Hacienda Esmeralda Special Microlot |
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 Boquete, Panama
The most celebrated coffee of our time, this 100% Geisha-variety Hacienda Esmeralda Special Microlot first offers the drinker an astonishingly intense fragrance of jasmine and citrus blossom. Below this captivating fragrance are the sweetness of blossom honey and the flavor of sweet citrus – not often tasted in coffee but charming and amazing. Unique in its ability to deliver these amazing flavors, this coffee is sought after by coffee lovers the world over. Pre-order for first roast date: August 9. Price per 8 oz bag includes shipping. (Ships separately.) |
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$34.95
(per 8 oz bag) | ||
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Additional roast dates will occur every two weeks while supplies last.  Central to that story is the unique property of Esmeralda Special, as this amazing coffee is known, to captivate and amaze tasters. Coffee tasters still relate with excitement the day they first tasted the coffee – I clearly remember that day, way back in 2004. Esmeralda Special has changed the way we think about coffee, and it remains the only coffee to be the star of its own book, aptly entitled God in a Cup. The coffee is still sold only at auction, and the coffee fetches consistently amazing prices. Unlike other coffees which are famous simply because they are expensive, but do not deliver an amazing sensory experience, Esmeralda Special stops you in your tracks with an awe-inspiring kaleidoscope of citrus, jasmine, honey, and tea-like flavors.  What’s the secret to this amazing flavor? Most of the credit must go to the unusual Geisha variety grown on this small section of the Esmeralda farm. The story goes like this: sometime in the 1930s, various expeditions went into the deep forests of Southwestern Ethiopia to collect wild coffee varieties, and use them for breeding purposes. Then as now, thousands of coffee varieties grew wild in these vast forests. The coffee varieties obtained in these expeditions became curiosities, sometimes used to breed genetic diversity and disease resistance into hybrids being developed in Africa and Latin America. In time, the expeditions were forgotten and the varieties obtained lived quietly in botanical gardens and coffee plant collections scattered throughout the world. Somehow, one of these plants, named Geisha (presumably a reference to the town of Gesha in Southwestern Ethiopia), made its way to a challenging, windswept portion of the Hacienda Esmeralda farm. There it thrived, but was forgotten about again until Daniel Peterson made his momentous discovery while tasting his family farm’s coffee. The rest is history, and farmers all over Latin America have rushed to plant this unique variety on their own farms. So far, however, no farm has been able to match the unique flavor of the Hacienda Esmeralda Special. We’ve been fans of this coffee since the beginning, and are honored to be invited to the private auction where the Esmeralda Special is sold. For the auction, the produce of the farm is divided even further into special microlots, so that passionate buyers can buy the best of the best. This year, we obtained coffee from our far favorite of these microlots – that which was harvested on the section of the farm called “Mario” during March, the month dedicated to San Jose, the best- known patron saint of the province. And so, the microlot is called “Mario San Jose.”  You’ll be astonished by the floral fragrance of this coffee – it reminds most tasters of jasmine or citrus blossom. Coffee buyers recognize this as the aroma of the coffee flower itself, somehow locked inside the seeds of this amazing coffee plant. Below this captivating fragrance are the sweetness of blossom honey and the flavor of sweet citrus – not often tasted in coffee but charming and amazing. This coffee is unique in its ability to deliver these amazing flavors, and it is sought after by coffee lovers the world over. This demand makes the coffee expensive, but there is no doubt it is worth every penny. Enjoy the world famous Esmeralda Special. -Peter
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