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I was surfing the net last week and discovered the Bisbee Coffee Company. I know Bisbee Arizona, it is a small town that was at one time the center of copper mining activities in Cochise County Arizona. In a past life I did some contract work in Bisbee for the County helping to retrain mine workers for new careers. It was surprising to find a Coffee Roaster and distributor in Bisbee, a good thing for us coffee growers in Boquete.
One of the things that I discovered on their web site was a video shot on a Ruiz coffee tour. In that video the guide explained the impending death of the coffee industry in Boquete. The guide explained that land here now sells for $350,000 a hectare and is unaffordable for coffee growing. I am not aware of any land, except maybe in Bajo Boquete, that is selling for $35 a meter, but the message is still worth discussion. Land even at $100,000 a hectare, $10 a meter is too expensive to use for coffee as a profitable business. As Boquete grows, more land and more coffee farms are being sold for projects like Valle Escondido, a former coffee farm.
Just as the Apricot orchards of Los Altos California and the Orange orchards of Phoenix Arizona vanished for housing, many of the coffee farms of Boquete are, and will fall to the growth of concrete and block. There is one saving grace, a small one for Boquete. We have world class coffee and we have crazy expats here who are willing to grow it at a loss.
coffee cherries Boquete Panama
Coffee is great ground cover, for many of us who live on hillsides, Coffee holds the hills in place. It is a ground cover that requires, feeding, fungicides, care and picking but all the negatives and costs are balanced by selling some of the crop and drinking the rest. I never seem to grow enough coffee to cover the fertilizer cost, but I do enjoy the gifting of coffee to guests and the drinking of a cup or three each morning. I know as a documented fact my own coffee costs me more to produce than it would cost to buy it at Ruiz or Palo Alto, I don’t care, and I am not alone.
Picking Coffee Boquete Panama
There are many small growers in Boquete, some have figured out how to make a business selling coffee and I have helped to develop a small online business selling coffee for some of them. The way we can maintain coffee as a business in Boquete is to help the coffee drinker realize we have the best they can buy. In addition buying our coffee helps feed the many indigenous people who live here and earn their daily bread picking coffee.
Drink the best
If you live here, tip a cup to the many who toil so you can enjoy a Boquete specialty coffee and if you are just surfing the web, click on this link and buy a few pounds shipped direct from Boquete to you. LINK
Great post . . . I am really looking forward to drinking a cup of Boquete coffee when I visit there next year.
Lee,
I have been coming to Boquete for the past eight years and one thing led to another, but just my being and living in this great coffee region led me to start my own coffee company called Danny Panama Coffee back in the States. Mike LaFoley owner of Wild Orchid Coffee was a great mentor initially, although, I met many other of the coffee growers, especially Panamanians like Ruiz, Serracin, Koyner, Collins, Peterson, Osorio, who helped me understand the coffee business. We are fortunate to live in such a great coffee growing region. Let’s hope that all coffee farm owners (new and old) keep coffee properties growing and harvesting a natural resource that has put Panama on the coffee map. Back in 2008 I wrote an article for the popular coffee magazine “Roast” about Panama coffee. This was when Hacienda La Esmeralda was all the rage in the markets and was winning the Specialty Coffee Association’s best coffee of the world awards. They raised the bar for quality coffee around the world and many other Panamanian coffee farms have done extremely well in the coffee auctions. I am putting the finishing touches on a book I am writing, which is a coffee memoir of my passion for coffee and some of my experiences here in the Boquete area. Hopefully when I’m done in 2012, I can share it with you.
Best,
Danny
Lee,
We live near Asheville, NC and have longed to taste coffee from your area. When I read that you were able to ship it to me (it only took 9 days) I was ecsatic.
Now, to report–I have only tried one of the three 1lb bags so far. I am hoarding it!!!! I have been drinking “good” coffee for a number of years. I thought!!!!
This is incrediblly good!!!!! I allow myself 3 cups a day and really love it. There is nothing like it anywhere.
So, on behalf of the growers and yourself, please accept my heartfelt thanks and appreciation for this. I had read so much about Boquete’s coffee and never thot I could relax in the morning , in my own sun room with a fresh cup of GREAT coffee.
As one who wants this industry to flourish, please tell me what I can do to help!!!!!!
Another great article about Boquete coffee tours, Lee!