January 2008

• Saturday and Sunday

  Sat 19 January, 2008

  My thoroughly enjoyable, if brief, visit to Panama is concluded by a hilarious ride through downtown Panama City with an over-exuberant, horn friendly taxi driver. Arriving at the airport in one piece, I gratefully tip my moustachioed friend and look forward to the flight out over the imposing Panama Canal.

  The days are spent travelling from Panama back to the UK, back via New York.

• Panama - Hacienda La Esmeralda

  Fri 18 January, 2008

  Hacienda La Esmeralda

  To those in the specialty coffee industry, Hacienda La Esmeralda is the most famous of all coffee farms. Owned and managed by the Peterson family, not only do they produce coffees of an admirably high quality, but the farm and mill are also Rainforest Alliance Certified so environmental and social concerns are of the utmost importance.

  Their “Esmeralda Special” coffee is meticulously selected from the Geisha Arabica trees on the family’s Esmeralda Jaramillo farm. This coffee is currently the magnum opus of the coffee world; a rare example of where the coffee’s aroma and flavour match the mystique of the name and origin.

  However, the Esmeralda Special does require customers with deep pockets – in 2007 the coffee once again scooped up accolades including the winner of the Best of Panama competition, with the winning lot selling at auction for a staggering $130 per pound.

  The History of the Geisha

  The roots of the Geisha of Panama lie in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and the remote Geisha Mountain. Seeds were reputed to have been collected by an expedition in the 1930’s and taken to Kenya. According to records, it would seem that planting then occurred in Tanzania before the arrival of seeds in Costa Rica in the 1950’s and Panama some time after. Indeed, the coffee’s history remains as mysterious as its aromas.

  The Peterson family bought an old coffee farm in the...

• Honduras to Panama

  Thu 17 January, 2008

  The journey from Honduras to Panama brings forth 4 flights, 3 taxi journeys (including a sizeable de-tour to avoid an equally sizable protest against a hydro-electric dam project), 1 bus ride and a little bit of jogging.

  It’s dusk when I arrive in the town of Boquete, which is a key coffee growing region in Panama. With both an attractive town and scenic, mountainous surroundings, Boquete is also an important tourist area and home to a growing retirement population from North America. All of this activity is forcing up the price of real estate in the local area with the  impact of a loss of agricultural land, including areas planted to coffee.

  Whilst not enjoying the profile of other Central American coffee origins like Costa Rica, Panama produces some excellent specialty coffees, particularly around Boquete. In amongst the standard commercial coffees it may have been previously recognised for, the varying regions, Arabica varietals and micro-climates all contribute to a wide and complex range of tastes and flavours in these fine coffees.

  Roasters and coffee importers in the UK have been strangely reluctant to embrace this origin and as a result much of the coffee, whether filler for coffee blends or boutique micro-lots, tends to head for the US. As a result, having previously visited Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua in years gone by,  this feels like quite an adventure!

  Local Beers

  Balboa and Atlas are advertised...

• Flight to Honduras

  Wed 16 January, 2008

  An internal flight from Tegucigalpa to the second city of San Pedro Sula starts the day rolling. San Pedro Sula is as oppressively hot as the last time I passed through and we’re looking forward to the cooler breezes of the coffee growing areas.

  La Central Offices and Mill, Nueva Arcadia, Copán

  We drive out towards Copán on the main highway, stopping at one of La Central’s strategic mills and offices. Here the parchment coffee is gathered from the affiliated cooperatives where it goes through final processing. Wet parchment coffee can be fully dried here on the outside patios or in huge, artificial dryers, and the dry parchment is rested prior to sorting, grading, de-hulling and bagging prior to export.

  Whilst here, we cup a variety of La Central coffees, the majority of which have been organically grown. The stand-out coffees – smooth, nicely sweet and balanced - all come from the higher altitudes over 1000 metres above sea level, where the maturation and ripening of the coffee cherry is slowed down. We also taste the freshly harvested coffee from Finca San Juancito visited the day previously, but it will need a period of rest before reaching it’s drinking potential. (The “reposado”, or rest period, is hugely important before a coffee reaches it’s peak for export).

  CORSAMOL cooperative, Nueva Arcadia, Copán

  Following a fine lunch at the offices, I get to jump in the...

• Tegucigalpa, Honduras

  Tue 15 January, 2008

  Tuesday brings a refreshingly early start for the flight from San Salvador to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. If we weren’t fully awake, the landing at the infamous Tegucigalpa airport is guaranteed to change that; not even shaving the top off the local mountain has made the approach to landing any less thrilling.

  La Central

  We’re met by Jimmy Navarro from the Central de Cooperativas Cafeteleras de Honduras (La Central), a national network of coffee producing cooperatives throughout the ten departments of Honduras, representing over 6000 small farmers and their families. Formed in 1997, it aims to export its member’s coffee directly and to support rural development, thorough the improvement of amenities, sanitation, education and the provision of financial services.

  La Central produces and exports a range of branded coffees, each with different taste profiles and certification which assists in marketing the coffee in Europe. The primary cooperatives – each with their smallholder members – have varying combinations of certification from organic to Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and Utz Kapeh each of which attract a premium and financial rewards.

  Firstly, Jimmy takes up by truck to the hotel so we can drop off our luggage. The journey proves highly surreal as we approach a police barricade and a rather sizeable handful of soldiers and suited heavies guarding the hotel’s street. Jimmy informs us that Hugo Chavez, the...