Something happened in August 2025 that would have seemed impossible a decade ago.
At the 2025 Best of Panama auction, Hacienda La Esmeralda’s washed Gesha — a 98-point coffee — sold for $30,204 per kilogram. The farm’s natural Gesha sold for $23,608 per kilogram. Both bids massively exceeded the previous world record of $13,518 per kilogram, itself set just the year before.
Thirty thousand dollars a kilogram. Let that sit for a moment. Who is buying this coffee? Julith Coffee from the UAE.
Of the 40 Gesha lots at the 2025 Panama Cup of Excellence, 28 reached a price above $1,000 per kilogram. In total, the auction brought in $2.8 million, with an average price of $2,861 per kilogram — more than double the figure recorded in 2024.
To understand how we got here, you have to go back to 2004, when Hacienda La Esmeralda first entered their Gesha into competition. That year, they sold it for $21 per pound — a world record at the time. The number seemed absurd then, and a deal now. The price has not climbed steadily — it has lurched upward at an aggressive pace, each new record more jaw-dropping than the last, each one redefining what the market believes coffee can be worth.
So what’s driving it?
Part of the answer is simple scarcity. The coffee that placed first in both the washed and natural categories at the 2025 BoP — called Nido — came from a plot that took 13 years to develop. It is precisely these levels of exclusivity, prestige (remember this word), and scarcity that drive prices to astronomical levels. You cannot rush Gesha. You cannot manufacture provenance. When a lot of 3 kilograms from a specific microplot on a specific volcanic hillside in Boquete scores 98 points, there are exactly 3 kilograms of it in the world. The market responds accordingly.
But scarcity alone doesn’t explain $30,000. For that, you have to look at who’s buying.
High-end auctions typically attract East Asian and Middle Eastern buyers — from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong — who are renowned for seeking out high-scoring, ultra-expensive coffees. Premiumization plays a key role in driving brand appeal in these markets, making it more feasible to sell ultra-premium coffee at jaw-dropping prices. In Taiwan, Simple Kaffa — founded by World Barista Champion Berg Wu — recently sold an Elida Estate Gesha for $635 per cup. In Japan, a single serving reportedly crossed $970. These are not coffee drinkers. These are collectors. These are people for whom the experience of holding the rarest thing is inseparable from the experience of drinking it.
With the commodity coffee price at a 13-year high and operating costs increasing year on year, it presents a stark contrast to the realities of today’s coffee industry. Most roasters cannot touch these auction lots. Most consumers will never taste them. The record-breaking prices exist in a rarefied atmosphere that has very little to do with your morning cup — and yet they matter, because they define the ceiling. They establish what Gesha can be, which changes how all Gesha is perceived and priced downstream.
As for Gesha, the price will keep climbing. The records will keep falling. And somewhere in a highland forest in Ethiopia or on a volcanic slope in Boquete, a coffee plant will keep growing, entirely unbothered by the spectacle it has inspired until one day someone finds it, and it will join its friends in the big auction stage.
For a small specialty roasting company like Sipbie — one that sources intentionally, roasts in small batches, and serves its coffee from a 1999 Piaggio Ape three-wheeled truck in the land of Los Gatos — these numbers are both inspiring and sobering. We are not bidding at the Best of Panama. We are not selling $635 cups of coffee. What we are doing is beginning to source Gesha that reflects the same commitment to origin and craft that makes those $30,000 kilograms meaningful in the first place. This Sunday, we have a sample tasting for you from a small collection of farms in the hills of Panama, currently selling for approx. $600+ per kg. So stop by between 12 nn – 4 pm.