Guatemala Acatenango Gesha - Green Coffee Beans - 16oz Bag

We have been looking for an excellent Gesha for quite a while now. We are quite excited by this lot. The Gesha cultivar is an old coffee type from Ethiopia that was brought to an experimental coffee farm 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 Esmeralda in Panama entered it in the national competition.  It was so outrageously different, with fruited floral character that it won the competition and sold for a very high price.  Now the word is out and other small farms that received some of the seed have tried to separate their Gesha coffee as well. This is an excellent example. The Gesha  cultivar expresses itself differently in flavors at each location influenced by weather, soil  altitude and exposure to sun.

This Gesha lot has such a floral sweetness to it - perfume-like, sweet, complex. This set of attributes are uniquely 'Gesha', and we are as blown away by this years' lot as any. The dry fragrance is exceptionally floral, with strong notes of honeysuckle and jasmine flowers, thus living up to the expectations. It's a potent ground coffee with lots of herb/floral tea complexity, as well as smells of sweet citrus spritz and stone fruits. The wet aromatics are even 'bigger' if you can imagine, rivaling the experience of putting your nose directly into the bud of orange blossoms. This heightened floral smell is backed by a solid wildflower honey sweetness, rose water, and chamomile tea leaf. Like most coffees, when hot the full complexity of this coffee's cup profile is a bit difficult to sense. But as soon as the temp begins to dip, you're greeted with the same level of intensity in floral notes and sweetness as the aromatic profile. City/City+ roasts have a nice star jasmine flavor to them with kaffir lime, herbal tea, and honey.

Acidity is high, riding the line between citric and malic, and remains well integrated into the already complex profile. Much, much more is revealed in the cooling cup - tropical fruit flavors, punchy top notes, and various herbal and black tea flavors. This Gesha has surprisingly juicy body, and finishes beautifully with notes of Assam tea and even a light dusting of cocoa powder - articulate and clean.