Established by Tollef B. Mönniche in 1922, purchased by Alfred Collins in 1957, and developed and currently operated by members of the Collins family, Finca Lerida is one of Boquete's oldest and most traditional Coffee Estates.

Located in the Highlands of Boquete, at an altitude of 5,500 feet, on the foothills of the Baru Volcano, with its deep rich volcanic soil, this beautifull and traditional coffee estate offers optimum conditions for growing premium mountain coffee. The ample rainfall and sunny, dry harvesting season promotes ideal production of this Arabica coffee.

During the months of December to May, Lerida's harvesting season, only the ripe cherries are selected and picked daily. The coffee then undergoes a meticulous wet process in Finca Lerida's original and unique processing plant designed and constructed by Mr. Monniche himself. In keeping with his tradition, after the wet process the beans are sun dried, stored and aged in wooden silos, until the coffee is ready to be used.

Mr. Mönniche designed and constructed the first "beneficio", processing plant, functioning with water and by gravity, and designed and patented a coffee siphon which would be used in "beneficios" throughout Central America and other countries in the world.

The coffee estate is surrounded by great extenssions of primary and secondary forests in order to protect the water source nended to process the coffee, and contains one of the richest biodiversities of the region.

Finca Lerida's Coffee has been exported to Europe, North America and Japan. In fact, in 1929, the estate produced 930 quintals of coffee. Most of this crop was the first export of Panama coffee to Germany and it sold for three times the then current price for Boquete coffee.

Lerida's many times award winning coffee was ranked #1 amongst 119 coffees from 15 countries at the Cupping Pavilion during the Boston SCAA's (Specialty Coffee Association of America) annual meeting.

At Finca Lerida we offer an in depth interactive Coffee Tour for those interested in learning more about coffee, which includes the original processing plant on display at Lerida's Permanent Exhibit.

To our guests and visitors: ¡Enjoy Finca Lerida's Specialty Coffee carefully roasted daily and prepared on the spot specially for you!