Graciano Cruz picks Emporio into small fruit crates. Not sacks, not bulk bins. Crates, so the skin on the cherry never bruises or tears on the way down the hill, because the moment a skin breaks the microbes start working and nobody has decided yet that they should.
That is not fussiness, it is training. Cruz is a Zamorano agronomist whose research background is plant pathology and microbiology applied to agriculture. He does not think of fermentation as a stage that begins when the fruit reaches the tank. He thinks of it as something already trying to start in the picking basket, and the job is to hold it off until the conditions are his. Only once the fruit arrives intact does it go sealed, five days without oxygen, and then onto the dry.
He has been ahead of this for a long time. Los Lajones and Emporio were the first certified organic farms in Panama, and Cruz was among the first producers in Central America to work with honey processing at all. Los Lajones runs at zero water usage through the entire process. Emporio’s highest sections reach 2100 mdpl, planted into native cloud forest, and the Gesha is put in the very top of that. The farm placed second, tenth and eighteenth at a single Best of Panama auction in 2021.
Hibiscus leads, sharp and red and dry, the kind of acidity that arrives before the sweetness does. Strawberry fills in behind it and softens the entry. Cherry sits deeper again and gives the cup its length. Peach rounds the finish out, and the whole thing closes gentler than it opens.
Every batch we release is roasted on the Stronghold S7X, a three-stage heat system that gives us direct control over how each coffee develops.
Consistency doesn't mean making every coffee taste the same — it means making sure every coffee tastes like it should. Just good coffee, roasted with purpose.
Fresh off the roaster isn't the same as ready to brew. We let every batch rest so the CO2 built up during roasting can settle — skip that step and you get a flat, uneven cup no matter how good the beans are.
We hold each release for a resting period before it ships, so what lands on your doorstep is at its best, not just its freshest.
The right grind and ratio bring out what this bean does best. Check our brew guides for dialed-in recipes across V60, immersion, and espresso — or just start with our house ratio and adjust from there.