What Makes Hacienda La Esperanza Green Coffee Bean Stand Out?
Hacienda La Esperanza, run by the Herrera family in Colombia, is a recognized name in South American specialty coffee and has earned honors in multiple international competitions. Its beans go through hand sorting that removes about 4 percent of defects, then a light City roast that loses roughly 14 percent of weight, leaving 6 percent empty shells and defective beans.
At the green coffee bean stage, the sorted beans carry a fresh grassy aroma. Roasting them to a light City level brings out a plum-like acidity that is bright rather than astringent, with a smooth body and a transition toward plum sweetness. A darker roast shifts the cup toward raisin aroma, fruity maple sugar, and a light milky sweetness as it cools.
Hacienda La Esperanza in Colombia is a name of great importance on the South American specialty coffee map. Under the Herrera family, it has won honors in multiple international competitions thanks to its exceptional quality. This article reviews the development of Hacienda La Esperanza, the microclimatic characteristics and cultivated varieties of its four farms, and focuses on the single-origin Colombian Hacienda La Esperanza beans selected by Front Street Coffee—from hand sorting and roasting curves to flavor performance—fully presenting the uniqueness of this naturally processed Pacamara, while also discussing the terroir conditions of Colombia’s main producing regions, providing coffee lovers with in-depth content that is both informative and valuable for tasting.
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The history, culture, stories, and legends of Front Street Colombia Hacienda La Esperanza specialty single-origin beans
At the green bean processing stage, Hacienda La Esperanza uses manual removal of defects, with the elimination rate controlled at about 4%. When the beans are roasted to a light City level, weight loss is about 14%, while the proportion of empty shells and defective beans is 6%. During the hand-sorting of green beans, one can clearly sense a fresh grassy aroma, as if walking across a meadow after rain. Appropriately raising the temperature during the steaming and drying stage, combined with a faster rate of temperature rise, can better lock in the aroma and the rich variations of acidity and sweetness—this is exactly the suitable direction Hacienda La Esperanza has found through practice.
Light roast City (fragrant type): In Colombian coffee, a plum-like acidity is not common, yet this bean happens to present exactly that kind of acidity, with no astringency at all, bright and delicate. The overall mouthfeel is smooth, without the heavy, intense tonality of traditional Colombian beans; instead, it carries a hint of Costa Rican coffee, and the acidity transitions quickly toward plum sweetness.
Dark roast (regular C): With raisin aroma as the base, the flavor stays within the range of fruity maple sugar. A fruity, milky sweetness spreads across the tongue without making one feel it is too heavy. As the coffee temperature gradually drops, the overall impression continues to move toward a rounder, sweeter direction.
Hacienda La Esperanza is undoubtedly one of Colombia’s top coffee estates.
Its farms have won the Best of Panama championship (2008) and runner-up (2009)*. In 2012, three of its products simultaneously entered the SCAA Coffee of the Year top ten, taking the astonishing 2nd, 3rd, and 7th places. In the newly announced GFA (Good Food Award) selection, Hacienda La Esperanza also became the only estate outside Ethiopia, Kenya, and Panama to win an award***.
As for its high-score records of 95 and above on Coffee Review, there are so many that they dazzle the eyes, making the editor give up after transcribing until his wrist ached.****
Hacienda La Esperanza owns a total of four farms: Esperanza, Las Margaritas, Cerro Azul, and Potosi.
It once won the Best of Panama championship (2008) and runner-up (2009).
In 2012, three of its products simultaneously ranked in the SCAA Coffee of the Year top ten, incredibly taking the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th places.
In the newly announced GFA (Good Food Award), Hacienda La Esperanza also became the only estate outside Ethiopia, Kenya, and Panama to win an award.
2014 WBC runner-up competition bean
2012, 2013 US Brewers Cup two-time consecutive championship competition bean
2014 Coffee Review Best of the Year No. 16
2014 Coffee Review Best of the Year No. 25
2013 Coffee Review Best of the Year No. 08
October 2014 Coffee Review 95 points
April 2014 Coffee Review 95 points
August 2013 Coffee Review 96 points
November 2012 Coffee Review 96 points
Product name: FrontStreet Coffee Colombia Hacienda La Esperanza coffee
Country: Colombia
Region: Valle de Cauca
Altitude: 1,400-1,650m
Variety: Pacamara
Processing method: Natural
Flavor description: The dry aroma exudes rich vinous and floral notes. On sipping, there are sweet-tart flavors of pineapple, longan, black plum, blackcurrant, passion fruit, blueberry, and grape. It is a tropical fruit wine, a lively bean with bright acidity.
