The women-run Jaramillo Estate is a 10-hectare, shade-grown coffee plantation located five minutes from downtown Boquete. Jaramillo and the nearby Hortigal Estate are both incorporated under the Jaramillo Coffee Estate name and both are owned by Eira Suárez and her three daughters, Carmen, Lourdes and Nadeía, the latter of whom manages the farms day to day.
Jaramillo was originally owned by Eira's great uncle Oscar Sánchez, making the farm a precious family inheritance.
Jaramillo Estate produces washed Typica and Caturra, as well as a Typica natural and Gesha natural-processed microlots. During harvest season, coffee pickers from the Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous community are assigned to lots to carefully select coffee cherries based on their optimal ripeness. Pickers are taught about the importance of detailed coffee cherry selection and are encouraged to collect based on quality standards.
Beneficios de Café de Boquete
Daily, cherries are transported from the farm to the family's private coffee mill, Beneficios de Café de Boquete, in Dolega, about 30 minutes from the farm. The mill has been operating and exporting coffee since 1989 under the administration of Norberto Suárez, Eira's brother (and the owner of La Gloria). The coffees processed at the mill are exported under the Baru Indian High label.
The mill is equipped with Pinhalense agricultural technology and counts on an experienced team overlooking the entire workflow, ensuring traceability and efficiency. The mill's parchment "resting" warehouse is built with ternium, a material that helps to control humidity and maintain temperature levels within the storage unit, to protect and maintain the beans' quality.
Diversity, Sustainability
The health of the Jaramillo Estate is evident in its beautiful coffees, plant diversity and abundant bird and wildlife populations. Earlier this year, Jaramillo and Hortigal began hosting birdwatching sessions, with the goal of raising awareness about the great natural treasures in the area, which must be known, protected and preserved by all. Observations are registered on the farms' Instagram feed and the global bird listing platform eBird.
Both Jaramillo and Hortigal maintain native tree cover that helps sustain agroforestry systems that are valuable to native wildlife and resident and migratory birds. For the past two years, both farms have been planting a native tree called palomo in the areas between coffee lanes to provide beneficial shade for coffee trees, a habitat and food source for birds, and to help the farm improve its resilience to changing climate conditions with no loss of productive cropland.
Sustainable farming practices such as productivity-boosting pruning techniques are implemented every year after the harvest, and an effective soil and crop fertilization program is followed four times a year. And both mineral and organic homemade coffee-pulp compost are applied to nurture adult crops, as well as seedlings in the coffee nursery.
Cupping notes: Lemon zest, honey, delicate and soft.
