Esmeralda Geisha Duo

Hacienda La Esmeralda started the Geisha coffee revolution with their 2004 “Best of Panama” win, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a coffee at auction.

This February, Klatch Coffee is proudly introducing the Esmeralda Geisha Duo, a curated set of two 85-gram bags featuring Anaerobic Natural and Natural process Geisha coffees—offering a rare opportunity to taste both exceptional Esmeralda Geishas of the season.

Hacienda La Esmeralda revolutionized the industry in 2004 by rediscovering Geisha, renowned for its vibrant aromatics and complex flavors. Through a longstanding direct-trade partnership with the Peterson family, these exclusive micro-lots continue to set the standard for Geisha coffee.

Grown at high altitudes under Jaramillo’s cool temperatures and ancient shade trees, our 2025 selections include:

1. Panama Esmeralda Bosque Geisha Natural: This brew is bursting with an intense berry aroma that will tickle your senses. You'll love its sweet, balanced body and the irresistible flavor notes of boysenberry and peach, with a refreshing melon finish.
2. Panama Esmeralda Buenos Aires Geisha Anaerobic Natural: Enjoy its sweet, balanced body, and savor the irresistible flavor notes of strawberry, lychee, and a refreshing lemon citrus finish. Each sip reveals undertones of stone fruit and floral jasmine, complemented by a clean and sweet body.

Indulge in every moment and enjoy these two coffees that showcase the distinct processing methods and extraordinary qualities that made the world fall in love with Geisha.

Hacienda La Esmeralda’s legacy dates back to 1967, when Rudolph A. Peterson acquired the farm. In 1997, the Petersons expanded into Jaramillo, selecting its high-altitude slopes to cultivate coffees with exceptional complexity and nuance—an ambition that continues to define Esmeralda Geisha today.

BEST OF PANAMA 2004
Panama Esmeralda Buenos Aires Geisha Anaerobic Natural is a part of the Esmeralda Special Reserve, an award-winning coffee collection that has garnered continuous international prizes since we first introduced it fifteen years ago.It was this high-altitude planting of Geisha coffee that helped set in motion the events of 2004, when Geisha’s amazing aromatics first became clear. This was in the lead-up to the Best of Panama competition, an annual coffee cupping competition and auction that had been gaining significant interest amongst a group of next generation coffee producers in Panama. For that year’s competition, the Petersons did something they had never done before—during processing, they separated production from different areas of the farm into individual lots. One of the lots they separated came from high up in Jaramillo, and when it landed on the cupping table, it blew everyone away.

This was the first time that cuppers had gotten to taste a sample that was 100% Geisha coffee, and when they did, it was clear that Hacienda La Esmeralda had something new on their hands—the explosion of juicy brightness and multi-layered aromatics in a high-altitude Geisha coffee were more reminiscent of a coffee from Ethiopia then Latin America. Once the initial shock was processed, the cuppers couldn’t get enough of it. Hacienda La Esmeralda went on to win the 2004 Best of Panama competition with their Geisha coffee, and that year set a record for the highest price ever paid for a coffee at auction.

The farm shifts from rolling hills to a steep 40 degree incline, making harvesting a challenging and laborious affair. However, the high altitudes also bring out the bright, floral aromatics of the Geisha. With cooler temperatures and massive shade trees that have been standing for ages, it turns out that Jaramillo is the perfect place for this variety to land. To this day, many of our top performing micro-lots of Geisha coffee come from little patches on the slopes of Jaramillo. The Jaramillo mountain air is wet and cold, perfect for making the aromatics of the Geisha variety sing. Though Geisha variety coffees had been planted sporadically across the area, it was a lot separated out from one small region on this farm that led to the rediscovery of Geisha.

The farm rises, from rolling hills on its lower part, to steep 40 degree inclines higher up, making harvesting a manual and challenging affair. There had been coffee planted on the lower parts of the farm – as many as 15 different sub-varieties, hybrids out of Costa Rica and Brazil, and in 1997 the Peterson family decided to plant higher up.

It is these high altitudes that the Geisha’s bright, floral aromatics express themselves. With cooler temperatures and massive shade trees that have been standing for ages, Jaramillo is the perfect place for this variety to grow. To this day many of our top performing micro-lots of Geisha coffee come from little patches on the slopes of Jaramillo.

THE BEGINNINGS
The lands that make up Hacienda La Esmeralda were first brought together as a single estate by a Swede named Hans Elliot in 1940. This land comprised several hundred hectares in what are now the Palmira and Cañas Verdes farms. In 1967, a Swedish- American banker by the name of Rudolph A. Peterson (1904-2003) bought Hacienda La Esmeralda as a retirement venture. At the time, the land was predominantly pasture for beef cattle, with some small smatterings of coffee mixed in.

By 1975 the Petersons had switched the farms over to dairy cattle which performed quite well and continues to make up half of Esmeralda’s farm land today. In the mid- 80s, the family was looking to further diversify and coffee, with its rich production history in the Boquete region, was a perfect opportunity.

Coffee had been growing on lands in and around Hacienda La Esmeralda since at least 1890. It was this huge reservoir of coffee knowledge and culture that helped the Petersons redevelop much of their land for coffee farming and even make their first coffee farm expansion at Palmira in 1988. It bears mentioning that coffee at this time was almost exclusively an undifferentiated, mass-market, endeavor in Panama. It was not until the mid-1990s that some North American coffee buyers started talking about Specialty Coffee widely.

In 1997 the Petersons purchased the land that became the Jaramillo Farm. This plot on the sides of Volcan Baru was selected for its high altitude, in hopes of developing higher scoring, livelier and more nuanced coffees. That said, it was only by serendipity that the famous Geisha coffee was planted on this farm

Proceeds from this coffee have gone to such programs as a school for employees’ children during harvest with hot meals; a supply of rice, beans, and sardines for all harvesters and their families while they live on the farm; and a bi-annual bonus of at least 30%. Our partner, the Peterson family, began purchasing smaller lots around the original Cañas Verdes farm after 2004.