In 2004 I tasted Geisha coffee when the variety was first presented at a coffee tasting event in Panama. Shortly after my personal discovery of Geisha, I was approached by a fellow Panamanian coffee farmer - Graciano Cruz - who told me about a unique piece of land on the slopes of the dormant Baru Volcano.

In 2006, I visited the land for the first time. The fantastic elevation of 1700 to 1800 meters and the beautiful view of the valley south of Boquete gave me enough reasons to turn a dream into reality. The land was renamed 'Finca La Mula' (I visited the farm first on a mule) and eventually we planted more than 6,000 coffee trees on the steep, wooded slopes of this new Geisha coffee farm.

The planting of the Geisha babies was a true challenge for the team of fifteen Ngöbe-Buglé workers. Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Indian population has been indispensable for the existence of the Panamanian coffee culture. They perform all the essential farming tasks: from weed management to pruning and fertilizing the coffee trees, to picking the ripe coffee berries. The hardest work, planting, requires the most physical effort. In particular at La Mula. In the absence of a regular road, all coffee seedlings had to be hand carried and transported on foot through the trails winding through the forest.