The 1kg program
Panama Geisha, one kilogram at a time
The same lots we sell by the bag, available one kilogram at a time.
Who it's for
The best Panamanian lots are small. A few bags, sometimes less than that. They tend to go to whoever will take the whole thing, which has quietly kept nano-roasters and competitors away from the coffees they would most want to buy.
We cup with 20+ farms across Chiriquí and work with more than 30 producers, and we break the same lots down to single kilograms. Nothing is held back for the larger buyers.
Why the packaging matters
Green coffee changes once it leaves the mill, and small quantities change fastest, because there is less mass to buffer shifts in moisture and temperature.
Forward uses proprietary packaging built to extend the shelf life of green coffee, so a single kilogram is still worth roasting months after it lands.
The maths
What a kilogram actually gives you
The industry quotes green coffee in dollars per kilo, which tells you nothing until you convert it into cups. Here is the working we use.
- 1kg of green becomes about 800g roasted. A 20% loss is conservative once you allow for mass loss in the roast, quality control, and a couple of sneaky brews.
- Brew at 1:16. That is the global standard ratio, and a cup is 250mL, or 8oz.
- 800g at 1:16 is 12,800mL of brewed coffee. Divide by 250mL and you get roughly 51 cups.
- Round down to 50. Liquid retention and extra QC will take a little more.
1kg of green coffee is about 50 cups, or 8 bags of 100g roasted.
Work it out
Cost per cup calculator
Put in what a kilogram of green costs and see what it means on a menu. Coffee cost only, before labour, rent and everything else.
For reference, $200 was the lowest lot at Best of Panama in 2024.
- $25.00per 100g roasted bag
- $4.00per 250mL cup
- $12.50per 750mL, a wine bottle
Based on 1kg of green giving 800g roasted, which is 50 cups, 8 bags of 100g, or 16 bottle-equivalents.
Cost per cup
What the green price really means
The same table we work from. A coffee at $200/kg, which was the lowest lot at Best of Panama in 2024, lands at four dollars a cup.
| 1kg green | 100g roasted | 250mL cup | Benchmark |
|---|---|---|---|
| $6.60 | $0.83 | $0.13 | Current C-market |
| $50 | $6 | $1 | |
| $100 | $13 | $2 | |
| $200 | $25 | $4 | Lowest Best of Panama, 2024 |
| $500 | $63 | $10 | |
| $884 | $111 | $18 | Average Best of Panama, 2023 |
| $1,384 | $173 | $28 | Average Best of Panama, 2024 |
| $1,566 | $196 | $31 | Average Esmeralda auction, 2024 |
| $3,501 | $438 | $70 | Highest Cole has paid: Finca Sophia GW-02, 2024 |
| $10,000 | $1,250 | $200 | Highest Best of Panama, 2023 and 2024 |
| $13,518 | $1,690 | $270 | Highest recorded: Lamastus auction, 2024 |
Pure coffee cost. It excludes labour, rent, utilities and everything else that goes into a cup.
Compared to a bottle of wine
Three 250mL cups is 750mL, the size of a wine bottle, and takes about 50g of roasted coffee. So a kilogram of green is roughly 16 bottles, and 100g roasted is two.
- $10/kg green$0.63 a bottle
- $100/kg green$6.25 a bottle
- $1,000/kg green$63 a bottle
- $10,000/kg green$625 a bottle
- $100,000/kg green$6,250 a bottle
How many restaurants in your city pour bottles in that range? And how many cafés sell a cup for more than ten dollars?
Anchor the menu
Cole put Finca Sophia GW-02 'Olympus' on a menu at $200 a cup. Almost nobody ordered it. What happened instead is that people asked about it, and then ordered in the $30 to $65 range. Groups often took three cups: a low, a middle and a high.
Take the $200 option away and make $120 the ceiling, and the average order drifts down with it. Most buyers land in the low-to-middle of whatever range you show them, so the way to lift the middle is to raise the top.
A pour-over list is a conversation piece. Someone wonders aloud why a cup costs $200, and then happily pays $30 for a Geisha and feels they got the better end of it.
Competing?
Which harvest to look at
Crop year matters more than most competitors expect. Rough guidance from Cole, who judges these:
World Barista Championship 2026
Panama City, October 2026
Look at the 2026 crop.
World Barista Championship 2027
Tokyo, April 2027
The 2026 crop, well rested by then.
World Brewers Cup 2027
Bogotá, May 2027
The 2026 crop.
Many 2026 coffees will be at their best from November onward, into 2027.
See the current lots
Get access and we'll open the full catalog: scores, availability and pricing.
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