In the end
of April I went down to visit the good people at Hacienda La Esmeralda in
Boquete, Panama. This was my first time in Panama and having enjoyed drinking
the Esmeralda coffee alot for the last
couple of years I was very interested to finally go visit and see what it is
that makes this coffee taste so different than any other coffee.
After some
amazing days in Portland, Oregon, withnessing the US Barista championship I was
ready to trawel further down south to Panama and for some fresh mountain air.
The first
thing I noticed when I got to the area of Boquete was how lush the area is. I
arrived pretty much right in the end of dry season and expected the land to be
way drier. This is definitely one of the freshest greenest coffee growing areas
I have been to.
Boquete is
located in an enclave of mountains with rain coming in from the Caribbean Sea
from the north and rain from the North Pacific Ocean from south. This creates a
crazy microclima around town, which has rain coming from the two different
oceans on each side of the town. Therefore the coffee varies quite a lot even
though it’s from such a small area.
The high
elevation along with the huge amounts of clouds almost year around coming in
from the seas in Boquete, makes the use of shadow trees almost redundant. There
still is a lot around but it is not crucial for the cherries to ripe slowly.
Rachel
Peterson was kind enough to take some time away from her very busy time schedule.
I pretty much came just before the yearly auction and everything was very hectic
and busy.
For a
couple of days Rachel showed me around their different coffee farms surrounding
Boquete. The different lots that are called Esmeralda Special from Hacienda La
Esmeralda are from different coffee farms. In some cases smaller lots get
blended if they are found to suit each other. So in most cases the lot name is
the name of the farm that specific coffee came from such as Montana and Mario
San José but it is not always the case.
I have
always wondered why coffees from this region and especially La Esmeralda have
such distinct aromas. I have cupped a lot of Geisha coffees from other regions
and other countries as well but nobody seems to be able to create the same distinct
flavour.
One of the
main reasons, as Peter also mentioned in his blog post from when he visited, I
think is that they cup a lot. And they are very good at cupping. The Petersons
are very aware about what they look fore in the cup. This along with their
extreme quality in their drying of the coffee I am sure is what results in this
great flavour.
They use
demucilators to remove the pulp. Then wash and dry using both patio and
mechanical driers. They do all of this in house so they have total control of
the quality all the way from when they plant the coffee to the green beans are
ready to ship.
Another
thing that stroke me was the water from Boquete. The first cupping I did there
I noticed that the coffee tasted like nothing I have ever tasted before. The
body, aromas and sweetness in the cups were crazy.
Therefore I
got a sample straight out of the mountain to bring home for analyzing. It is the
cleanest water I have ever measured. With a content of only 7 ppm!
Is this what causes such great tasting coffee? That they get so much flavour from their brews, which result in them having it, easier to tell if they did something good?
