How Does Arabica Coffee Varieties Like Typica Perform at Elida Estate?

Elida Estate in Panama's Boquete region produces a natural-process Typica, an Arabica variety with a distinct profile. Grown at 1,850 meters by the Lamastus family, whose estate dates to 1918, the coffee shows peach, raisin, and cane sugar sweetness. Panama's fame rests on Esmeralda Geisha, but the country holds other notable estates as well.

Boquete is Panama's oldest and most famous coffee region, and its cool, foggy mountain climate slows cherry ripening, similar in effect to high altitude. Panamanian coffee is generally sweet and balanced, sometimes floral or citrus-like, with high traceability to single estates. Higher-quality lots carry citrus and floral notes with a light, delicate body.

In the specialty coffee landscape, Panama rose to fame with the Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda, but those who truly know coffee understand that this land has far more than one excellent estate. Elida Estate, a century-old treasure of the Lamastus family, also produces stunning coffee. In this article, Front Street Coffee will take you deep into a natural-process Typica from Elida Estate in Panama's Boquete region, providing a comprehensive analysis of this bean's unique charm—from terroir and estate history to variety characteristics, roasting curves, and cupping performance—along with practical brewing parameters and techniques so you can recreate its peach, raisin, and cane sugar sweetness at home.

Front Street Coffee: Panama · Elida Estate Coffee Beans

Region: Boquete, Panama

Estate: Elida Estate

Altitude: 1,850 meters

Variety: Typica

Processing Method: Natural

The Geisha coffee from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda has earned considerable recognition for Panamanian coffee in the specialty coffee market. As Front Street sees it, if you only recognize Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda when drinking Panamanian coffee, you'll miss out on many great coffees. That's because Panama's renowned estates don't stop at Hacienda La Esmeralda—Elida Estate is equally outstanding. This time, Front Street wants to recommend a natural-process Typica from Panama's Elida Estate and see how this bean performs.

Boquete Region Panamanian coffee generally has a very high degree of traceability, usually traceable to a single estate, and unique lots produced by specific estates are also very common. Panamanian coffee is sweet and balanced, sometimes with floral or citrus aromas, well-rounded and easy to drink. Higher-quality coffees carry citrus and floral notes, with a light body and a delicate, complex mouthfeel. Among them, coffee from the Boquete region is the most highly regarded—it is Panama's oldest and most famous coffee-producing region. Its cool, foggy, and mountainous geographical environment creates a unique microclimate; the cool climate and frequent fog help slow the ripening process of coffee cherries, achieving an effect similar to high altitude. Flavors range from cocoa to fruity, with a slight acidity.

Elida Estate

Elida Estate is the most famous estate of the Lamastus family, founded in 1918. Since Robert Lamastus, the founder of the Lamastus family's coffee estate, planted the first coffee tree, it has now passed a century and witnessed the worldwide popularity of specialty coffee. To this day, Elida Estate is still carried on by descendants of the Lamastus family, including estate owner Mr. Wilford, Wilford's father Thatcher, and Wilford's son/fourth-generation successor Wilford Jr. As a traditional coffee family, coffee has been woven into their family DNA. Wilford was born on a small coffee farm, and his parents were also born on coffee farms. The coffee currently produced by the estate comes from Elida Estate, Donkey Estate, and Luisito Estate.

Elida Estate mainly cultivates three varieties: Catuai, Typica, and Geisha. The estate's processing plant is located halfway up the mountain, so after the coffee is picked, it can be immediately transported to the factory for processing, ensuring the quality of the coffee cherries is not affected. Of course, Elida's environment is also suitable for growing other high-quality temperate crops, especially tree tomatoes and some uncommon high-altitude fruits. Interestingly, the flavors of these fruits can often be found in Elida's coffee. This coffee bean from Front Street Coffee uses the Typica variety.

