Beans will Save the World

Rachel Peterson is the director of marketing and sales at Hacienda La Esmeralda, a family-run estate situated on the slopes of Mount Barú in Panama. The estate produces one of the world’s most renowned coffees, the Geisha.
In 2004, the estate was tasting various varieties of its harvests when it came across one that had been set aside. Her father, Daniel Peterson, claims he had never tasted anything like it before and, in fact, thought something must be wrong because “it wasn’t a Panamanian flavour”.
The producers tasted Peterson’s Geisha and were captivated: it had all the qualities that a coffee should have, and Peterson claimed it was, simply, a variety they had left isolated. Its main appeal? An exotic flavour not found in any other coffee in the region.