Coffee heaven - Boquete

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We are in coffee heaven! Boquete is a little town up in the mountains, and with its vulcanic soil and altitudes, it's the perfect nourishing environment for coffee. So we got to polish up our coffee knowledge by visiting a working coffee estate and through experiencing, touching and tasting the coffee beans. With its vast grounds, splendid mountains, chirping birds and tamed with butterflies Finca Lérida is simply paradise. The air smells sweet with flowers and coffee. I did not want to leave! Rolando was our guide and during a couple of hours he passionately shared all his knowledge about the plantation, the different varieties of coffee they grow (amongst which the super gourmet Geisha coffee), why the Panamanian coffee is the best in the world (of course), letting us taste the coffee berries (floral, citrussy and green pepperish), demonstrating the different processing methods (dry, semi dry and washed), how the selection of the beans takes place and finally we got to do a cupping session where we got to smell, slurp and taste the coffee. All knowledge I learnt during the coffee master program at Starbucks I got to experience first hand! Invaluable. Absolutely loved it!

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