In 2018, the first and longest-standing collaborative producer of GRAND CRU at the Best of Panama (BOP), the Lamastus family, set three records. Elida Estate’s Green Tip Washed Geisha scored an unprecedented 94.66, breaking the highest score record and sweeping both the Natural and Washed Geisha categories to claim the title of Best Panamanian Producer that year. Later, during the BOP auction, it even set a new record price of $803 per pound. So, what new records will this year’s BOP champion create?

- Elida Estate became a “double champion” at the 2018 BOP

Top-tier Geisha—

The glory of the Best of Panama (BOP)

Background / Competition / Judges

As the world’s first green coffee competition, the emergence of BOP can also be seen as a strategic move by Panama’s specialty coffee industry to challenge the coffee market at the time—and it successfully carved out a quality-driven blue ocean for Panama through this move. In 1995, seven Panamanian coffee-producing families jointly founded the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP for short), and in 1996, they held the first Panamanian green coffee competition—the Best of Panama (BOP for short). The 2019 BOP took place from May 22–25 in Boquete, Panama, and the announcement of the results brought the competition to its climax.

- 2019 BOP’s newly appointed president, Plinio Ruiz

The head judge of this year’s competition was once again Will Young from CAMPOS COFFEE in Australia. At the pre-competition dinner, he brought a GRAND CRU-level (classified growth) red wine and shared insights on the five First Growths of Bordeaux, using high-end wine to express his aspirations for the development of top-tier coffee.

GRAND CRU team unveiled

New changes in the BOP competition

New changes / Categories / Lots

The new auction record of $803 per pound set at last year’s BOP competition was a huge inspiration for Panamanian growers. What new changes are there in this year’s BOP? And what are the latest results? The GRAND CRU team, which has been invited multiple times to serve as international judges for BOP, sent teacher Fan Dian to participate as an international judge this year, bringing you firsthand insights.

- The GRAND CRU team invited to serve as judges for the BOP competition

>> The most up-to-date change—Category renaming

The most interesting change in this competition. In previous years, categories were distinguished by Natural and Washed, but this year they are divided into Processing Method and Washed.

Inspired by last year’s BOP championship and the high auction prices, many Panamanian producers began to hope to improve coffee quality through different processing methods, even inviting processing experts from other regions to provide guidance. As a result, the competition featured coffees with special processing methods such as lactic acid fermentation, carbonic maceration, and yeast treatment, making it difficult to simply summarize this category as “Natural.” From a forward-looking perspective, the competition decided to classify all non-traditional washed coffees under the “Processing” category.

In summary, the 2019 BOP was divided into five categories: Geisha Processing, Geisha Washed, Traditional Varieties Processing, Traditional Varieties Washed, and Pacamara.

- New category naming

The most inspiring change—Increased number of submitted lots

In today’s environment of continuously declining international coffee prices, Panama’s coffee industry has successfully inspired coffee growers by pioneering a quality-driven blue ocean. Unlike last year, when a climate-related shortage reduced production across Panama, this year saw a historically high number of submitted lots—174 lots, a 34% increase from last year—but only 78 lots qualified for evaluation by international judges.

- Trends in the number of BOP submitted lots in recent years

The lots that ultimately advanced to the international judging phase were: 24 in the Geisha Processing group, 24 in the Geisha Washed group, 10 in the Traditional Varieties Processing group, 10 in the Traditional Varieties Washed group, and 10 in the Pacamara group.

　　 2019 Best of Panama (BOP) competition partial results overview

Geisha Washed Group

First place

Elida Estate

Second place

Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Washed

Third place

El Estella

Fourth place

Santa Maria

Fifth place

Bambito

Sixth place

Hacienda La Esmeralda Canas Sector

Seventh place

Carmen

  Eighth place

  Abu

  Geisha Processing Group

  First place

  Elida Estate

  Second place

  Janson

  Third place

  Santa Maria（Santa Maria）

  Fourth place

  Hacienda La Esmeralda Canas Sector

  Fifth place

  Hacienda La Esmeralda Jaramillo Sector

  Sixth place

  Auromar

  Seventh place

  La Estella

  Traditional Varieties Washed Group

  First place

  Santa Barbara（Santa Barbara）

  Second place

  Hacienda La Esmeralda

  Third place

  Bambito Special

  Traditional Varieties Processing Group

  First place

  Las Brumas

  Second place

  Damari（Damarri）

  Third place

  Kotowa Duncan

  Pacamara Group

  First place

  Damari（Damarri）