a sweetmarias weblog

It’s the day after the Panama Esmeralda auction for their geisha coffees, and I still feel a bit woozy. We bought coffees at 4 distinct price points, from the “Budget Batch” #5 which averaged not much over $6 a lb. to the highest priced coffee in the auction, which we had pre-arranged a “share” with our friends at Stumptown in Portland, and sold for a whopping $105 plus change. We have 150 Lbs of the Batch 2 and 150 Lbs of Batch 3 Peaberry, which was around $50/ Lb. Really, I can hardly argue for the sense in all this, except that coffee priced this way means about a $5 cup, and that #2 is really, really fantastic coffee. My favorite non-ridiculous price was Batch 10, which for those who read the notes might realize, is a blend of “North side of the creek” where #2 is from, and South side of the creek, and is also late harvest. I thought batches 8,9 and 10 were all nice, but 10 was a little more delicate and nuanced for me. Lots 5, 6 and 7 were second tier for me, but oddly just 5 sold for a lot less than others. In fact, mike was brilliant to get some for the cafe! $6/Lb Gesha! we bought 4 lots - no, it doesn’t run side-by-side with batch 2 or 3 or 10, but put in in a blind cupping with 9 other centrals and it will win most every time! so i guess this means we will have sub $10/lb esmeralda, some around $15/lb. and then … geez … what did i get myself into??? What we will probably do is use our nitrogen-gas-flush vacuum package machine, which is coming in a week, to re-pack the batch 2 and 3 into small single-roast packets, that can be preserved for special occasions, such as next christmas and such. after export charges and shipping, i think we will have a modest markup so we will need to sell the batch 2 for something like $60 per half pound. Here’s the final results of the auction.