Panama City, Panama

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Today we went to Bajareque, a small fascinating coffee shop in Casco Viejo, a neighborhood in Panama City with lots of Spanish colonial architecture.
As soon as the barista of the coffee shop found out that we are passionate about coffee, he introduced us to a manager, who gave us a detailed presentation about their business. He showed us many photographs of the farm, which is supplying the coffee. .
We had been told that their coffee comes from the Elida Estate coffee farm in Boquete, which is located in the highlands of Panama.
The manager emphasized that their high quality coffee is produced under unique conditions:
  • The plantation is one of the two highest farms in Panama. The location is at a very high elevation – 5.600 ft/1.700m.
  • The cherries of the coffee trees grow slowly in the rich soils of the Baru volcano. They are surrounded by a national park. The coffee trees grow in the shade of the big rain forest.
  • The cherries are handpicked by the native Ngobe-Bugle Indians.
He also informed us that their coffee is ‘natural’, which means that the beans were dried inside the fruit. The fruit flesh had not been removed as it is the case with ‘washed’ coffee.
Since their coffee is ‘natural’, it has a sweet fruity taste.
The barista of the the coffee shop grinded freshly roasted coffee beans for us. With a smile on his face, he called us over to the counter and asked us to smell the freshly grinded coffee.
What a smell and what a day!

We took some fresh coffee to the hostel and continued to enjoy the day.