Hacienda La Esmeralda - Panama - Washed Geisha

Panama — Rachel Peterson Hacienda La Esmeralda Lino Gesha (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🌸 Jasmine • 🍑 Peach • 🍍 Passion Fruit

DETAILS

• Producer: Rachel Peterson — Hacienda La Esmeralda
• Farm: Cañas Verdes — Lino Lot (7FC)
• Region: Palmira, Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama
• Varietal: Gesha
• Process: Washed
• Altitude: 1,700 MASL
• Roast: Filter

INTRO

From the Lino lot on Cañas Verdes farm — the largest of April Coffee Roasters' Esmeralda releases this season, and a washed Gesha of high sweetness, high acidity, and exceptional fruit clarity. Where the Noria lot from Jaramillo delivers candied lime and red fruit, the Lino from Cañas Verdes leans into a more tropical and stone fruit-forward expression. In the cup: jasmine, peach, and passion fruit.

THE PRODUCER

The lands that make up Hacienda La Esmeralda were first brought together as a single estate by Hans Elliot in 1940. In 1967, Swedish-American banker Rudolph A. Peterson purchased the estate as a retirement venture — at the time predominantly pasture for beef cattle, with small pockets of coffee. By the mid-1980s the family began converting land to coffee, and in 1997 they purchased the land that became Jaramillo Farm. In 2004, the Peterson family entered their Gesha into the Best of Panama competition and broke the record for the highest price ever paid for coffee at auction — introducing a variety and a farm that have defined Panamanian specialty coffee ever since.

Cañas Verdes is one of Hacienda La Esmeralda's prized holdings — a farm in the Palmira area of Boquete, where the combination of volcanic soils, cool highland microclimate, and the Peterson family's four generations of accumulated expertise produce Gesha lots of exceptional sweetness, clarity, and fruit expression. The estate is currently managed by Rachel Peterson and her daughter Alexandra. The Lino lot — designated 7FC this season — is the largest of April's three Esmeralda purchases, reflecting the consistency and volume that Cañas Verdes delivers season after season.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at Cañas Verdes involves:

🍒 Hand-picking — Gesha cherries carefully harvested at peak ripeness 💧 Flotation — Floated upon arrival to remove unripe, overripe, and lower-density beans 🔧 Depulping — Outer skin removed at the mill after harvest 🧪 Fermentation — Beans fermented to break down remaining mucilage 💧 Washing — Thoroughly washed to remove all fermentation residue ☀️ Raised-bed drying — Dried on raised beds to optimal moisture content

The meticulous washed processing is the defining step — by stripping back all fruit influence and processing with precision, the Peterson family allow the Lino lot's tropical fruit character, jasmine florality, and exceptional sweetness to express themselves with full transparency and clarity.

THE CUP

A high-sweetness, high-acidity, and beautifully fruit-forward washed Gesha from one of La Esmeralda's most generous and consistently excellent lots — jasmine florality, ripe peach sweetness, and a passion fruit brightness in a medium-bodied cup of exceptional clarity and tropical expressiveness. Cañas Verdes at its most inviting.

Flavour Notes

🌸 Jasmine 🍑 Peach 🍍 Passion Fruit