{"id":15217,"date":"2026-08-02T19:31:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expat-times.com\/panama\/?p=15217"},"modified":"2026-08-02T19:32:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:32:02","slug":"geisha-coffee-champions-crowned-at-30th-best-of-panama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expat-times.com\/panama\/events-culture\/geisha-coffee-champions-crowned-at-30th-best-of-panama\/","title":{"rendered":"Geisha Coffee Champions Crowned at ’30th Best of Panama’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 30th edition of the Best of Panama competition<\/a> has once again proven why the country’s highland farms produce some of the most coveted beans on the planet, with a new slate of Geisha<\/a> coffee<\/a> champions<\/strong> earning top honors in a nail-biting finale decided by razor-thin margins. Lamastus Family Estate<\/a> captured the highest individual score of the entire event, a stunning 96.25 points in the Geisha Washed category, edging out rival Finca Pergamino by just a quarter of a point. The celebration in Boquete, a misty mountain town that has become the epicenter of the specialty coffee world, marked three decades of a competition that transformed Panama from an obscure coffee origin into a global luxury powerhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the best of panama coffee competition Credit bestofpanama org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three Decades of Defining the World’s Most Expensive Coffee<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Few agricultural competitions have rewritten the economic destiny of an entire region the way the Best of Panama has. Launched in the mid-1990s by a small group of visionary producers, the event was designed to bring objective quality standards to farms that were already experimenting with the Geisha variety, a delicate Ethiopian landrace that had been largely dismissed elsewhere as low-yielding and finicky. The association behind the competition, the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), shepherded the transformation from obscurity to worldwide obsession. Wilford Lamastus, one of the event’s founders, stood on the stage this year not just as a winning producer but as a living link to that history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘I am one of the founders,’ he said, his voice thick with emotion after accepting the top Geisha Washed award. ‘I feel happy with my team, my family, and my colleagues.’ [Translated from Spanish]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The competition’s 30th anniversary brought a reflective tone to the festivities, celebrating not just the current harvest but the generational knowledge transfer now taking root across Panamanian coffee country. Sons and daughters of the original pioneers are running estates, experimenting with fermentation techniques, and pushing the boundaries of what the Geisha cup profile can deliver. The Lamastus family’s Elida Estate, perched at dizzying altitudes above 1,800 meters, has become synonymous with intensely floral and tea-like expressions. The Petersons of Hacienda La Esmeralda, meanwhile, have cemented their status as specialty coffee royalty by claiming the Panama Cup, the competition’s highest aggregate honor, awarded to the producer accumulating the most points across all categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A post shared by SCAP Panama (@scap.panama)<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n