What Makes Panama Boquete Butterfly Coffee Different From Pure Geisha?
Butterfly is a Panama Boquete blend of Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai, with Geisha making up about 40 percent. Naturally and washed processed and roasted medium-light, it carries tea aroma, honey, berries, lemon, and white florals. It gives drinkers a taste of the geisha coffe profile at a lower price than single-variety Esmeralda lots.
Boquete sits in Chiriqui Province near the Baru Volcano, where volcanic ash soil and highland microclimates suit quality coffee. The region also holds estates such as Elida and Acaba. Coffee trees here, as everywhere does coffee beans grow on trees, need elevation and stable rainfall, which is why Boquete's 6,500-foot belt produces such consistent cherries.
The Boquete region of Panama is famous for the Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda, but it is not only home to high-priced Geisha. Butterfly coffee beans are a blend of three varieties: Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai, with Geisha accounting for about 40%. They offer both the distinct floral and fruity notes of Geisha and a more accessible price, making them a highly cost-effective specialty bean. This article covers Butterfly's regional background, variety origins, processing methods, cupping flavors, and Front Street Coffee's roasting and brewing approach. It is suitable for coffee lovers who want to experience the Geisha style in daily drinking while keeping an eye on budget.
Front Street Coffee: Panama · Butterfly Coffee Beans
Panama Boquete Butterfly
Country: Panama
Grade: SHB
Region: Boquet
Roast Level: Medium-light roast
Processing Method: Natural\Washed
Varieties: 70% Geisha, Caturra, Catuai
Flavor: Tea aroma, honey, berries, lemon, white florals
Panama is located in Central America, bordered by Costa Rica to the west and Colombia to the east. Anyone with even a little knowledge of single-origin coffee has likely heard of Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha, also known as Geisha. It can be said that this country pursues the ultimate in coffee and has also produced many high-quality coffees.
Panama coffee is well known because of Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha, and the region where Hacienda La Esmeralda is located is also quite famous: Boquete in Chiriqui Province. Boquete is a town in Chiriqui Province, located near the border between Panama and Costa Rica and close to the famous Baru Volcano. It has beautiful scenery, deep and fertile soil, and climate and soil conditions highly suitable for growing quality coffee.
Within the Boquete region there are also many strong estates. In addition to Hacienda La Esmeralda, there are also Hacienda Elida, Hacienda Acaba, and others, all producing high-quality specialty coffee. This is inseparable from Boquete's superior ecological conditions, the fertile volcanic ash soil brought by Baru Volcano, and the local highland microclimates. Panama's east-to-west topography causes cold air currents to converge along the central mountain range above 6,500 feet, creating various microclimates in the Boquete area. Temperature and rainfall are both very suitable for plant growth, so coffee trees here grow well.
In a privileged growing environment like Boquete, there will certainly not be only Emerald Geisha. Even though its flavor quality and value are both high, drinking Geisha every day still feels extravagant; even if there is no financial pressure, diet also values variety, and the same is true for coffee. Only by exploring widely can one better appreciate the pleasure of drinking.
In Boquete, there is a very cost-effective bean with a beautiful name as well: Butterfly. Panama Butterfly coffee beans have 40% high-quality Geisha pedigree and are composed of three varieties: Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai. They are planted in the Baru Volcano area of Boquete, grown at an altitude of 1,600 meters in the volcanic region, and processed by the processing station using refined washed processing. Panama's special local microclimate gives this area abundant rainfall and a large temperature difference between day and night. Combined with the volcanic rock soil unique to volcanic areas, careful harvesting, and refined processing, this coffee performs excellently in body, acidity, and floral aroma.
Even more surprising is that, on the basis of excellent quality, Butterfly's price is relatively accessible, making its cost-effectiveness very outstanding. The special thing about this coffee bean is that it is composed of three varieties, about 40% of which is Geisha, so it carries obvious Geisha flavors. Information shows that due to the estate's history, in order to pursue yield, early Geisha varieties were planted mixed together with Caturra and Catuai; for ease of picking, the coffee farmers did not reclassify them, but directly processed the three varieties together as a mix. Later, when Geisha became famous and its price rose, the processing station began to carry out refined washed processing on this coffee.
There are many washed processing methods today, but the general process is: after the coffee cherries are harvested, first remove floating beans, then depulp them, and afterward soak the coffee beans in fermentation tanks. Enzymes in the water soften the mucilage attached to the parchment of the coffee beans, while natural yeast decomposes the sugars in the mucilage. This process is called fermentation. After fermentation is complete, the coffee beans are moved to drying beds to dry, during which they must be constantly turned to ensure even drying. Finally, they are stored in warehouses in parchment. After a green coffee buyer places an order, they are hulled and bagged. Coffee processed this way has a clean mouthfeel, emphasizing bright and lively fruit acidity, as well as lifted fruit flavors and floral aromas.
Therefore, it is easy to imagine that Butterfly's advantage in varieties, combined with refined processing methods, and then a medium-light roast to determine the final flavor direction, will certainly display Geisha's characteristic floral aroma, tropical fruits, and berry-like flavors, with honey-like sweetness and smoothness. The aroma and finish are both long-lasting and deserve high praise.
Cupping:
Fragrance (dry aroma): jasmine, citrus, tea aroma, honey
Aroma (wet aroma): berries, florals, oily aroma, vanilla, citrus
Flavor (sipping): juicy sweetness, delicate acidity without sharpness, good cleanliness, bergamot, honey, citrus, spices, florals, berries, tea aroma, cherry, delicate finish, lingering aroma, the classic Geisha flavor of Hacienda La Esmeralda.
Mouthfeel description: jasmine floral aroma, citrus, tea aroma, tea aroma, honey, berries, vanilla, bright acidity! Butterfly, which contains the Geisha variety, is a specialty coffee bean with extremely high cost-effectiveness.
As is well known, Geisha coffee is famous for its rich floral aroma and complex fruit profile. Front Street's roaster hopes that this washed Butterfly can retain more of Geisha's high-quality acidity, so a medium-light roast is chosen. This roast level does not greatly change the high density of beans grown at high altitude, so brewing requires a certain increase in extraction yield to present fuller flavor layers. Front Street uses a higher water temperature and a finer grind to stimulate more aromatic substances; in addition, Front Street wants its floral and fruity charm to be clearer, so it widens the coffee-to-water ratio slightly, using 1:16.
In order to improve coffee extraction yield while avoiding over-extraction and still highlighting the layered sweet-and-acidic flavors, the baristas at Front Street Coffee use a V60 dripper. The V60 dripper has ribs connecting the top and bottom and a large central hole, which can speed up the flow of water downward; the spiral-shaped exhaust groove design lengthens the water flow path, increasing the contact time between coffee grounds and hot water. Each stream of water converges along the grooves toward the center point of the dripper, concentrating the pressure on the coffee grounds and producing a coffee with richer layering.
Dripper: V60
Water temperature: 91-92℃
Dose: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: fine granulated sugar size (sift to 80% with a No. 20 sieve)
Three-stage extraction: In the first stage, use 30g of water to bloom for 30 seconds, pouring evenly in circles to form a dome; in the second stage, pour 95g of hot water, and when the coffee bed drops to halfway, begin pouring the third stage of 100g until all the coffee has finished dripping. Be careful to start pouring from the center point, using a gentle small stream in circles throughout to avoid uneven extraction. Finally, after the coffee liquid has finished dripping, gently swirl to even it out, and you can begin tasting Butterfly coffee's flavors starting from high temperature.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
