Our Coffees:

• Esmeralda Special
• Diamond Mountain 
• Palmyra

Hot News!

About Our Coffee

Where To Buy Retail

Sustainability

Contact Us

Home Page

Esmeralda Special

Altitude: 1,450m and higher

The Esmeralda Special 2009 auction was held on May 19th, 2009. For more details and information on the auction, please visit the Esmeralda Special Auction page.

To see the complete results of the 2009 auction click here.

For a complete list of our 2008 buyers, click here.

• 1^st Place Specialty Coffee Association of America Roasters Guild Cupping Pavilion (2007, 2006, 2005)
• 2nd Place Coffee of The Year (2009, 2008)
• 1^st Place “Best of Panama” (2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004)
• 1^st Place Rainforest Alliance Cupping for Quality (2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2004)

"In 1996 we bought a coffee farm in Boquete, in the area known as Jaramillo. We had known for some time that the farm had good altitude (1450 to 1700 meters) and a nice slightly orange cup. It was an old farm with an interesting collection of coffee varieties planted by various owners over the years. We increased the plantings to about 60 hectares (part had been converted to a dairy) and basically ‘overhauled’ the farm. Much of the newer plantings did not come into production until the 03/04 harvest.

During the  year 2002 it occurred to my son, Daniel, that perhaps the cup of this farm was not due to an overall goodness, but rather perhaps there was one area that was producing an exceptional cup and, when mixed together with the rest of the production, a generally ‘good’ cup resulted. He tested this notion by cupping coffees from all over the farm. Sure enough, there was one small valley at the high end of the farm which produced the extraordinary cup now known as ‘Esmeralda Special’ – and which was the coffee that sold at the extraordinary price. The coffee on the remainder of the farm remains quite good, but not the really knock-your-socks-off cup of the Esmeralda Special.

We now know that this remarkable cup is the result of climate (cold), variety, careful harvesting and inventive processing. Due to the climate and variety, it is also a low yielding coffee, only producing about 100 bags at present.

We are not really sure yet whether this cup is the result of the micro-climate in the small valley, the rather unusual variety of coffee planted there, or a combination of both. We will be looking into this in the coming harvest. It is also a very low yielding area – again due to both the cool climate and very long internode variety. Thus it only produced about 50 bags this year and, hopefully, 75 to 100 in the coming harvest.

We do know that this coffee is NOT the result of intense selection – a common requirement for great coffees. We actually export a higher percentage of cherry picked in this coffee than in the rest of the farm. Likewise, it is not just coffee from the peak of the harvest – the quality seems to hold up from beginning to end. It is also not a ‘curiosity’ coffee – i.e. one that has passed through the digestive tract of an odd animal or originated in a isolated island in the middle of the sea. We suspect and hope that it will be a coffee that can be multiplied in Boquete to a point where reasonable volumes can be obtained. "