Colombia Hacienda La Esperanza Café Granja La Esperanza
Café Granja La Esperanza is composed of 6 farms under the Herrera family located in El Valle del Cauca and Cundinamarca. The owner is Rigoberto Herrera.
The farms in Colombia include La Esperanza, Cerro Azul, Potosi, Las Margaritas, and Hawaii, covering eight microclimate zones.
La Esperanza, Cerro Azul, Potosi, and Las Margaritas are all located in Trujillo, Valle del Cauca, a province in western Colombia. The province faces the Pacific Ocean.
Trujillo is on the eastern mountain range, where the terrain is relatively flat and also lies west of the Cauca River, with altitudes from 1,000 to 3,000 meters. The warm climate of the valley meets the cold air of the Pacific, making the average temperature and rainfall suitable for coffee cultivation.
The soils suitable for cultivation in this region mostly contain volcanic ash and organic matter. However, phosphorus is generally low in this area, so Café Granja La Esperanza also blends its own natural fertilizers to ensure the health of the coffee trees and the quality of the coffee beans.
Interestingly, within Granja La Esperanza there is a coffee tree called Laurina (a Bourbon variety), whose fruit is naturally low in caffeine, but because the fruit is more fragile than ordinary coffee cherries, its yield is low.
At La Esperanza, Caturra, Geisha, Moka, Bourbon (including Red, Yellow, and Tekizik), Laurina, Pacamara, San Bernardo, and Pache are planted.
Altitude comparison:
La esperanza: 1,400-1,700 meters
Cerro Azul: 1,700-2,000 meters
Potosi: 1,400-2,000 meters
Las Margaritas: 1,400-1,800 meters
Area comparison:
La esperanza: 34 hectares
Cerro Azul: 18 hectares
Potosi: 52 hectares
Las Margaritas: 34 hectares
The little story of Café Granja La Esperanza’s Geisha:
In 2005, the Herrera family rented La Cardeida estate in Boquete, Panama, right next to La Esmeralda, which is famous for Geisha. Initially, with the assistance of botanist Hernando Tapasco, they experimented with planting the Geisha variety. At the very beginning, the cultivation team had even spent two years in Panama learning about Geisha’s characteristics. In 2008, La Cardeida’s Geisha successfully won the championship at “The Best of Panama.” In 2012, at the SCAA Coffee of the Year, the washed Geisha under its name from Cerro Azul, Las Magaritas, and Buenos Aires respectively won 2nd, 3rd, and 7th places.
Geisha is also planted at La Esperanza, including a rare organically certified variety (Geisha organica). All cherries are harvested by hand, and workers harvest more frequently than usual to ensure quality.
Other estate features:
☁ Cerro azul
Next to La Esperanza, the terrain is relatively high. Although there is stronger sunlight, there is cloud and mist at sunset and sunrise, reducing water evaporation and having a cooling effect. The valley location turns the Pacific sea breeze into clouds and mist, and together with volcanic soil and ample rainfall, it is very suitable for Geisha growth. Although about 7 varieties and about 45,000 Geisha trees are planted here, the naming is very strict: only the 5,000 to 7,000 trees among them that can express Cerro Azul’s characteristics can bear the Cerro Azul name. Those that can be called AAA Reserve are only 2 of the 7 varieties, and they must be grown at an altitude of 1,800-2,000 meters.
The coffee is fully washed, including 16 hours of fermentation, then water is removed in a dryer, followed by sun-drying on raised beds. The harvest workers here must receive five months of training.
Colombia’s suitable climate provides coffee with a true “natural pasture.” Colombia’s coffee trees are mainly cultivated in the Andes mountain range, on steep slopes at around 1,300 meters above sea level, where the year-round temperature is about 18 degrees Celsius, annual rainfall is 2,000 to 3,000 millimeters, latitude 1°-11°15 N, longitude 72°-78° W, and the specific altitude range can exceed 2,000 meters. Due to a special combination of various factors, Colombia’s coffee-growing regions’ latitude, altitude, soil, plant origins of species and coffee varieties, the climate in the coffee-growing regions and the rain patterns produced by the double path of the Intertropical Convergence, the constantly changing terrain and light within a day, the favorable year-round temperature range, the appropriate amount and distribution of rainfall, as well as some common cultural practices in the process including selective harvesting and processing, which include washing and drying. It is very suitable for coffee growth, with a mild climate, humid air, and the ability to harvest regardless of season.
