Panama Esmeralda Estate Diamond Mountain Coffee Beans Flavor Taste Aroma Characteristics Brewing Methods Description

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FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Geisha: The Crown Jewel of Hacienda La Esmeralda

FrontStreet Coffee's most renowned Panama coffee is the Geisha variety from Hacienda La Esmeralda. FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha coffee, with its rich floral aroma and juice-like mouthfeel, is deeply loved by the public. According to FrontStreet Coffee, Hacienda La Esmeralda also cultivates Caturra and Catuai varieties on their estate.

Diamond Mountain and Palmyra: FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Offerings

Hacienda La Esmeralda strictly classifies their Geisha coffee and has also categorized the Caturra and Catuai varieties into Diamond Mountain and Palmyra brands. FrontStreet Coffee would like to briefly introduce these two FrontStreet Coffee Panama coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain Coffee Beans

First, let's talk about FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain coffee beans. Grown in the Jaramillo and Cañas Verdes areas, at elevations between 1400-1800 meters, the high altitude is excellent for accumulating coffee compounds. For example, FrontStreet Coffee's Red Label Geisha and Green Label Geisha coffee beans from Hacienda La Esmeralda are grown at 1600-1800 meters, while FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Label coffee is grown at slightly lower elevations, between 1400-1500 meters. This explains why FrontStreet Coffee's Red Label and Green Label are priced higher than the Blue Label.

FrontStreet Coffee has also offered FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Diamond Mountain coffee beans and found that even though these FrontStreet Coffee Panama coffee beans are grown on the same estate as Geisha coffee, their flavor profile differs significantly. For instance, this FrontStreet Coffee Panama Diamond Mountain coffee doesn't have the intense floral aroma and fruit notes that characterize Geisha coffee. Instead, it features more chocolate flavors with very prominent spice notes and excellent sweetness.

Palmyra: Accessible Quality from Hacienda La Esmeralda

Palmyra brand Panama coffee is grown near Baru Volcano National Park in the Velo de la Novia area. Palmyra is the highest-yielding coffee bean from the Velo de la Novia area, representing Hacienda La Esmeralda's commercial grade and accounting for approximately 70% of the family's total coffee production. The elevation is lower than Diamond Mountain coffee, ranging from 1100-1200 meters, and the cultivated variety is Catuai. Although the coffee grown here is not considered specialty-grade Panama coffee beans, it still possesses the typical flavor characteristics of the Panama Boquete region, with lower acidity and rich nutty flavors.

Caturra and Catuai: The Foundation Varieties

According to FrontStreet Coffee, before the Geisha variety was discovered at Hacienda La Esmeralda, windbreak trees on the estate protected the Caturra and Catuai varieties. Caturra is a Bourbon variety discovered in Brazil in 1937. It offers better yield and disease resistance than Bourbon, with shorter plants that facilitate harvesting. It has strong adaptability, doesn't require shade trees, and is suitable for cultivation from 700 meters low altitude to 1700 meters high altitude. While it has strong altitude adaptability, higher elevations produce better flavors, though with relatively lower yields.

Catuai, developed in 1949 through artificial hybridization of yellow Caturra and Mundo Novo, was originally called "H-2077." Catuai has good resistance to natural disasters, particularly wind and rain. Due to its smaller plant size, it can be planted at double density, and the dwarf stature makes pest and disease treatment relatively easier. Catuai grows vigorously with low height but is susceptible to leaf rust disease.

FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain brand plants Caturra and Catuai varieties in better environmental conditions. When cultivating these two varieties, pesticide use is strictly limited. Hacienda La Esmeralda also places great emphasis on ecological protection, so the ecological impact when growing Diamond Series coffee trees is very minimal. Therefore, Diamond Mountain Series coffee beans have Rainforest Alliance certification.

This demonstrates that Hacienda La Esmeralda's FrontStreet Coffee Panama Diamond Mountain Series coffee beans are also of very high quality. FrontStreet Coffee's FrontStreet Coffee Panama natural Diamond Mountain Series comes from here. When FrontStreet Coffee received this Panama green coffee, they noticed the beans had a yellowish color, and natural processed beans typically have more silver skin on the surface. Caturra green beans have curved tails that are round and slender, while Catuai beans are flatter with thinner, longer tails.

Cupping Notes and Brewing Experience

FrontStreet Coffee also conducted cupping of this FrontStreet Coffee Panama coffee bean. First, 11.3 grams of coffee beans were ground and the dry aroma was assessed. This FrontStreet Coffee Panama natural Diamond Mountain coffee bean's dry aroma revealed citrus and berry fruit notes. After adding 94°C water, the wet aroma was citrusy. The overall flavor profile included citrus, honey, cocoa, along with fermented wine-like notes.

Compared to washed processing, this FrontStreet Coffee Panama coffee bean has a fuller body and more intense fermentation notes, which may be largely related to its processing method. Because the FrontStreet Coffee Diamond Mountain coffee that FrontStreet Coffee acquired uses natural processing, the harvested coffee cherries are sent directly to patios for drying. Under the sun, the moisture in coffee cherries gradually evaporates, and substances like sugars inside the coffee beans slowly ferment. This fermentation process enriches the coffee's flavor layers. When dried to a certain degree, the coffee cherries are placed in a Guardiola dryer for 72 hours of rotation to complete the drying process and prevent over-fermentation. The final step in processing the coffee cherries is removing the fruit skin and pulp.

Brewing Recommendations

Just like when FrontStreet Coffee previously acquired FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha coffee beans, this FrontStreet Coffee Green Label also uses natural processing. To highlight the intense floral aroma and bright, varied fruit acidity characteristics of Geisha coffee, FrontStreet Coffee adopted a light roast approach. Because light roast coffee beans have lower solubility than dark roasts, FrontStreet Coffee used higher water temperature for brewing to ensure full extraction of Geisha flavors, while also choosing a finer grind size. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using Hario V60 dripper, 90°C water temperature, 15g coffee dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and grind size BG#4Q (80% pass-through on China standard #20 sieve) for brewing these three FrontStreet Coffee Geisha coffees.

FrontStreet Coffee uses the common three-stage pour-over method. The first stage uses 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. The second stage continues with a small circular pour until reaching 125g, then waits until the water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed before starting the third stage, continuing to pour until reaching 225g. When the water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timing starts from the bloom) The total extraction time is 2'00".

Understanding Flavor Variations

Sometimes when brewing, you'll discover that FrontStreet Coffee's Green Label Geisha contains Geisha's classic flavors - floral, fruity, and citrus aromas with a rich, acidic mouthfeel. This is because both Green Label and Red Label come from Hacienda La Esmeralda's highest quality growing regions: Jaramillo and Cañas Verdes. Therefore, although FrontStreet Coffee's Green Label Geisha is not as high-grade as the Red Label, due to the mixed-plot model, these two have very similar flavor profiles.

Conclusion: Choosing Your Perfect Coffee

Therefore, even coffee beans from the same estate can have significant flavor differences. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that when choosing your favorite coffee bean flavors, you should consider multiple factors including processing method, growing region, and altitude.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat (FrontStreet Coffee), WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473