La Esmeralda Gesha

Variety: Gesha

Farm & Lot: Noria de Jaramillo

Region: Jaramillo, Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama

Altitude: 1,700+ Meters

Process: Washed

Harvest: March 2024

Notes: Plum, silky, white peach, nectarine, violet & jasmine.

This is our first year working with the famed Hacienda La Esmeralda. Their coffees are brilliant, their work lives up to the reputation. After multiple cuppings, I kept coming back to this lot Noria. The cup is exhuberant with fruits like lychee, pear, burgundy plum and long draws of startfruit. This profile is elegant with a floral tonality and crispness. The cup is poignant and articulated proffering a long sugary finish. Overall, this selection hits clearly with big phrases of Landrace attributes singing throughout. 

The Noria lot is located in Hacienda La Esmeralda's Jaramillo farm.  The name "noria" derives from a landmark on the site.  A "noria" is a reservoir where water is collected and then re-distributed. Jaramillo is Esmeralda's easternmost farm and the region where Price and Daniel Peterson rediscovered Panama Geisha (or at that time known as accession T2722). The farm was purchased in 1997 and was an abandoned coffee farm. The Valley of Solomon (a region in the Jaramillo farm) was where we found the geisha plants thriving during a year with a particularly hard fungal outbreak. Price Peterson picked the cherries and had the beans germinated for planting. In 1997 Gesha was planted in the Mario region, which began to produce in 2004.  Soon after, it was planted in the Noria lot, which is immediately adjacent.  The coffee planted on our Jaramillo farm is on a slope that faces the Volcano (west), which allows the evening sun to hit the plant. Jaramillo is a cloud forest, meaning that thick fog often covers the vegetation during the rainy season and thick vegetation grows all around the coffee. The soil pH is acidic and ranges from 4.5 to 5 because of Volcanic soil, from a Volcan Baru which last erupted approximately 500 years ago. Jaramillo borders La Bruña reserve, which hosts an abundance of wildlife ranging from exotic birds to jaguars. Hacienda La Esmeralda does not use insecticides or herbicides. 

This coffee was meticulously picked in February-March. After depulping, cool fermentation was done aerobically in a stainless steel tank for 2 days. Then this coffee was dried on raised beds for 18 days. Average temperatures ranged from: Daily 19°C - 25°C Nightly: 11°C - 15°C. This coffee is conistent, clean & stable. The attention to detail and care for the crop and surrounding ecosystem really shows up in the cup here. Definitely a special coffee to share and enjoy!

-Prestin

Last roast scheduled for Monday November 25th. Shipped the following day.

Our coffees are best after two weeks++ after the roast date. This will make for a smashing Christmas-time brew...if you can wait that long.