Rudolph Peterson purchased Hacienda La Esmeralda as a retirement venture in 1967, and his family has been tending to the land around the small town of Boquete ever since. In the early days, the land was primarily pasture for beef cattle, but over the years, the family transitioned to dairy cattle and coffee production. Now twenty years ago, in 2004, the Peterson family and Hacienda La Esmeralda, took the coffee world by storm. That year's Best of Panama competition saw Geisha reintroduced to the world – its bright and lively acidity, and prominent floral notes leapt off the cupping table, and after the initial shock it secured the highest price ever paid for coffee at auction. The Petersons now grow Geisha in many sections of their estate. 

This very special lot is from the Valle plot of El Velo, the newest of Hacienda La Esmeralda’s farms – Valle is in the highest section of the farm, with altitude at or above 2,000 masl., and this is the first-year coffees from Valle have been released to the world.  

During our purchasing trip to Panama earlier this year, we stumbled across this coffee on the cupping table, somewhat by accident. Alex (Rachel’s daughter) had slipped it onto the cupping table as a little treat – being such a small lot, the coffee wasn’t really for sale (while the Peterson’s decided the best avenue for it), but Alex knew we’d get a kick out of seeing something so special. Well – it worked. Scoring an astonishing 95pts (out of 100), it was our highest scoring coffee of the entire purchasing trip. We had to have it. We’d do whatever it took.  

After some agonizing months (and many emails back-and-forth), the confirmation finally came – it was ours, and only few weeks later, on our second trip down to Panama – this time as members of the international jury for the Best of Panama competition – we collected the coffee from the team at Hacienda La Esmeralda and brought it back to the States – where it’s been happily sitting in our freezer, awaiting this release. 

This is a true Nano Lot – with only 3.5kg of green coffee produced. It was processed as a natural and dried in the Peterson’s new climate-controlled drying room, this coffee is one of a kind. Grab some if you can.