Hector grows Typica, Catuai and Geisha varietals on his farm. This Panacoffee is a blend of Typica and Catuai. Hector entered his Geisha coffee in the Best of Panama Coffee Competition this year. It was the #2 coffee in the competition, scoring 90.79 and selling at auction for over $26 per pound!

We first met Hector in 2007. His coffee had placed in 2006 Best of Panama winning group, a coffee called La Milagrosa, and we bought that competition lot. We became jurors of the competition in 2007 and when we arrived in Boquete Hector made a point of looking us up. He is from a very humble background, a real salt-of-the-earth farmer who does all the manual, back breaking work on his small farm. He was thrilled that his coffee made it into the final auction and equally so that we 'discovered' it and it was being sold in the US. In the years since, Hector, previously obscured by better known and financed farms in Panama, has become something of a rising star. Each year his coffee has gotten better and better until he finished second this year, just behind the now world famous Hacienda Esmeralda. This is a tremendous accomplishment and it has been delightful to have had some small role in this, watching a humble farmer reap the rewards of his labor.

Hector Vargas in 2007 when we first met him. Barry left, Bob right.

Hector Vargas' farm is in Panama's Jaramillo, Boquete zone, near the Baru Volcano. This particular coffee, Panacoffee, is grown at around 5400 elevation on a site which gets about 170 inches a year of rainfall. It is both washed and sun-dried.

Cup Characteristics: Very bright, elegant and succulent. A clean, balanced coffee with apple-like tartness. Pleasantly sweet with hints of lemon citrus and a long, lingering finish.