Passenger

For our final Freezer Friday release of 2021, we wanted to do something EXTRA special for New Year’s Eve. We are incredibly proud to share a limited re-release of two lots - a wet process and a dry process - from the 2019 harvest at Hacienda la Esmeralda, the farm that put the gesha variety on the map.

As with all of our favorite “washed” lots from La Esmeralda, the 2019 wet process is a study in elegance. Intense, arresting aromas of jasmine and bergamot are complemented by soft raspberry, meyer lemon, and milk chocolate in the cup. As the coffee cools, a refreshing floral quality re-emerges on the aftertaste.

While the dry processed lots from La Esmeralda do not possess the subtlety and delicate nuance that we love in the wet processed selections, what we find instead are explosively fruit flavors and incredible sweetness. This dry processed selection from the 2019 harvest provides a spectacular illustration of these qualities. Vibrant mixed berry, creamy custard, and tropical fruit aromatics introduce an intensely fruited cup with juicy flavors of blackberry, raspberry, kiwi, and concord grape. As the coffee begins to cool, a pleasantly coating milk chocolate quality emerges and is beautifully complemented by a subtle jasmine note on the finish.

Passenger is one of a small group of roasters employing coffee cryogenics. By storing our green coffee carefully preserved in an offsite freezer facility, we are able to side-step many of the challenges and quality risks presented by more traditional approaches to green coffee warehousing and roasting. Freezing our green coffee also enables us to offer these notable harvests from previous years. While it would usually be the case that offering coffees from previous harvests involves a significant loss of quality due to muted or aged flavors, Passenger’s approach to green coffee preservation opens up exciting opportunities to share incredible coffees from the past that remain in pristine condition, bursting with fresh flavors.

In early 2021 we began releasing some of our all time favorites in extremely limited quantities. Each release is announced through Social Media and limited to 1 per order. You can see all of our previous releases here.