After waiting almost three months, we final received notice that the 2009 Panama Esmeralda Caballeriza has been released and is making its way to our roastery. We are now taking pre-orders for this coffee, which is scheduled to roast and ship on August 10th. In less than two weeks, you too can experience this award-winning coffee! We are roasting our micro-lot of Panama Esmeralda Caballeriza to entice its sweet currant and sour cherry flavors to the forefront. The additional hints of licorice and deep red fruit linger perfectly in the cup. This intensely aromatic coffee will lure you with its heavy luscious body and astonishing cup quality. The highest bid for the Panama Esmeralda during the 2009 auction reached the towering heights $117.50 per pound. Though this price beat last year's record, it still shy of the 2007 Best of Panama auction, which Hacienda La Esmeralda earned the highest bid of $130.00 per pound.
Batdorf & Bronson® Coffee Roasters went into the 2009 auction with firm knowledge of the Esmeralda estate's unsurpassed standards of excellence and looked for a micro-lot that displayed all the classic characteristics of an Esmeralda yet evoked additional nuances. Green Buyer Bob Benck and his evaluation team went through each of the eight Panama Esmeralda samples and assessed each to find the best of this coffee's well-known characteristics and enticing extras. (Read our post from May on the 2009 Panama Esmeralda Auction.) They found what they were looking for in the lots from Caballeriza, one of the new areas of production in Jaramillo. The team kept their eye on this coffee throughout the auction and even though it went for a higher price than we've bid in the past, everyone agreed that this hidden gem was worth every penny.