Coffee Variety Typica is one of the oldest Arabica coffee varieties discovered to date, along with another called Bourbon. The Arabica species originated in Ethiopia, and this variety still grows naturally in the highlands of the local primordial rainforest. Typica beans are slender, the tree is tall, the cherries are oval, and the branches are slightly inclined. Typica's four branches are long and spreading, with an inclination angle of 50–70 degrees. Each tree's coffee yield is very low, but the cupping score is very high.

Catuai is a coffee variety artificially crossbred from Caturra and Mondu Novo. Catuai has relatively good resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. The Catuai tree is relatively short, and compared with other coffee trees, Catuai's cherries grow more firmly and are not easy to pick. The cherries can be either red or yellow. So far, no evidence has been found that yellow cherries taste better than red ones. On the contrary, some people have found in cupping that although coffee processed from some yellow cherries has decent acidity, its cleanliness is inferior to that of red cherries.

Geisha: It was originally discovered in 1931 in the Geisha forest of Ethiopia. Geisha was later sent to the Coffee Research Institute in Kenya, introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, to Costa Rica in 1953, and to Panama around 1960. Although Geisha has strong disease resistance, its yield is low, so at the time, after people used this variety as stock for variety improvement, it faded into obscurity—until the owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda rediscovered them in a windbreak and entered them separately in the 2004 BOP cupping competition, where they won first place, making Geisha coffee an overnight sensation. Since then, Geisha has been spread to other regions of Colombia for cultivation. Although Geisha grown in other regions does not perform as stunningly as that grown in the windbreak, its floral aroma and acidity are still excellently expressed.

Front Street Coffee Roasting Suggestions

Because the beans are charged at a relatively low temperature, the flavor will not be as clean and intense as when charging at high temperature, but the advantage is that the mouthfeel will be very soft and smooth. Since the development time after first crack is very short, the heat must be sufficient; otherwise, the target drop temperature cannot be reached and the degree of caramelization will be insufficient. I will use a "soak." This is what most roasting beginners ask about. Actually, the soak action is cooling down or turning off the heat and using the drum's temperature to continue roasting the beans. Throughout the roasting process, the beans are absorbing heat; only first crack and second crack are exothermic actions. During these two stages, it is best not to increase the heat, otherwise the beans can easily develop a spicy sensation. The soak emphasizes that with the heat off, using the residual drum temperature and the heat released by the beans during the cracking phase, the roasted beans continue to roast slowly.

Roaster Yangjia 800N, charge amount 600g: charge when the drum temperature reaches 170°C, set airflow to 3, after 30 seconds adjust heat to 140°C, airflow unchanged, turning point at 1'25"; adjust heat once at 140°C, at which point the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and dehydration is complete; adjust heat to 110°C, airflow to 4; at 8'45'', ugly wrinkles and dark streaks appear on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen clearly for the sound of first crack. At 9'07'', first crack begins; reduce heat to 90°C, airflow to 4 (adjusting heat must be done very carefully, not so low that there is no cracking sound). 1'45'' after first crack, drop at 190°C.

Front Street Cupping Report

Dry Aroma: Caramel, roasted almond, floral

Wet Aroma: Jackfruit, fermented wine aroma

Mouthfeel: Smooth on entry; raisin, peach, orange, melon, cane sugar, and caramel flavors are prominent; green tea-like tea sensation; high cleanliness.

Front Street Coffee Brewing Tips

Dripper: V60 #01

Water Temperature: 91°C

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Fine granulated sugar size (80% passing a No. 20 sieve)

Front Street Brewing Method: First pour 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (about 125g on the scale), finishing the pour at about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (about 225g on the scale), finishing the pour at about 1 minute 35 seconds. At 2'00''–2'10", dripping is complete; remove the dripper and finish extraction.

Brewed Flavor: On entry, peach, raisin, and orange flavors are clearly noticeable; gradually, cane sugar and melon sweetness emerge; the finish carries grapefruit and a green tea-like tea sensation.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.