Why a Geisha lot costs $48

In 2004, the Peterson family of Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete, Panama, entered an unusual coffee in the Best of Panama auction. It was a varietal called Geisha — one most growers had abandoned because of low yield. The cup was unlike anything the judges had tasted: jasmine, bergamot, white grape, honeysuckle. It set a world record price.

Two decades later, Geisha is the Bordeaux of coffee. The best lots routinely auction for $1,000+ per pound at green-coffee level.

This year, we got our hands on 80 kilograms of a washed Geisha from Esmeralda's Cañas Verdes plot. It's grown at 1,700m, dried slowly on raised beds, and tastes like an experience more than a beverage. We're rationing it to our subscribers in 4-ounce bags at $48, and we still expect to lose money on the lot once shipping and handling are accounted for.

The point isn't margin. The point is to put one of the great coffees of our generation in our subscribers' kitchens.

If you've never tasted a Geisha, brew this at a 1:17 ratio as a slow pour-over and prepare to be ruined for everything else.