Over deze koffie
Panamanian coffee has a tremendously outsized role in specialty coffee relative to its production volume; the gesha of Panama, whispered about in awe as auction sites crash processing five-figure bids for prized lots, meanwhile it makes up only one tenth of one percent of global coffee production. Over the past two decades, the alluring Panamanian gesha has become the muse, the darling, the “draw me like one of your French girls” of specialty coffee. But it wasn’t always like that…
After being introduced to the Americas in the 1950s, gesha was distributed across Panama in the 1960s as a rust-resistant variety. It did not catch on well with many farmers as it proved… difficult. Finicky to grow, low yield, a smaller harvest window, and particular about processing in a time where outstanding quality did little to line your pocket relative to simply producing in volume, it’s a wonder anyone kept growing the newly introduced variety.
In time it became clear that the qualitative difference between gesha grown at low altitude and high altitude was staggering, causing some to take note. The true big break would come when Hacienda La Esmerelda began isolating gesha-only lots, which yielded a staggering $20.10 per pound at the best of Panama auction in 2004. This snowball has grown to an avalanche as the scramble for Panama gesha far outpaces the ability and even possibility to grow more at a certain point, leading to an exponential growth in price that was nearly 700x that 2004 price last year, and will certainly hurt my feelings and cause me to question a lot again this year. Seriously, $30.000 per kilo. Anyways, this lot is great and apparently relatively cheap. Just remember, it could have been thirty thousand.
