while the rest is primary forest and cloud forest. Cool nighttime temperatures and thick fog allow the coffee cherries to ripen slowly, and flavor complexity accumulates as a result.
Ultra-high altitude means the coffee trees take longer to reach their first harvest, often requiring four to five years, whereas low-altitude regions typically yield a crop in three. The long wait is rewarded with higher-density sugars and acidity. The estate's processing plant is located halfway up the mountain, so freshly picked cherries can be taken straight to processing, preserving that freshness. This philosophy of "slowness" ultimately writes itself into the cup: Elida is no stranger to the BOP list, having won consecutive titles in 2018 and 2019, and in 2019 its ASD Natural Geisha sold for $1,029 per pound, setting a world auction record that year. Since then, the Lamastus family has become virtually synonymous with Panama's high-altitude Geisha—and now this 96.25-point Washed Geisha once again proves that this established estate still hasn't slowed down.
That a Washed Geisha can take the highest score of the entire competition rests on a century of accumulated high-altitude terroir, plus generations of meticulous attention to growing and processing details. An estate like this deserves the ongoing attention of anyone who drinks coffee.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
