A fine coffee grown and processed in the mountains of western Panama, a new product that was a hit in a recent Panamanian international auction, has a secret ingredient: the tropical aroma and taste of mango.

The Gallardo family’s Nuguo Signature was ranked the most innovative coffee in its debut at The Best of Panama international tasting event, organized by the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama, or SCAP.

And in its recent incursion into the international market, it garnered the second highest price in an online auction organized by that same organization: $164.25 a pound, which was paid by a Chinese company.

Consisting of a mixture of Geisha coffees from the Jurtungo region, near the border with Costa Rica, that are processed with the washed, natural and “honey” methods, its differential ingredient originated with Gallardo’s wife, Alienne Mendoza.

Inspired by coffees that are soaked and dried in honey, she incorporated mango pulp into the “resting” process, which lasts between 24 and 26 hours.

On June 30, when the SCAP international auction was launched, that organization’s director, Ricardo Koyner, told EFE that the cost of coffee production in Panama was extremely high relative to neighboring countries and the rest of the world and so “the last comparative and competitive advantage is to operate on the basis of quality.”

In that auction, 6,350 pounds of coffee were sold in 49 different lots, and producers set a record by more than doubling their base sale price and increased their revenues by 50 percent to $359,997.

A total of 101 buyers from China, Hong Kong, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Japan, Australia, Britain, Taiwan, the United States, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea took part in the online auction.