The Most Expensive Coffee Ever Sold
At the 2025 Best of Panama auction, a washed Geisha from Hacienda La Esmeralda sold for US$604,080 — a new world record price for green coffee.
The Number That Stopped the Auction
Twenty kilograms of green coffee. US$604,080. When Lot GW-01 closed at the 2025 Best of Panama online auction, the final price — US$30,204 per kilogram, or US$13,705 per pound — had no precedent in the public record for green coffee. The buyer was Julith Coffee, based in Dubai.
The weighted average price across all lots at the same auction was US$2,861.20 per kilogram. The record lot sold for more than ten times that figure.
One Farm, Three Records
The lot came from Hacienda La Esmeralda, in Boquete, Chiriquí, Panama. At the 2025 auction, the estate didn't set just one record — it dominated the top of the price sheet.
The farm's natural-processed Geisha, Lot GN-01, scored 97 out of 100 and sold to JD.com for US$23,608 per kilogram. Its Laurina variety, entered in the Varietals category, fetched US$8,040 per kilogram from Beijing Specialty Drink Co., Ltd. — the highest price in that category.
Three lots. Three category-topping prices. All from the same hillside in Boquete.
A Global Bidding Floor
The 2025 Best of Panama auction drew buyers from China, Japan, South Korea, Dubai, the United States, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates, among others. That international demand drove the event's total value past US$2.8 million.
The geographic spread of the winning bidders — from the Gulf to East Asia — reflects a specialty-coffee market that has deepened well beyond its historical centers. Julith Coffee in Dubai and JD.com took home the two highest-priced lots of the auction.
What the Record Signals
Price records in specialty coffee have a way of being broken. The US$30,204-per-kilogram figure will probably be eclipsed. But the 2025 Best of Panama auction documents something larger than a single lot changing hands at a staggering sum.
When three separate lots from one farm — washed, natural, and varietal — each clear the top of their respective price categories, it points to a consistent, reproducible quality that buyers around the world are willing to pay for at scale. The record isn't just about what one cup of Geisha might cost. It's evidence of how far the market for traceable, high-scoring coffee has traveled.
At US$13,705 per pound, someone in Dubai is betting it will travel further still.