Finca Lerida

Established by Tollef B. Mönniche in 1922, purchased by Alfred Collins in 1957, and developed and currently operated by members of the Collins family, Finca Lerida is one of Boquete’s oldest and most traditional Coffee Estates. Located in the Highlands of Boquete, at an altitude of 5,500 feet, on the foothills of the Baru Volcano, with its deep rich volcanic soil, this beautiful and traditional coffee estate offers optimum conditions for growing premium mountain coffee. The ample rainfall and sunny, dry harvesting season promotes ideal production of this Arabica. Mr. Mönniche designed and constructed the first “beneficio”, processing plant, functioning with water and by gravity, and designed and patented a coffee siphon which would be used in “beneficios” throughout Central America and other countries in the world. Lerida´s owner guided coffee tour takes you from the plantation through the process, roasting and brewing finishing with a cupping session.

Boquete

Did you know that Panama produces some of the most flavorful coffee in the world? A relatively new player on the gourmet-coffee market, the country produces traditional shade-grown-coffee varieties that are generally considered to be more complex and distinctive than those produced by its more famous neighbor, Costa Rica. Most coffee plantations in Panama are concentrated around Boquete because of the high altitude required for prime coffee growing, and because of the region's fertile volcanic soil. On this tour you will learn about the cultivation and process of the coffee bean and you will never look at your morning cup of joy the same once you have taken a coffee tour. Even coffee snobs will glean insight not only into the meticulous growing process but into the economics of the local Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous labor and culture, the shade-grown theory to protect the environment and to grow a better bean, the effect coffee has on the world, and what coffee producers really think about Starbucks. Tours are capped off with a cupping, which, much like a wine-tasting, gives you a chance to sample different flavors, strengths, and roasts.

Finca Lerida: English speaking guide, coffee tasting.

Boquete: Transportation from the hotel, English speaking driver/guide, entrance fees.

Finca Lerida: 2 hours

Boquete: 4 hours

Comfortable clothes and shoes, hat, sunscreen, sunglasses, water