What a day on a coffee farm in Boquete actually looks like.
by Anna Patricia Fonseca on Oct 16, 2026
The day starts before seven, when the air in the highlands is still cool. You meet the team, get a basket, and walk down to the rows that are ready to pick.
The morning: picking by hand
Only the ripe cherries go in the basket. It sounds simple; it takes a few hours before your eye gets fast enough to tell the colours apart. Nobody expects you to keep up on the first day.
“You learn the farm with your hands first. The theory comes later.”
The afternoon: from cherry to bean
After lunch the work moves to processing: sorting, washing, and laying the coffee out to dry. You see why each step matters for what ends up in the cup.
The day closes with a cupping. You taste lots from different parts of the farm and start to notice the differences you picked by hand that morning.