The main variety of Colombian coffee is Arabica. The plant is a small tree or large shrub, 5-8 meters tall, usually with many branches at the base; old branches are grayish-white with swollen nodes, young branches are hairless and flattened. Leaves are thinly leathery, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, 6-14 cm long, 3.5-5 cm wide, apex long acuminate, the acuminate portion 10-15 mm long, base cuneate or slightly obtuse, rarely rounded, margin entire or shallowly wavy, hairless on both surfaces, with or without small domatia in the vein axils beneath; midvein raised on both sides of the leaf, lateral veins 7-13 on each side; petiole 8-15 mm long; stipules broadly triangular, those on the upper part of young branches with a conical long tip or awn-like tip, those on old branches usually with an abrupt tip, 3-6 mm long. Cymes several clustered in leaf axils, each inflorescence with 2-5 flowers, without peduncle or with a very short peduncle; flowers fragrant, with pedicels 0.5-1 mm long; bracts more or less connate at the base, dimorphic, 2 of them broadly triangular, nearly equal in length and width, the other 2 lanceolate, twice as long as wide, leaf-like; calyx tube tubular, 2.5-3 mm long, calyx limb truncate or with 5 small teeth; corolla white, length varying by variety, generally 10-18 mm, apex usually 5-lobed, rarely 4- or 6-lobed, lobes usually longer than the corolla tube, apex usually obtuse; anthers exserted beyond the corolla tube, 6-8 mm long; style 12-14 mm long, stigma 2-lobed, 3-4 mm long. Berry broad-elliptic when mature, red, 12-16 mm long, 10-12 mm in diameter, exocarp hard and membranous, mesocarp fleshy, sweet; seed convex on the back, flat on the ventral side, with a longitudinal groove, 8-10 mm long, 5-7 mm in diameter. Flowering period March-April. Colombia’s suitable climate provides coffee with a true “natural pasture.” Colombia’s coffee trees are mainly cultivated in the Andes mountain range, on steep slopes at around 1,300 meters above sea level, where the year-round temperature is about 18 degrees Celsius, annual rainfall is 2,000 to 3,000 millimeters, latitude 1°-11°15 N, longitude 72°-78° W, and the specific altitude range can exceed 2,000 meters.
☁ Las Magaritas
A little farther than Cerro Azul, in Colombia’s Central Cordillera, part of the Andes. Whether in soil, altitude, or weather, it is the best, so there are many rare varieties here, such as Pacamara, Red Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Tekisic, and Mokka. Besides Geisha, there is also one called Sudan Rume, whose leaves have a copper color. This tree can resist many coffee tree diseases and is mostly used for hybrid grafting. It is said that its cup profile is not inferior to Geisha, but its growth is less stable than Geisha, so it has not been propagated in large quantities.
Las Margaritas’ Geisha requires 14 hours of fermentation, and after washing is fully sun-dried. Because the climate here is humid, there are relatively few other beans that rely entirely on sun-drying.
Let’s compare the appearance of three coffee seedlings: Geisha, Sudan Rume, and Laurina.
☁ Potosi
Farmland facing Las Magaritas. Planting began in the era of Rigoberto Herrera’s great-grandfather, so the varieties are mainly Colombian varieties and Caturra.
Caturra coffee tree
In addition to valuing coffee quality, the estate also takes environmental protection and employee welfare into account, implementing different methods to improve talent, optimize the environment, and increase productivity.
Colombia
Population: 47,073,000
Colombia has clearly defined growing regions and the impressive variety of coffees they produce. Whether you want a round, heavy coffee mouthfeel, or a crisp, fruit-flavored one (or something in between), it is most likely a Colombian bean. Colombia is divided geographically, and it is not hard to find that the coffees of the place share many common characteristics. If you like the coffee of one region, you will likely also like that of other regions. Coffee trees in Colombia get two harvests, the main harvest each year and the second harvest, locally called “mitaca.”
