COFFEE
24 WINE SPECTATOR • MAY 31, 2020ANNAPRYADKOBY MARK PENDERGRAST
I
n 1967, a U.S. banker named Rudolph Peterson visited Panama and
fell in love with a beautiful property called Hacienda La Esmeralda,
in the district of Boquete. He bought it with thoughts of retiring
there, but never did. Then, in 1972, his son Price, in his mid-30s, left
his job as an anatomy professor at the University of Pennsylvania and
took over the farm. At the time, there was only a small plot of coffee
growing there. But in 1985, Price decided to switch large areas of the
property over to the crop.
When Price Peterson took over Esmeralda, no one expected much
from Panamanian coffee. Its quality was decent but not exceptional.
That began to change in the late 1990s, after Peterson invested in an
abandoned coffee farm in the Jaramillo subdivision of Boquete, where
several different varieties had been planted. There, Peterson nourished
the existing coffee plants and added more.
In 2004, Peterson’s son Daniel, who had just graduated from college
in the U.S., decided to separately sample the different varieties grow-
ing on the Jaramillo farm. As it happened, the Geisha (or Gesha)
variety, with seedlings transplanted in the 1960s from Costa Rica, had
a unique, superior taste. This vari-
ety had been around Boquete for a
couple of decades, but because of
its low yields, most coffee farmers
had eliminated it without realizing
its potential. Geisha likely origi-
nated in Ethiopia, the birthplace
of coffee, from the Gesha Moun-
tains or the Gesha region, and was
later imported to Costa Rica and
onward from there to Panama.
Esmeralda’s Geisha won the 2004
Best of Panama competition, the
country’s equivalent of the interna-
tional Cup of Excellence, and con-
tinued to win for many years thereafter. On the
Jaramillo farm (one of several now owned by the
Petersons), the Geisha trees grow in rich volca-
nic soil. With cooler temperatures, high humid-
ity from both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
and large, mature shade trees, the microclimate
proved perfect for cultivating the variety.
When it first won the Best of Panama coffee
prize, Esmeralda Geisha cost $21 a pound for
green beans at auction; as it continued to win,
the price escalated. By 2017, it topped $600 at countrywide auctions, the
highest price yet achieved by green beans.
Now Esmeralda hosts its own auction every year, offering specially
processed microlots of Geisha beans grown in a variety of microclimates
and processed using a range of methods. These small-batch offerings
include the estate’s Mario, Bosque, Noria and Reina beans, and they
come from different patches on the slopes of Jaramillo.
You can buy these rare, costly beans directly from the source through
its website (shop.haciendaesmeralda.com). For $475, you get a small
sample of 15 roasted offerings from several of Esmeralda’s farms; if you
want to roast your own, it’s $400 for green beans. Beans from the 2020
crop will be available in a few months.I acquired one of the last 2019 boxes and sampled the lots from the
Jaramillo farm where Geisha was first identified. The Mario San José
style, washed via the “wet” processing method and mechanically dried,
knocked me out with its jasmine aroma and peach and apricot notes.
The Noria San José, dried for three days on a rare sunny patio (it is typi-
cally overcast in the mountains), was similar but even better, with juicy
notes of raspberry and peach. This is, without question, some of the best
coffee I have ever sipped. Then there is the double-washed Noria San
José, left to soak for 60 hours, and the Noria Carnaval Natural, allowed
to dry whole in its fruit under careful monitoring.At the moment, a naturally dried
Panama Geisha Esmeralda Special is
available from Belux Coffee Roasters
in Alpharetta, Ga., (beluxcoffee
.com) in a 4-ounce bag for $80, which
makes about eight cups. After trying
the brew, I would say it’s worth the
price. These are the same Mario Car-
naval beans I sampled directly from
the farm, but dried naturally, yielding
aromas of jasmine and notes of mango,
peach and bergamot.
For a bit less money, you can also buy Esmeralda Private Selection, a
blend. I enjoyed a cup from Paradise Roasters in Minneapolis. And at
a relative bargain of about $15 a pound, there is Esmeralda Geisha 1500,
a mixture of the Geishas grown at an average elevation of 4,900 feet
(the Special beans grow at 5,400 feet or higher). Unless you are a prac-
ticed coffee connoisseur, you may not be able to tell the difference.
No matter the price point, Esmeralda Geisha is a must-try for anyone
serious about sampling the best the coffee world has to offer, a testa-
ment to the natural bounty of Boquete and the hard work and perse-
verance of the Peterson family.Mark Pendergrast is author of Uncommon Grounds, a history of coffee,
and Beyond Fair Trade.The Peterson family: (from left) Rachel, Price, Susan, Erik and DanielGeisha coffee cherries prior to processingThe Price of Excellence
Esmeralda
is a must-try for
anyone serious
about sampling the
best the coffee
world has to
offer.—M.P.
Esmeralda
offer.—M.P.
WS053120_coffee.indd 24 3/18/20 10:18 AM