panama CARMEN ESTATE

Panama Carmen Estate Coffee: One of the Finest

Overview

Carmen Estate has been steadily producing high-quality coffee for over 50 years. Carlos Aguilera is the third generation owner of his family’s estate and mill that was established by Efrain and Carmen Franceschi in 1960.

Carmen consistently places within the top 5 at specialty cupping competitions each year, earning them a 91 rating on Coffee Review’s scale!

Sustainability

Carmen Estate provides safe and healthy conditions for workers and their families. They work hard to provide a clean environment, good food, education opportunities for children (which are not allowed in the fields), healthcare coverage that is tailored just right so you can get your health back on track without worry about it weighing heavily on your family’s finances.

Carmen Estate employs over 250 people who dedicate themselves each day towards providing everything needed by our employees’ homes from housing to transport to medical care with no out-of-pocket costs involved! We take pride in being one company where we don’t have any secrets – all records are kept transparent which means if anything were found amiss then those responsible would be held accountable immediately

CARMEN ESTATE carlos

Coffee Production

Carmen’s agricultural practices are based on a set of principles that ensure the best output of the farm while maintaining ecological awareness. The result is that Carmen has been able to manage insects without using any pesticides and conserve soil so well it produces excellent crops every year, having never used chemical fertilizers or herbicides in over twenty years!

Each year Carmen carefully selects and handpicks coffee cherries by the Nôbe-Buglé indigenous people. The coffee cherry selection process is a manual one, as they are only picked when their color has fully matured to red; this ensures that optimum results will be maintained throughout all stages of harvesting and processing.

The coffee cherries are transported to the mill where they’re quickly processed. Advanced machinery washes off all of their skin, pulp and mucilage from what’s left is just a parchment bean. Their water usage has been reduced so that Carmen can help keep our environment clean in ecological conservation efforts! The residues – which come from this process- are recycled into farmlands as organic fertilizer instead of dumping them out at concentrated levels, contributing positively to natural ecosystems

Every day ripe bright red coffee beans leave the field for processing with advanced low water usage machines washing away all of its skins and other contents while recycling any residue into farmland

The parchment beans are pre-dried in the natural sunlight and breezes on concrete patios. Mechanical driers, fueled by coffee parchment, are then used to complete the drying process. After they’re dried out of their parchments bags – that’s when we put them all together into stacks for export!

These bags are carefully classified and numbered by lots, then stored in a wooden warehouses or bodegas for a 60 day resting period. Beans are cupped lot by lot in order to determine any errors or defects from the field, harvest, or drying and milling processes. The finest lot samples are taken to the lab and analyzed for fragrance, aroma, body acidity flavor and other coffee qualities using industry standards of cupping before being graded sorted into size density packs that will be finally shipped out on final packing days as finished product!

panama CARMEN ESTATE roasting champs

Details of the Roaster

  • Finca: Carmen Estate
  • Owner: Carlos Aguilera
  • Town / Region: Volcán, Chiriqui
  • Varietals: Geisha, Typica, Caturra
  • Altitude:  1.600-1.700mts
  • Processing: Fully washed
  • Packaging:  Grain Pro and Jute Bags
  • Harvest Time: December – March
  • Cup Profile: full-bodied, with hints of caramel, honey, fruit, toasted grains and chocolate

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