In the 2026 BOP Washed Geisha category, Elida Estate took the group championship with 96.25 points, also the highest score overall. Hot on its heels was a small estate still unfamiliar to most—Finca El Pergamino, with 96.00 points, finishing second by a mere 0.25 points.
"Pergamino" means "parchment" in Spanish, referring to the yellow hard shell wrapping the green coffee bean—the endocarp. Before coffee is exported, this parchment layer protects the beans from moisture and contamination, preserving flavor integrity. An estate naming itself directly after this green bean term reveals something of the owner's love for the craft of coffee itself. Finca El Pergamino is located in Alto Guerra, Bambito, at an elevation of 1,800 to 2,000 meters, on volcanic slopes. Owners Yaneth de Lucich and her husband previously grew mainly potatoes, but from 2017 they decided to switch to coffee, planting Geisha and Yellow Bourbon first. The high altitude allows coffee cherries to ripen slowly and fully, accumulating sweetness and aromatic compounds more solidly—this is also the confidence behind the estate betting on elevations around 2,000 meters.
At a time when anaerobic, double fermentation, maceration and other "fancy processing methods" keep emerging, Finca El Pergamino insists on doing only traditional washed and natural. Yaneth and her husband believe altitude and terroir already give the beans enough expression, and the processing stage should "disturb" as little as possible. This 96.00-point washed Geisha of 2026 is precisely the reward for that restrained philosophy. Finca El Pergamino is extremely small in scale, only becoming known to more green bean buyers through BOP in 2021. Since then it has gradually become a regular on the competition scene: in 2026, not only did its washed Geisha take group runner-up, its natural Geisha also entered the top eight of that group; previously, a roaster also achieved good results with its beans at the World Brewers Cup.
A 96.00-point washed Geisha would be enough to reach the podium at any BOP, yet it happened to run into Elida's 96.25. The 0.25-point gap sounds like regret, but it has also pushed this small estate out from the mist of Bambito and into the eyes of the global specialty coffee world.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
