In January Willem and I had the pleasure of hosting 11 students in Panama for our annual Geisha Birdsong, Quality at Origin course. Here is a photo album of the highlights. This trip was especially dynamic because our students came from a variety of backgrounds. Roasters, coffee producers, and even some coffee enthusiasts. We had students from the US, Hong Kong, Mexico and Panama.
I hope more of you can join us on future trips to Panama, Rwanda, or Ethiopia.
The course started with an extensive tour of Finca Hartmann where Kelly Hartmann shared his deep knowledge of coffee varieties, agronomy, and land management and everyone experience fresh cherries right off the trees.
On the tour students experienced numerous varieties on the farm ranging from Maragogype, Pacamara (yellow and red), Caturra, and Catuai
To really understand the labor involved in producing specialty coffee, everyone spent time working at the mill washing coffee and preparing the parchment on the drying beds
During the visit to Finca La Mula, Willem Boot’s Geisha farm, students harvested ripe cherries for inspection by the farm manager
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Wilford Lamastus, owner of the award winning Elida Estate in Boquete hosted us for a farm and mill tour and tasting of his incredible processing experiments
Finca Sophia, between 1900 and over 2100 meters above sea level is one of the highest elevation farms in Central America
This farm is a partnership with Boot Coffee and Equator Coffees and produces award winning geisha coffees
Most afternoons found us roasting samples and performing quality assessments on a variety of coffees
This trip is always an intensive experience for students who learn about the essential elements required to produce quality coffee from seed to cup. With long days, beautiful vistas, and incredible coffee pioneers we guarantee a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I hope you can join us on a future trip. You can find all upcoming courses at bootcoffee.com/campus.
Recently, I was watching mega-funny Richard Ayoade’s “Travel Man,” where he was visiting a Cava (Spanish sparkling wine) tasting session and admitted
Webinar about workplace safety and fire prevention at your roastery.
In September 2019 Willem visited Panama and made trips our farms Finca Sophia, Finca La Mula, and our newest finca La Cabra.
  
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