“Our family felt extremely happy when we were able to overcome that milestone in terms of a price paid for coffee,” says Willford Lamastus, Jr. In September 2022, the Lamastus family set a new Panamanian Geisha Coffee world record by selling a pound of their Elida Geisha Aguacatillo, honey-processed coffee for a whopping $6,034 to a Taiwanese coffee company. Each year, buyers bid higher and higher for Geisha beans at international coffee auctions. Now, several countries-including Ethiopia, where the bean originated-have begun importing Panamanian Geisha coffee. A cup of Panamanian Geisha coffee can cost the equivalent of $125 in Japan and $200 in Dubai. This demand, coupled with its complicated growing process and low yields, has made it arguably the most expensive coffee in the world. With Geisha’s newfound fame, the specialty coffee was sought out by the most discerning coffee drinkers and brewers worldwide. “Since then, baristas started using it for the world championships.” It was a crucial moment for the variety at home and abroad, Barsallo says. In 2004, Daniel Peterson, manager of Hacienda La Esmeralda, thought it was formidable enough for international cupping competitions, and so he entered his family’s Geisha in a few-and ultimately came back with a gold medal from the Best of Panama contest. Design by Maitane Romagosa, photos courtesy of Ron Abueloīy the early 21st century, Geisha had found its footing in Panama. For the next several decades, it was harvested primarily by family-run coffee farms, including the Jansons, the Lamastus family, and the Vasquez family of the Don Pepe Coffee Estate. However, with ideal conditions in the western Panamanian highlands-elevation, tropical climate, rich volcanic soil, cool nights, and an extended rainy season-Geisha began to flourish. “They produce less beans, and it takes up to 10 years to get the first good crop,” says Jurado. When it does grow, it produces about half the amount of cherries per cluster compared to most other Arabica plants, and has only about half the amount of clusters per branch.Īs if that weren’t reason enough for a farmer to turn away from Geisha, the variety takes two to three times longer than the average coffee plant to bear any fruits. The low-yield plant requires higher elevation to grow than other coffee varieties. “Almost nobody wanted to grow Geisha because those coffee trees are not very productive,” says Carlos Antonio Jurado, a guide at the 124-year-old Don Pepe Coffee Estate in Boquete, Panama.īy the 1970s, only a few Panamanian coffee farmers had the patience to grow Geisha coffee in the agricultural highlands of the western Chiriquí province, near the Costa Rican border. Initially, Geisha was not very well-received by local farmers. “Geisha coffee got to Panama as a way to combat the coffee rust epidemic in the ’70s,” says Manuel Barsallo, co-founder of the Panama City–based Cruce Coffee Company and member of the Panama Coffee Club. Eventually, in the 1960s, it made its way to Central America. Seedlings were collected circa 1932 and made the rounds to other African coffee-producing regions before it was circulated in the global coffee trade. While the variety’s name may make some people think of Japan, the Panamanian Geisha coffee bean originated in the Gori Gesha region of Ethiopia.
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