Hacienda La Esmeralda Natural Gesha Portón 2NB by Rachel Peterson, Panama

Portón 2NB — Rachel Peterson & Family

Natural Gesha · Hacienda La Esmeralda · Panama

A return to Portón.
Last year, we shared this remarkable microlot from Hacienda La Esmeralda. This harvest, we chose it again.

Portón 2NB comes from the Portón plot at El Velo, one of the farms that make up Hacienda La Esmeralda in the highlands of Panama.

There are few names in coffee with the significance of Esmeralda. But reputation alone is never enough for us to select a coffee.

We returned to Portón because of what was in the cup.

Taste description

This is natural Gesha with remarkable clarity.
The aromatics are intensely floral, moving between cherry blossom and lavender, before opening into ripe cantaloupe, strawberry and orange.

There is a beautiful tension between the sweetness of the natural process and the delicate structure of the Gesha underneath. The fruit is generous, but never heavy. The acidity remains bright and precise, with a silky texture and a long floral finish.

Cherry Blossom · Cantaloupe · Strawberry · Orange · Lavender

Portón

Portón is an individual production plot within El Velo, part of Hacienda La Esmeralda.
The 2026 harvest of Portón 2NB was picked in January before a 12-hour whole-cherry fermentation and slowly dried on raised beds for approximately 23 days.

There is no elaborate fermentation protocol here.
Exceptional ripe fruit. Careful drying. Time.

The natural process develops sweetness and depth while allowing the florality and transparency that made Esmeralda Gesha famous to remain unmistakable.

Hacienda La Esmeralda

Few farms have influenced modern specialty coffee as profoundly as Hacienda La Esmeralda.
In 2004, the Peterson family presented a separated Gesha lot from their Jaramillo farm at the Best of Panama. Its extraordinary jasmine aromatics and clarity challenged existing ideas of what coffee from Panama could taste like.

The coffee won the competition and went on to set a new auction record.

More importantly, it changed how the coffee world thought about variety, altitude, terroir and individual plots.

More than twenty years later, Rachel Peterson and the Peterson family continue that work, separating individual plots and harvests so that subtle differences in place, maturity and processing can be experienced in the cup.

Portón is one of those expressions.
And this year, it was a coffee we wanted to experience again.

Details

Producer: Rachel Peterson & the Peterson Family
Estate: Hacienda La Esmeralda
Farm: El Velo
Plot: Portón
Lot: 2NB
Region: Chiriquí, Panama
Variety: Gesha
Process: Natural
Drying: Approximately 23 days on raised beds

A coffee we knew. A harvest we wanted to taste again.