Panama Janson Coffee Lot 920 Gesha Washed: Competition Lot from Boquete, Chiriquí

Three generations. One lot. Competition-grade.

Carl Axel Janson left Sweden in 1926. He arrived in Panama and found a stretch of the Chiriquí Highlands that reminded him, in some way, of where he came from, the elevation, the forests, the air. He started a cattle farm. He stayed.

In 1941, he established Hacienda Los Alpes, named after the Swiss Alps. He had already brought Brangus cattle to the highlands and stocked the farm's lakes with fish from Florida. He was not planting coffee. He was building a home.

His sons came next. Carl, Michael, Ricardo, and Peter Janson grew up on this land, watched their father tend it, and in 1990 officially founded Janson Coffee. They were not starting from zero. They were converting decades of stewardship into something more specific, a coffee operation on land that had already been cared for across a generation.

The next generation is managing it alongside them now. Kai returned to Panama from the United States, where he had spent years working in coffee, to support his father Carl in running the business. Jannette came back later, in the late 2010s, leaving a corporate career to follow her father Michael into the work he had spent his life building. Together with Jannette's son Miguel, they lead operations across both farms. Jannette sits on the SCAP Board of Directors, the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama.

Kai describes their generation as "keepers of the land" that his grandfather, father, and uncles worked to enrich and protect. The farms reflect that. Across both properties, the family preserves the native plant life that keeps the soil in balance and removes the need for pesticides or herbicides. They maintain a nursery of high-grade Arabica seeds chosen specifically for their seedbeds, and collect native tree seeds from their own forests to raise and replant as part of an ongoing reforestation effort. The two farms together cover 100 hectares on the Talamanca mountain range and provide habitat for a range of birds and wildlife. The work is generational in the most literal sense. As Jannette put it: "In that cup of coffee, it's all our years of work… 30 years my family has been in coffee." Their lots have qualified for the Best of Panama auction consistently since 2013.

Lot 920 comes from Los Alpes, the higher of the two farms, at 1,600 to 1,700 meters above sea level on the slopes of the Tizingal Volcano in the Talamanca Mountain Range, in the vicinity of the Barú Volcano and the natural reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site, La Amistad International Park. What Janson grows there is their signature green tip Gesha. Green tip refers to the color of the new leaf growth on this particular phenotype of the plant, as opposed to the bronze-tipped type that also exists within the variety. Producers and buyers who have worked with both have consistently found the green-tipped plants to produce a more aromatic, floral cup. Janson cultivates this phenotype specifically. At altitude, it produces what green tip Gesha is known for: florality, precision of acidity, a taste that lingers long after the cup is empty.

The lot is washed. That is also a decision, not a default. Washed processing is what you choose when you want maximum transparency, when you want the cup to show you exactly what the farm, the altitude, and the varietal genetics have produced, without anything from the fruit remaining to add what was not already there. At 1,600 to 1,700 masl, with this phenotype, that transparency produces lemongrass and lychee leading the first sip, strawberry and grape sweetness building through the middle, a finish that is long and aromatic and clean. Bright acidity without sharpness. A cup that is, in the best sense, complete.

This is washed Gesha at its most transparent. Every decision the farm made, the altitude, the phenotype selection, the micro-lot management, the processing, shows up in the cup. Nothing is hidden. Nothing needs to be.

Three generations of one family. One lot.

Origin: Volcán, Chiriquí, Panama
Farm: Hacienda Los Alpes
Altitude: 1,600–1,700 masl
Process: Washed
Varietal: Green Tip Gesha
Notes: Lemongrass, Lychee, Strawberry, Grape