ripe and juicy fruited notes like peach, tropical star fruit, cherry, and lychee. Mild bittering underneath adds a grounding element, and an aromatic orange tea note impacts the finish.
Honey processing involves leaving some of the sticky fruit intact with the coffee seeds during the entire drying period and tends to result in fruited sweetness, but at the risk of muting a coffee’s acidity and clarity. The latter is part of the reason we buy so few honey processed coffees, and it can be particularly troubling when you see a potentially great coffee like a Gesha compromised when processed poorly. But once again, the Lasso family delivers honey-process Gesha on par with their washed. We were super impressed by the confluence of fruited sweetness and delicate floral aroma and think you will be too! The coffee comes from the farm of Segundo Lasso, brother to Raquel Lasso whose “Finca La Bohemia” coffee we’ve bought in the past. While the most of the Lasso family reside in La Union, Nariño, Segundo left a few years back to marry his sweetheart from Huia, Gisella. Together, they manage their 5 hectare farm El Mirador. The farm is in Las Aguilas, a village within Huila’s La Argentina Municipality, sits at 1875 meters above sea level is planted in Gesha. We will have the wet process counterpart of this coffee in a few weeks.
The cup flavors in this coffee are clean and succinct, with fruit and floral aromatics highlighting the flavor profile. City and City+ roast levels are about the range I’d shoot for with this coffee. Any darker will result in a nice sweet cup, with some fruit hints too, but without the delicate floral qualities found at the lighter end of the roast spectrum. The brewed coffee is sweet with stone fruit, and floral notes proliferate as the cup cools and remind me of fresh jasmine flowers, a hallmark quality of the Gesha cultivar and so much of its allure. Focus quickly shifts to the rest of what’s in store and this honey Gesha really blossoms as it cools. The fruited notes are fresh and juicy, unfolding to heavier handed hints of cherry, tropical star fruit, ripe peach, and a lychee fruit note to a lesser degree. A hints of orange blossom tea impacts the aroma in the aftertaste, and theres even a dusting of chocolate bittering too that’s subtle but present. There’s a lot to unpack in this honey process Gesha. Sip slowly as it cools and enjoy the array of juicy fruit flavors that unfold!
- Origin: Colombia
- Region: Las Aguilas, La Argentina, Huila
- Farmer: Segundo Lasso
- Altitude: 1875m
- Cultivar: Gesha
- Processing: Washed
- Drying: Patio Sun-dried