A few days ago, I sat in some lush St. Augustine grass here in Boquete, Panama.  Later in the day, I noticed eight swollen, red bites on both forearms.  I asked a native about my bites and heard, “Nothing to worry about, you have been bitten by Coffee Bugs”.

The fact is, I was bitten by the coffee bug a long time ago.  I love coffee … hot, iced, filled with milk or blended!  Our property here is in the mountains at an altitude of approximately 4,200 feet (“Altura” in coffee lingo) and came equipped with a little more than one-half acre of producing coffee trees.  While we live in a gated community, the lots are large and the land was originally a coffee farm … and still is.

As a property owner, we have the option of having our coffee trees cared for by Hacienda Esmeralda Farm, allowing them to keep the harvest for their efforts.  These guys grow the world’s best coffee (as determined in international competition)  elsewhere in the area, higher up in the mountains, using a specialized strain of coffee plants called “Geisha”.  Unroasted, sold in bulk, their top production has sold for $300+ per pound!  And you think a cup of Starbuck’s is expensive!  For more on Hacienda Esmeralda, visit their web site at http://haciendaesmeralda.com.

A couple of years ago, we decided that we wanted to keep our coffee and this is the first year that we have cared for and harvested beans from our trees.  We expect that an average year will provide about 250 pounds of the raw coffee cherries.  Once picked, it is a rush to get them processed.  We turned to a friend with his own trees and the set up to prepare them for roasting and consumption.  As you will learn, doing so  is a multi-step process.

Machine removes outer husk from coffee

As a dedicated foodie and coffee lover, naturally, I think it will be fun to document our first foray into the world of coffee production and take you along.  So, this article starts a series I will do here to that end … well, a cup of fresh coffee will be the actual end.  Anyway …

Along the way, I’ll provide some video which will bring things to life.  We will start on the mountainside by picking some coffee and go from there.  Chapters in the series will post as they occur, not one after the other.

So, stay tuned!

Coffee drying