Coffee in the Clouds

Click on the pictures for videos below of our coffee tour

It was late Sunday night when I saw an email come in from my friend Rich who had just returned from Europe after 4 weeks of eating his way through Italy and France with his wife Dee.   I was almost out of my month’s supply of fresh roasted beans.  Coffee beans to be specific and some of the best grown here in Boquete.  Kind of like living in Napa and your last case of Cab or Merlot is down to one bottle and your cellar rat friend is shut down for a month, aarrggghh!!

Rich is the owner of a local coffee farm, Finca dos Jefes and he had sent me a short and very sweet note saying to be there in the morning as he was roasting up 50 pounds for back orders.  I was there like a dog on point ready for my further education and my month’s supply of heavenly medium roasted estate blend consisting of Caturra, Catuai and Crilollo beans.  It was early in the morning and here during rainy season the day starts with clouds pouring into the valleys that swell up into the mountains around Boquete so it was misty and the perfect setting for hot coffee in the clouds. When I first arrived, I could smell the roast and see smoke pouring out of the chimney.  The master was back in the saddle and I was about to taste some great coffee and stock up, so not one morning would pass with a cup of this delectable java.

Rich is very careful when it comes to a perfect blend and a perfect roast and when he works on a big order, he gets as serious as a heart attack. I caught him in the act and after a few pleasantries, let him focus on the task at hand, after all this was my five pound batch he was working on!!

The process was going smoothly and the roast had reached the right set of temperatures and time and the test beans were chocolate brown indicating a medium roast was almost there.   It was time to stop and pour the beans from the roaster into the cooling tray where they will finish to perfection.

While Rich’s assistant bagged up my coffee, we had a fresh hot cup of coffee out on the patio where Rich showed me his prize pizza oven that he had finished breaking in and was ready to crank up for some pies later in the day.  God, it doesn’t get much better except for the fact that we also can get some of the best Argentinian wines up here for half what it costs in most other places so there you are, fresh hot pizza, a glass of Cab and a good cup of coffee to finish the meal.

Finca dos Jefes is located in the highlands of Boquete, Panama and is proudly owned by Richard and Dee Lipner, formerly of Berkeley, California.

Richard and Dee purchased the farm in April of 2003.  It had been abandoned as a working farm because of the low coffee prices during the 1990s.  At that time, small farmers could not continue to farming and marketing to the global market.

The farm, originally planted in 1986, needed a great deal of work to bring it back to production quality.  Once soil analysis was completed, appropriate and approved certified organic inputs were added to the soil.  The fertilizer process started with guayanasa, chicken manure and various nutrients to strengthen and increase the growth of the coffee cherries.

The farm is planted in Caturra, Catuai, Criollo and Gesha trees which were trimmed and replanted where necessary.  Farming is done is alliance with the lunar calendar and traditional, hand-picked harvesting is practiced.

The coffee cherries are dried with the skin and fruit intact on raised drying beds.  The sun preserves the natural flavors of the coffee.  The cherries are dried to 11% moisture content and then placed in reposada for a minimum of 3 months before they are peeled and ready for roasting.

Finca dos Jefes continues with the traditional, hand processing of the beans as they are peeled with this mortar and pestle. Finally, the green beans are ready for the perfect roast.

This seven acre coffee farm, Finca Dos Jefes, is located in the highlands of Boquete, Panama – a coffee growing region sometimes referred to as the Napa Valley of coffee.  Its rich volcanic soil and ideal climate have recently produced some of the highest rated coffees in the world.  Appropriately labeled “Cafes de la Luna”, they have set out to grow the healthiest, most natural, and most flavorful coffee on this planet.

They received an organic certification in 2004 and began the process of reclaiming the neglected farm.

Cafes de la Luna is farmed in alliance with the forces of the moon.  During the waxing moon, when the force pulls upwards, they attend to the earth by selectively weeding and supplying the soil with organic nutrients.

During the waning moon, when the earth inhales, they nurture the trees with careful pruning to foment growth during the next cycle of the increasing moon.  They believe that the  return to this ancient farming practice produces the healthiest trees and the highest quality coffee under the moon.

For more information on Dos Jefes and to arrange a interactive coffee roasting tour, click on the picture below and be sure to book a tour for your upcoming trip as slots are filling up for the upcoming season.

His little plantation house is home to the roasting and toasting that goes on here and we were in a treat for that and more.

The roaster he uses is  a beautiful piece of equipment.

And his pizza oven just got added to my list of things to put in the back yard of my new home that I am building.

The views that afternoon were spectacular also as the weather moved through the mountains.  The coffee was in full bloom and this was indeed a happy time.  Now we just need more rain!!

Time to sit back in their Coffee House and enjoy a cup of my favorite – Cafes de la Luna