Graciano Cruz
Graciano Cruz is a Panamanian agronomist and coffee producer from Boquete, best known for one stubborn rule on his farms: not a drop of water is used to process the coffee. Every lot from his estates is dried with the fruit or the sticky layer still on the seed — natural or honey — on raised African beds in the sun (Nordic Barista Cup, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23; Proud Mary Academy, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
That makes him an unusual figure in a country whose fame rests on immaculate washed Geisha. Where Hacienda La Esmeralda and Elida Estate built their reputations on the clean, bright end of the spectrum, Cruz spent two decades arguing the opposite case — that drying fruit on the seed, in a humid tropical climate everyone said was wrong for it, could produce a great cup.
Story
He came to coffee from pest control, not from a coffee family fortune. Before farming, Cruz spent 17 years working in biological pesticides — using bacteria, yeasts and fungi instead of chemicals to control pests. When the coffee borer beetle first hit Panama, he wrote the Panamanian Borer Beetle Action Plan, which is reported to still be in use (Proud Mary Academy, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
He was born and raised in Boquete, took a degree in agronomy from Escuela Agrícola Panamericana Zamorano in Honduras, holds an MBA from INCAE Business School, and is a certified Q Grader — meaning he is licensed to score coffee to the Coffee Quality Institute’s standard, so he can cup his own lots to the same rules a buyer would (Nordic Barista Cup, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
The farms. His flagship is Los Lajones, on the slopes of Volcán Barú above Boquete, bought in 1992 by Graciano Cruz Sr. and Jr. — half each — from what had been a cattle farm. It runs to about 160 hectares, of which only a minority is planted; the rest is left as forest (DoubleShot, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23; Union Hand-Roasted, accessed 2026-07-23). His second estate is Emporio, also near Volcán Barú. Both are organic certified (Nordic Barista Cup, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
Planting follows the hill. Hardy Caturra and Catuaí sit lower down under native Inga shade trees; Geisha — and, higher up, Pacamara — go on the upper slopes, with bamboo for shade (Proud Mary Academy, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23; Union Hand-Roasted, accessed 2026-07-23).
Why the no-water rule matters. Washed processing is the water-hungry method: pulp the cherry, ferment off the mucilage, rinse it away — and then deal with the wastewater. Cruz’s answer was to skip the wet stage entirely, which removes both the water draw and the effluent. He has also experimented with an atmospheric water generator — a machine that condenses drinking water out of the air — to supply farm workers, cutting the daily haul of bottled water up the hill (Proud Mary Academy, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
The trade-off is difficulty, not cost. Fruit drying in the open in a wet, warm climate can mould or over-ferment, which is exactly why Central American producers were sceptical of dry fermentation when he started. DoubleShot, his Czech roaster, describes his method as “precise and controlled drying on African beds” to stay ahead of mould (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
Beyond Panama. He runs at least one farm in El Salvador and has directed coffee projects in Ethiopia, Peru, Taiwan and Brazil — which is how his processing approach travelled (DoubleShot, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23; Proud Mary Academy, confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23). The Honey process note records a claim that he introduced honey processing to El Salvador; that specific claim remains unverified.
Competition record
Cruz is a regular in the Best of Panama top ten rather than a headline record-breaker — the auction prices below are strong professional-market numbers, not the five-figure sums the record Geisha lots fetch.
| Year | Category | Place | Reported price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Geisha Washed | 7th | US$1,600/kg |
| 2025 | Geisha Natural | 6th | US$1,620/kg |
| 2021 | (category not stated) | 4th | — |
| 2020 | Varietals — Emporio Caturra | 5th | — |
| 2020 | (two categories, not stated) | 10th and 6th | — |
Every figure in that table comes from roasters and retailers summarising Best of Panama data, not from the competition’s own results pages — see the callout below. Note also that a washed Geisha appears in the 2025 list: DoubleShot reports he has recently begun wet-processing selected Geisha lots, which is a departure from the no-water rule that made his name (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23).
To verify
All Best of Panama placements and prices above. The official results pages at bestofpanama.org were not reachable for the relevant years (the results URL returns 404 and the homepage now covers only the 2026 edition, accessed 2026-07-23). The 2025 placements and per-kilo prices come from DoubleShot (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23); a Malaysian retailer, HWC, separately reports a 6th place Geisha in 2025 and 5th place for Emporio Caturra in 2020 (Facebook post, accessed 2026-07-23); the 4th in 2021 and 10th and 6th in 2020 come from Union Hand-Roasted (accessed 2026-07-23), without category names. No cupping scores were published by any of them. Confirm against official BoP results before quoting.
To verify
How high the farms actually sit, and how much is planted. Sources disagree. Union Hand-Roasted puts Los Lajones at 1,750–2,400 m with about 40 ha in coffee and 120 ha left as forest (accessed 2026-07-23). DoubleShot gives 1,600–2,000 m and 35 ha in coffee (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23), and Proud Mary Academy gives 1,600–2,100 m for both Los Lajones and Emporio (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23). Two of three agree on a 1,600–2,100 m band, so treat the higher range as the outlier until checked. The 160 ha total and the 1992 purchase are the two figures all sources agree on.
To verify
Emporio’s origin, and a possible third farm. DoubleShot states Emporio is 14 ha, acquired in 2007 from his brother Eduardo, and places both estates in Volcancito Arriba, Boquete (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23) — single-sourced. Proud Mary Academy names a third Panamanian estate, Abo Chan, which no other source consulted mentions (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23). Proud Mary also states both farms are partially inside a National Park (confirmed via WebFetch 2026-07-23); that is a buyer’s description, with no park boundary document to back it.
Related
- Los Lajones · Emporio Estate — his Boquete estates
- Honey process · Natural process · Washed process — the methods his career argues about
- Best of Panama · SCAP · Panama Cup
- Geisha · Caturra · Catuaí · Pacamara
- Q Grader · Coffee Quality Institute
- Wilford Lamastus · Peterson family · Don Pachi Serracín — the other Boquete names
- Proud Mary Coffee — one of the roasters that publishes his producer profile
Official links
- (no official website found — loslajones.com does not resolve, and no producer-run site or SCAP profile page was located as of 2026-07-23)
Sources
- Nordic Barista Cup — Graciano Cruz: Varieties — confirmed via WebFetch, accessed 2026-07-23
- Proud Mary Academy — Producer: Graciano Cruz, Santa Lucia, Boquete, Panama — confirmed via WebFetch, accessed 2026-07-23
- DoubleShot (Czech Republic) — Graciano Cruz — confirmed via WebFetch, accessed 2026-07-23
- Best of Panama — official competition site — fetched 2026-07-23; no archived results for the relevant years were reachable
- Union Hand-Roasted — Los Lajones, Panama — cited in the research report; the site rate-limited repeated fetch attempts, so not independently confirmed, accessed 2026-07-23
- Barista Hustle — Drip Irrigation: An Interview with Graciano Cruz — accessed 2026-07-23
- HWC Malaysia — Facebook post on Graciano Cruz lots — retailer promotion, accessed 2026-07-23