We have offered Esmeralda Especial Gesha for a decade now, but only in the last 3 years has the farm held a private auction to market this famous coffee. This was a mixed blessing: on the one hand this careful separation of Gesha lots by location or plot on the farm and by harvest date meant that we could compare and chose based on cup quality. Indeed we found there was a huge range in qualities among the different elevations. On the down side, the competition would drive the best lots to extreme prices. At one time we paid $6 to $11 per Lb for this coffee, and now the prices for the lowest level of Geshas in the auction are $20. We simply buy the lots we think are best, and this year we bought two, Mario Enero and Mario Carnaval. They are actually from the same Mario plot, just different harvest periods. Mario is the original Gesha area on the farm in Jaramillo, not one of the new areas they have since planted. It is located between 1500-1650 meters, harvested during the month of February, 2010. Gesha (often spelled, wishfully, as Geisha, but this is not correct) is a cultivar with strong Ethiopian roots. It's rare that a coffee varietal announces itself so clearly in the cup flavors as the Gesha cultivar does in Panamanian coffee. It's extremely floral in the aromatics, with loads of tropical fruit. It is light bodied and delicate on one hand, yet extremely flavorful and long-lasting on the palate. There is no other coffee quite like it. And other farms that have cultivated Gesha don't attain the cup quality of the best Esmeralda Gesha. We have bought this coffee in auction, and farm direct for years. The Esmeralda Gesha makes blind cupping almost senseless, since I can identify its amazing fragrance, aroma and cup flavors immediately when I come upon it in a "blind" cupping! It is that dry fragrance that lets you know right away what is coming when the water hits the cup: incredible sweet floral, citrus blossom, sweet honey perfume atomized into the air. In terms of intensity, fruited and floral aspects, wet-processed Ethiopians and Kenyas are more in league with Gesha than any other Central American coffee. But it is difficult to price this sort of cup character. And when it is as exotic and, frankly, extraterrestrial as the Esmeralda Gesha, it is even more hard to quantify. In tasting the Gesha coffees, the cup flavors might seem less intense than the extreme aromatics. As the cup cools, perceived intensity and brightness will increase exponentially.