Iris Estate Illumination

Vibrant, elegant and clean. Jasmine and yellow peach sit up front, with decadent caramel carrying through a precise, delicate, high-clarity expression of Geisha from Carbonic Maceration Washed processing.

Iris Estate was founded at the end of 2016 when three coffee professionals - Jamison Savage (also of Finca Deborah and Savage Coffees), Sasa Sestic of Project Origin, and Elvin Siew - bought a vacant plot of volcanic land roughly 15km from Morgan Estate in Panama's Volcan region. Jamison planted a range of varietals across the property at varying altitudes without clearing or adjusting the surrounding forest, working from the belief that specialty coffee should express its terroir rather than be defined purely by processing style. The three partners share the farm's work openly online, aiming to close the gap between coffee producers and the consumers and baristas who enjoy the final cup.

Coffee first reached Panama in the 1740s, though early lowland plantings failed. Cultivation took hold in the 1820s as settlers moved into the cooler western highlands, and by 1870-1890 Boquete and the surrounding Chiriqui highlands were established as a serious coffee region, shaped by Scottish, German, American and Swedish settlers drawn to the volcanic slopes.

Geisha was first transplanted to Boquete from CATIE germplasm in 1963, but remained a little-known variety until Hacienda La Esmeralda's lot dominated the Best of Panama auction in 2004. Since then, the Volcan and Boquete regions have become almost synonymous with world-record Geisha prices, with the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (founded 1997) and the Best of Panama auction (launched 2001) central to the region's rise.