Elida Estate Gesha — The $803 and $1,029 Auction Milestones
Historical milestone, not our tasting review
These profiles describe events, farms, varieties and notable coffees. Numbers reported by competition organizers or other reviewers are not our tasting scores; we do not convert those numbers into five-star ratings. Where a precise historical result cannot be matched to a specific lot, year and primary record, we leave it unscored.
Historical results and attribution: Daily Coffee News reported auction bids of $803/lb in 2018 and $1,029/lb in 2019 for distinct Elida natural Gesha lots. It attributed a 95.25-point competition score to the 2019 lot and producer. Neither price nor organizer score is our five-star house tasting score.
Our evidence and rating standards →What was it?
Two celebrated natural-process Gesha lots from the Lamastus family's Elida Estate in Panama. In Best of Panama auctions, Elida coffee fetched $803 per pound in 2018 and a different natural-process Gesha lot reached $1,029 per pound in 2019, according to contemporary trade reporting.
Who grew it?
The Lamastus family, who have farmed Elida Estate for generations. Wilford Lamastus Sr. led the farm's rise; his sons Wilford Jr. and Elias carried the record auctions home.
Where?
Elida Estate, inside Volcán Barú National Park at high elevation in Boquete, Panama — much of the farm is protected cloud forest.
What made it important
In 2018 an Elida natural Gesha sold at Best of Panama for $803 per pound. In July 2019 another Elida natural-process Gesha reached $1,029 per pound, the auction record at the time. These are reported winning bids for identifiable green-coffee lots, not retail prices or our tasting ratings.
How was it processed?
Contemporary reporting identifies both the 2018 and 2019 record-setting Elida lots as natural-process Gesha. Do not confuse these with separate washed-process entries or other Lamastus competition lots.
What did reviewers say?
Daily Coffee News reported that the 2019 Elida natural-process 'Green Tip' lot received a 95.25-point Best of Panama competition score, attributing the figure to producer Wilford Lamastus Jr. That organizer/producer score is not an independent WhoMakesTheBestCoffee tasting.
What did it change?
The 2018 and 2019 results demonstrated how far auction bidding for exceptionally scarce, traceable lots could rise. They do not establish the average income of coffee farmers or the quality of all Gesha coffees.
Where is that producer today?
Elida Estate still produces Geisha lots that headline Best of Panama, and the Lamastus family continues to farm alongside the national park that borders their land.
Sources & further reading
External articles and records support specific historical details; a source does not independently verify every statement on this page. Unlinked research notes are identified separately, not presented as citations.