A secret coffee lover’s dream is located in the Chiriquí Province of western Panama. A whimsical mountain town is home to farmers who are growing some of the most expensive coffee beans in the world.
Boquete is home to friendly locals and the perfect ecology for coffee farming. The locals credit the award-winning brew to mineral-rich volcanic soil, the tropical mountain elevation, and the perfect combination of wind, sun, and humidity in the region.
Wilford Lamastus Jr., a third-generation coffee farmer, helps operate Lamastus Family Estates and broke records at the recent 2018 Best of Panama coffee auction. The top winner was Taiwan’s Black Gold Coffee Co. which slung their beans at $803-per-pound.
In 2017, the best beans went for $601-per-pound. Boquete is quickly becoming a hot spot in “The Bean Belt.” Some of the region’s top estates are selling beans in Starbucks locations around the world.
“The growing knowledge about Boquete’s high-quality coffee and the global impact of the Geisha variety has created a type tourism for the region that didn’t exist a few years ago,” Lamastus Jr. told Men’s Journal. “Today, tourists want to visit the area’s coffee farms to learn about the production and taste the different varieties we grow here.”
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