Dear friends, for this Christmas, like every year, we have purchased a lot from the Peterson family from the private collection of Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama, The lots in the private collection are made up of a blend of micro-lots from their Geisha-producing farms. This year I had the opportunity to try these coffees during a training course at Xorxios. There, we did several blind tastings in Brazil, and whenever a Geisha was on the table, it was unmistakable. They have a characteristic floral aroma whose intensity never diminished. Both the aroma and the fragrance were very fragrant, and the flavor was fully matched. We tried this coffee in both washed-process and natural-process tastings. We all agreed that they were the highest-scoring coffees, even surpassing very good Ethiopians. Our instructor, Rolando Cañas himself, "an internationally recognized figure in the coffee world," said that nothing more could be expected from a coffee, referring to a natural Geisha from Panama.
These are grown on the Jaramillo, Quiel and Cañas Verdes farms at high altitudes of 1,600-1,800 meters above sea level.
The coffees in the private collection showcase the classic aromas that have made people around the world fall in love with Geisha coffee: floral, fruity, high citric acidity, a bold cup, and a juicy body. Each coffee at Hacienda La Esmeralda is picked at its peak ripeness, and this, combined with the high altitude, results in a sweet, bright, and delicious cup.
The history of Geisha Coffee dates back to 1936, when Captain Whalley of a British colony was tasked with collecting 10 pounds of coffee seeds from the area around Geisha Mountain in present-day Ethiopia. He was commissioned to collect these seeds as part of a census of Ethiopian wild coffee varieties mandated by the Kenyan Director of Agriculture. Ethiopia's wild forests are the birthplace of coffee, and this survey was conducted to assess the commercial viability of hundreds of "accessions" (small regional mutations of a core coffee variety) for planting in other British colonies. This varietal was then taken to other countries in the region, where it grew and acclimated to the soils and climates of each region. From there, it made the leap to the Americas and was established in Costa Rica, where Hacienda La Esmeralda acquired it.
In 2004, for "Best of Panama," an annual coffee cupping competition, the Petersons did something they'd never done before: during processing, they separated the production from different areas of the farm into individual lots. This was the first time the cuppers ever tasted a sample that was 100% Geisha coffee, and when they did, it was clear Hacienda La Esmeralda had something new on its hands: the explosion of juicy brightness and multiple aromas. Hacienda La Esmeralda won the 2004 "Best of Panama" competition with its Geisha coffee, and that year it set a record for the highest price paid for a coffee at auction.
Since then, Hacienda La Esmeralda has done much to improve its high-altitude Geisha coffee cultivation, including substantial experiments in Washed and Natural processing methods. Special attention has also been paid to meticulous lot separation, allowing them to develop a more nuanced understanding of the different microclimates in which Geisha thrives best.
