Go to Panama's Millennium Rainforest Volcano Secret to find the World's Best Coffee beans

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Panama is located in Central America, Costa Rica on the left and bordering Colombia on the right. Although Panama is a small country connecting North and South America, it has an important strategic position. Its Panama Canal, which runs through the North Atlantic and South Pacific, once caused fierce competition between the United States and France. Today, Geisha coffee produced by Panama is a must, from $92.30 a pound in 2011 to $107.86 a pound in 2014. This year's public auction price hit a record high, with raw beans being snapped up to $140 a pound.

Panama's most famous coffee producing areas, Boquete and Volc á n, are located in the highlands of Chiriqui province in the west, near the Costa Rican border. In order to find the best coffee, I went to live in these two producing areas for a week and visited several coffee farms. Apart from the United States, Panama is the most advanced coffee producing area I have ever visited, the price is also high, and many famous estates can be reached directly by RV. I took the night bus from Panama City, a seven-hour drive from Skylight to David, and then transferred to a taxi to Poquette.

Millennium rainforest Kotowa Coffee

The Kotowa Coffee family has five manors, each of which has a great change in microclimate. Rose Summer Manor is located in a pristine rainforest reserve above 1600 meters above sea level, with coffee trees and towering rainforest ancient trees, cool climate, clear river water flowing through the garden, shuttling through the coffee garden, always foggy, like a fairyland, and the environment is very beautiful. Kotowa is one of the oldest coffee plantations in the district. It was founded by Canadians in 1918 and is now run by the third generation of grandson Ricardo Koyner. Besides picking the red rose summer cherries, I also visited the century-old wooden coffee peeling processor left by his grandfather. Besides coffee, Kotowa is also a paradise for birdwatchers. For the sake of safety and environmental sustainability, farms do not use any chemical pesticides or herbicides, thus attracting some rare birds to inhabit here.

Volcanic Secret Janson Rose Summer dried Fruit Tea

After driving around Volc á n Baru for about 1.5 hours, I came to Janson Coffee Farm, the second place in the Best of Panama 2013 Best Coffee Bean Competition. The competition was held by the Panamanian Fine Coffee Association (SCAP) in 1997, two years earlier than the first COE! Because the Swiss Carl Janson fell in love with the beautiful environment in the volcanic areas and nearby valleys, he bought a large area of land to open a farm. Besides raising cattle, fish and horses, he also planted a lot of coffee. Now the estate is taken care of by his children and grandchildren.

Carl's grandson, Leif Janson, took me on a four-wheel drive to visit his coffee garden. I found that the microclimate of Volc á n on the other side of the volcano is obviously different from that of Poquette, where there is plenty of sunshine. The rich volcanic soil and microclimate here make the small varieties of Rosa coffee thrive, coupled with the natural spring water washed coffee, the kind of seductive taste buds of fruit and flowers, very special! Janson also uses a special method to remove the skin and flesh of coffee cherries and then dry them in the sun to make dried fruit tea. After soaking in hot water, the sweetness originally in the flesh is completely released, sour and sweet, with unique aromas of rose summer flowers, Luoshen flowers and cherry fruits. This cup of pink fruit tea makes people fall in love as soon as they drink!

Writing, photography: talk about Virginia Tam (founder of Vigi Coffee, approved trainer of American Fine Coffee Association, recognized instructor of Diploma in Coffee Studies of European boutique Coffee Association, Japanese final judge of 2014-2016 World siphon barista Competition, workshop instructor of Hong Kong siphon barista contest, president of Hong Kong Coffee Culture Promotion Association, organizer of 2011 Food Expo Coffee Street. Www.facebook.com/vigicoffee)