Boquete

Boquete sits on the eastern side of Volcán Barú, and it is where Geisha became the most expensive coffee in the world. The variety had been in Panama since the 1960s as an unremarkable, low-yielding curiosity; in 2004 a single farm entered it in the national competition and the result rewrote what specialty coffee could sell for.

The region's other asset is the *bajareque* — a fine wind-driven mist off the Caribbean side that keeps the highest farms cool and shaded much of the year.

At the top end, Geisha: jasmine, bergamot and tropical fruit with a tea-like body, the most aromatic coffee commercially grown. The region's Catuai and Caturra are excellent in a quieter register — citrus, cocoa, clean sweetness.

High slopes on the wet eastern flank of Volcán Barú, cooled by persistent mist off the Caribbean.