Elida Estate
Elida Estate is a coffee farm in Boquete, Panama, run by the Lamastus family and best known as Hacienda La Esmeralda’s great rival at Best of Panama. It is the highest coffee farm in all of Panama, and its Geisha lots have repeatedly reset the world record price for green (unroasted) coffee (Smithsonian Magazine, accessed 2026-07-22).
Story
The estate sits on the slopes of the Barú Volcano in Panama’s Chiriquí highlands, and the family has grown coffee here since 1918 — the producer counts “108 years” of Geisha cultivation as of the 2026 season (Lamastus Family Estates Auction, accessed 2026-07-22). Coffee is planted between roughly 1,700 and 2,200 metres above sea level; the land above the tree line is an ecological reserve inside Volcán Barú National Park. Every cherry is hand-picked by Indigenous Ngäbe and Buglé workers — the labour intensity is part of what the coffee’s price reflects (Smithsonian Magazine, accessed 2026-07-22).
Elida sells its top coffees two ways: through the public Best of Panama auction, and increasingly through the family’s own private online auction (24 curated lots in the 2026 edition, organised into named collections and dominated by washed and natural Geisha) (Lamastus Family Estates Auction, accessed 2026-07-22).
In the cup, Elida Geisha is typically described as intensely floral — jasmine, bergamot, peach and citrus, with a silky body — the signature Geisha profile.
Notable lots / records
| Year | Lot | Score | Price | Auction / Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Elida Geisha Natural | 94+ | $803/lb | Best of Panama — world record at the time |
| 2019 | Elida Geisha Green Tip (Natural) | 95.25 | $1,029/lb | Best of Panama — first coffee ever over $1,000/lb; Saza Coffee (Japan)–led consortium |
| 2024 | Elida Geisha Natural “Torre” (Tower) | — | **4,542/lb) | 20 kg lot, sold to Saza Coffee (Japan) |
The 2018 record and the 2019 record are both independently reported: the 2019 $1,029/lb sale scored 95.25 and was, at the time, the highest price ever paid for coffee at auction (AgroNosotros, accessed 2026-07-22). The 2024 “Torre” lot — a 20 kg natural given a two-day sealed-bag fermentation and dark-room drying at ~1,950 m — set a new per-kilo world record and again went to Japan’s Saza Coffee (LatAm Reports, accessed 2026-07-22).
To verify
Several later/other price figures come from single, weak sources and are not confirmed:
- 2022 — “Elida Geisha Honey Aguacatillo” at $6,034/kg (private auction), single source (Roastopedia, accessed 2026-07-22).
- 2025 — an Elida lot reported at **13,705/lb), not an Elida lot — possible conflation of buyers. Reconcile before quoting.
- 2026 — “Elida Geisha Honey Aguacatillo” at $13,518/kg to Cupping Post (South Korea), single wiki-style source (Morning Wines, accessed 2026-07-22).
Confirm all of the above — plus exact lot names, scores and buyers for 2018 — against the official bestofpanama.org results and the Lamastus private-auction records.