This coffee is the stuff of legends. We have long been buying the magical coffee from Auromar (since 2014) but “Firestone” is something else and just as impressive as its grand title. We have been lucky enough to snag this lot before the famous Best of Panama auction where Firestone took the top prize in the washed Gesha category with a stand out score of 96! 

The coffee from this farm is stupid good anyway but with the extra care and attention they made something exceptional. Think about the best traditional Gesha you have ever had and multiply by 10. It takes time and care to make magic. Hand picked at perfect ripeness from optimum 10 year old trees, washed and processed immediately, wind dried for 18 days, sat in reposo for 101 days. 

Although not necessarily a global mover and shaker this coffee has come to everyone's attention in Australia of late and I think will be a coffee remembered for years to come in our community. Recently used to win both the Australian Brewers cup and the Australian Barista competition. We could not resist putting our own spin on this wild coffee. Once you taste it, it is easy to see why it got such high scores. It was a fun challenge roasting something so complex with so many different ways we could manipulate the flavours.

The very particular processing can be blamed for the complexity. Jose and his sons added 20% coffee cherry juice to the fermentation liquid and fermented it with intermittent agitation and condition changes for 80 hours. The result is a very intense and complex cup.  

Hacienda La Esmeralda needs little introduction. Located in the Boquete region of Panama, it is a multiple award winning and record breaking estate, world-renowned for introducing the Gesha coffee varietal to the world. Turning the world of coffee on its head in 2004 with their Best of Panama win with the first geisha to come into the limelight, Esmeralda has forever changed the coffee industry.

Within a few years of that win, Gesha was planted all over Panama and eventually began to be planted in Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras. Coffee from this one little spindly coffee tree can fetch thousands of dollars per kilo and is revered all over the world as producing the pinnacle of coffee flavour.