Today, the Café Stories protagonists are the Peterson’s and their famous Geisha coffee. This family are the third generation that owns the Hacienda La Esmeralda based in Panama, one of the companies producing the world’s leading specialty coffee.
Hacienda La Esmeralda has positioned itself in the world of coffee as a synonym irrefutable quality. His iconic product, the Esmeralda Special, is a Geisha coffee variety known for its extraordinary aromatic jasmine, bergamot and fruits, and auctioned among discerning buyers in the world. The story begins when Esmeralda Special, looking for alternatives to combat Ojo de Gallo, the Peterson family decided to plant lots of a variety of coffee known for its high resistance against this disease, Geisha coffee. Years later, the producers realize that their tables were emerging aromatic and tasting flavors that were not typical of traditional coffees. Recognizing these differences and guided by intuition, Hacienda La Esmeralda racing in 2014 in the Best of Panama, regional competition where the best coffees of Panama are qualified by national and international judges, and breaks all records of the contest. Esmeralda Specialty was auctioned at record prices and forever marked the history of specialty coffee. Since then the Peterson family has focused all its efforts to produce constant quality, monitoring every step of operations, in order to offer buyers, year after year, coffee with the same extraordinary characteristics that marked a milestone in 2004.
Each of the four coffee plantations that make up Hacienda La Esmeralda, is harvested by men and women trained in selective breeding. The coffee is harvested only when fully ripe fruit. There are two methods of processing coffee in Hacienda La Esmeralda: natural and washed. The natural method is one in which the coffee cherry is dried immediately after being harvested. Washing, meanwhile, is one in which the coffee is mechanically pulped and degumming prior to be dried. The coffee at Hacienda La Esmeralda is dried both concrete patio and Guardiola (drying machine) to allow the Geisha release their inherent properties without incurring defects fermentation. The coffee is then milled, sorted and exported to all over the world.
Hacienda La Esmeralda they are extremely committed to the environment and the people who help them produce this extraordinary coffee. During harvest time, they offer a kindergarten for the children of growers to have a safe place to be and to enjoy a hot meal. This service is also available for mothers who are nursing children. College scholarships from to guarantee primary education for all children of workers who have outstanding grades. Bonds offer each of their growers at the end of the harvest. In environmental matters, they use the washing waste coffee for irrigation and fertilizer of our pastures. By producing, as far as possible they avoid the use of herbicides and fungicides strong, and respect water sources and distributed trees in our plantations. All efforts cited generate a positive impact on the quality of life of those who participated in the production of coffee Esmeralda.
