La Esmeralda

Tasting Notes: Mutsu apple, yellow peach, white tea

Fragrance/Aroma: Green apple, peach, floral, milky
Acidity: Structured, malic
Body: Tea-like, silky
Aftertaste: Mellow, lingering floral honey sweetness

The fragrance opens with a gentle combination of green apple, ripe yellow peach, soft florals, and a faint milky sweetness. In the cup, the apple character arrives first, recalling Mutsu apple rather than the sharper, more aggressively tart profile of Granny Smith. Its malic acidity is structured and well defined, but mellow in expression, carrying a subtle honeyed sweetness that gives the opening a rounded, almost golden quality.

As the cup develops, the apple gradually gives way to yellow peach. The stone fruit adds softness and depth, integrating naturally with the lingering honeyed character rather than creating a dramatic shift in flavour. Acidity remains present throughout, providing enough structure to keep the cup lively and articulate, yet never becoming overly tart or demanding.

The body is tea-like and silky, reinforcing the coffee's gentle disposition and allowing the flavours to move cleanly across the palate. As the cup cools, soft floral nuances become more apparent, folding into the sweetness rather than standing distinctly apart.

The finish is mellow and lingering, with floral honey sweetness persisting long after the fruit has faded. Nothing here is especially forceful or dramatic; instead, the cup is defined by its balance, restraint, and easygoing nature. A quietly pleasant coffee with enough structure and nuance to remain interesting, yet gentle enough to make for an effortless daily driver.

La Esmeralda sits in Acevedo, Huila, where producer Norbey Quimbayo has built his farm around a gradual shift from conventional coffee production toward a more deliberate, quality-focused approach.

Norbey’s path into coffee was not inherited, but built through experience. Before becoming a producer, he travelled across Huila working as a cherry picker and preparing meals for harvesting crews, gradually learning the rhythms of farm management and coffee production. In 2005, he purchased a portion of what would become La Esmeralda and began cultivating coffee for himself. Using the income generated from successive harvests, he steadily expanded the farm and developed it into a family-run operation in Acevedo, Huila.

Today, La Esmeralda sits at around 1,700–1,800 metres above sea level and is planted with a diverse range of coffee varieties, including Gesha, Papayo, Pink Bourbon, Pacamara, Java and Bourbon Sidra. The farm’s development took a decisive turn around 2010, when Norbey shifted his focus from increasing production volume to pursuing specialty coffee through more precise variety selection, cultivation and processing. That decision has since earned him wider recognition, most notably when one of his Pink Bourbon lots placed second in the Huila Mágico competition.

This particular lot showcases Bourbon Sidra, a variety prized for its pronounced sweetness, aromatic clarity and ability to produce highly expressive cups when carefully cultivated and processed. At La Esmeralda, that potential is carried through a deliberately controlled semi-washed process. Only fully ripe cherries are selected before undergoing 36 hours of anaerobic fermentation in sealed tanks. The cherries are then depulped and washed, with a portion of the mucilage intentionally retained on the parchment.

Drying takes place slowly in a traditional drying room for more than 20 days, with the parchment turned regularly to ensure even moisture loss. By combining an extended anaerobic fermentation with partial mucilage retention and gradual drying, the process is designed to build sweetness and body without obscuring the clarity and aromatic definition for which Sidra is valued. The result is a coffee that reflects the direction Norbey has spent more than a decade pursuing: smaller volumes, greater precision, and a clearer expression of both variety and place.

Sourced from: Coffee Libre
We paid: S$37.27/kg
Roasted cost: S$58.83/kg

Moisture content: 10.8%
Weight loss: 11.4%
Agtron: W79.3 / G122.1 / △42.8