Origin: Colombia

Name of the growers: Granja La Esperanza

Farm: Herrera’s Family Farm

Altitude: 1600 – 1990 masl

Coffee area: Valle del Cauca

Processing: Washed, dried on African beds and patio

Tasting note: Rich and harmonious complexity, stone fruits and herbal nectar, flowers like lavender, violets and rose.

Geisha – what’s all the fuss about?

Geisha is a very low yielding variety of coffee. You may have heard about Geisha before – La Esmeralda from Boquete in Panama produced cup and price records around the world selling a small plot on an online auction – fetching $172 USD per pound.

The first Colombian Geisha arrived to Café Granja La Esperanza through Carleida state farm, located next to La Esmeralda state farm in Boquete. The best seeds of the Panamanian state farm were sown in experimental plots on the three volcanic mountain ranges of Colombia and the best Geisha bushes are being reproduced on commercial plots in Trujillo and Caicedonia area, from Valle del Cauca state. Colombian Geisha is unmistakably floral, but with novel fruity notes and a notable acidity from Ethiopia’s caste.

Cafe Granja La Esperanza manages 3 farms: Cerro Azul, Potosi, and Las Margaritas in eight distinct microclimates located in three mountain ranges in Colombia, giving the experienced agronomists behind Cafe Granja La Esperanza plenty of room to experiment with a number of variables, such as microclimates, processing methods, and varietals. The team at Granja La Esperanza is driven by a combination of science, business, and an obsession with quality coffee. The team creates milling and processing protocols tailored for each distinctive microclimate and varietal.

The staff are so dedicated to quality and research that they recently spent two years studying the famous Geisha varietal in Boquete Panama, on a property adjacent to the famed Peterson Esmeralda farm, before becoming the first producers to bring the varietal to Colombia at their Finca Cerro Azul in Trujillo. Their dedication to quality goes so far that coffee harvesters must demonstrate a level of excellence during a five month training period before being qualified to pick the Geisha cherries at the peak of ripeness

The Geisha variety is not only a special variety, the combination of picking and processing have an impact on the cup. Cherries are hand selected and any defects no matter how small are removed. Instead of picking every 15-20 days, this coffee is picked every 4-5 days to ensure the best cherries are picked. Coffee pickers are carefully instructed to only pick the completely ripe, red fruits and are paid a premium to do so.