CAUCA
CAUCA: Among other things, this area is best known for its coffee growing around Inza and the Meseta de Popayan near the city of Popayan. The high plateau’s high altitude provides favorable growing conditions, and its proximity to the equator and the surrounding mountains protect coffee from the humidity of the Pacific and the southern trade winds. This creates a very stable climate year-round. In addition, the region’s coffee has notable volcanic soil. Historically recorded, there is a single rainy season from October to December each year.
Altitude: 1,700-2,100m
Harvest: March-June (main crop), November-December (mitaca crop)
TOLIMA
TOLIMA: Located in one of the strongholds of Colombia’s notoriously infamous insurgent group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, it remained under their control until recently. Tolima has suffered from fighting in recent years, making access difficult. High-quality coffee from this region comes from smallholders cultivating very small micro-lots and exported through cooperatives.
Altitude: 1,200-1,900m
Harvest: March-June (main crop), October-December (mitaca)
Varieties: 9% Typica, 74% Caturra, 17% Castillo Huila
NARINO
Some of Colombia’s highest-quality coffee grows in Narino, considered the most astonishing and complex in flavor. In many areas at these high altitudes, growing coffee is a challenge, as coffee trees may suffer from leaf rust. However, Narino is close enough to the equator that the climate is suitable for growing coffee trees. The vast majority of Narino’s 40,000 producers are smallholders, each cultivating less than 2 hectares (4.4 acres). Many form groups and organizations to support one another and interact with the FNC. In fact, the average farm size is less than 1 hectare (2.2 acres), and only 37 producers in the region own more than 5 hectares (11 acres) of land.
Altitude: 1,500-2,300m (4,900-7,500ft)
Harvest: April-June. Varieties: 54% Typica, 29% Caturra, 17% Castillo
HUILA
Huila has an excellent combination of soils and geographical advantages for growing coffee. Some of the most complex, fruit-forward Colombian coffees come from here. The region has more than 70,000 coffee growers, covering more than 16,000 hectares (39,500 acres).
Altitude: 1,250-2,000m
Harvest: September-December (main crop), April-May (mitaca crop)
Main varieties: 11% Typica, 75% Caturra, 14% Castillo
Colombia - Hacienda La Esperanza
Colombian coffee long ago shed the impression of being inferior or merely base coffee. Through coffee competitions in recent years, people have come to better understand Colombian coffee. Good coffee usually comes from good estates and some small, special producing regions such as the previous Colombia-Narino region, but these coffees are really not produced in large quantities. Before coffee competitions, Colombian coffee was graded by bean size, but this grading only represented bean size and had no relative relationship with quality. “Bigger beans are better” was an outdated grading system. Instead, some excellent coffee estates or cooperatives with small yields and small cultivated areas produce beans that are generally smaller, rounder, and more complete. This is the mainstream of today’s Colombian coffee: good quality is the guarantee of price.
Colombian coffee is widely sold and used, mainly because of its soft, fragrant, and pure taste, and it is a very easy coffee bean to brew well. Therefore, it is very popular in every household and is the best companion for desserts and cakes. With Colombian coffee, you can enjoy the rich, mellow atmosphere it brings without going to a coffee bar. Whether it is plain black coffee or recipe coffee made with Colombian coffee, it is a good choice.
The Huila producing region in southwestern Colombia is a producer of excellent coffee, along with the Narino and Tolima producing regions. The top 10 in Colombia’s annual coffee competitions almost all come from these three producing regions, and they are likewise mainly small coffee farmers with small yields and small cultivated areas. Hacienda La Esperanza is located in the Huila producing region. The estate does not belong to an individual or a family coffee farm but is a collective of several coffee farmers selling externally under the name Hacienda La Esperanza. Hacienda La Esperanza is distributed in forests at an altitude of 1,400-1,650 meters, with fully ripe coffee cherries harvested by hand. The coffee farmers insist on a good growing environment and persistently control the quality of excellent green coffee beans. It was the champion estate of the 2007 Colombia coffee competition, and in 2008 it also took 9th, 12th, and 14th places (different coffee growers). In November 2008, it was given a high score of 93 by American coffee expert Kenneth Davids (author of Coffee Review and Home Coffee Roasting), making it a top estate in Colombia.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
