A competition-level and incredibly floral Gesha coffee, notes of star jasmine, lilac, bergamot citrus, orange blossom, Earl Grey and corn silk teas, spiced cider and a candied sweetness underneath it all.
Sweet Maria’s is the sole buyer of this coffee for several years now. The farm has been continued to plant more coffee each year and what started as a handful of bags annually, has ballooned to more than 150 bags this time around! If the volume isn’t impressive enough, we are stunned at the consistent high quality they they achieve.
If you don’t know the story of the Gesha cultivar, it is an old coffee type from Ethiopia that was brought to an experimental coffee garden in Costa Rica years ago as a specimen sample. It was distributed to a few farms for testing on small plots, but not much was thought of it until one of these, Esmeralda in Panama, separated it from the other cultivars and entered it in the national competition. It was so outrageously different, with fruited and floral character like a Yirga Cheffe coffee from half a world away. Now that the word is out, other farms that received some of the seed have tried to separate their Gesha coffee as well, as is the case here. The results are always a bit different: the cultivar “expresses” itself differently in terms of cup flavors at each location, influenced by weather, soil, altitude and the like.
And with this coffee from the region of Acatenango, we have a Gesha cup that expresses much of that floral intensity that’s become synonymous with the “Gesha” name. Harvest was quite productive this year again as the owner of the farm has dedicated even more of his farm to this varietal. We’re the sole buyer of this coffee and have chosen to keep certain farm specifics to ourselves. The farm sits on the steep slopes of Volcan Acatenango between 1600 – 1700 meters and reaps the benefits of rich volcanic soil. This farm has been in the same family for a couple generations now and they’ve built out an impressive wet milling facility onsite as well.
The dry fragrance is perfumed with a smell of fragrant flowers, along with softer presence of fruits, like sweet citrus. The wet aroma bursts with floral characteristics, unfolding from within layers of sweet fruit notes and crystalized sweetness. Like the other Gesha lots we’ve had this year, this coffee produces impressive body and mouthfeel, even in the light roasts.
- Origin: Guatemala
- Region: Acatenango
- Altitude: 1600-1700m
- Cultiva: Gesha
- Processing: Wet Process (Washed)
- Drying: Patio Sun-Dried
- Grade: SHP
- Sourcing: Sweet Maria’s
