Colombia El Paraiso Geisha Natural

About Colombia El Paraiso Geisha Natural

Arrived January 2019 in Grainpro. This is a very fairly priced Geisha, especially for its quality. Grown at high 1900 meter elevation this single farm Geisha is a full natural process, meaning the cherry dries on the bean within, imparting fruity flavors in the beverage. Very pronounced aroma which really stood out. Highly fragrant and floral. Big natural with very long finish. Chocolate texture.

Jose Ignacio Gomez's farm is located in Vereda el Naranjal near the town of Buescao in the Narino department. Paraiso’s Geisha variety of coffee grows at altitudes of 1900 meters above sea level. Jose grew up in a coffee producing family and has developed a good palate and an eye for good coffee. He grows coffee on six and a half hectares alongside oranges, lemons, and avocados. During the harvest, he, his family and team of trained harvesters hand pick the ripe red cherry and process the harvest in their own micro wet mill on the farm.

Several years ago, Jose Ignacio built a custom solar dryer on the farm near the wet mill. Three tiers of raised drying beds are arranged under the plastic roof, which allows light to enter and the farm’s crosswinds to control the temperature by passing through the open ends of the dryer. Jose oriented the dryer precisely to use the crosswinds for this temperature control purpose. When coffee is first harvested, in the case of Naturals, or dried, in the case of Honey and Washed lots, it is placed on the lowest bed. As it dries, it is moved to the top tier, where it remains until it reaches the desired humidity and is ready to be transferred to the bodega storage area for a period of rest prior to export known as reposo, when all the flavors that will be perceived in the cup stabilize. Carlos Alberto is Finca El Paraiso’s farm manager and a childhood friend of Jose’s. Carlos is in charge of monitoring the drying process and moving the coffees between tiers as the drying process progresses.

• Country: Colombia
• Region: Narino
• Farm: Finca El Paraiso
• Producer: Jose Ignacio Gomez Lopez
• Varietal: Geisha
• Process: Natural (dried in the cherry)
• Elevation: 1,900 meters

Jose is always looking to experiment and improve production, so he was eager to try planting Geisha trees on his property, as several of his colleagues have done. Nestled among the other varietals, Paraiso’s Geisha trees are part of the farm’s greater ecosystem and part of Jose’s ongoing trials to measure the success of different kinds of coffee, both in terms of agronomic performance (yield, pest, and plague resistance) and in terms of appeal to final roaster clients, both in variety and process.

Cup Characteristics: Very pronounced aroma which really stood out. Highly fragrant and floral. Big natural with very long finish. Chocolate texture. Flavor notes of black cherry and blackberry with tea-like tannins.

Roasting Notes: We always prefer Geisha coffees to be on the light side, otherwise their floral character gets diminished, which is partly the quality that makes them so sought after and relatively expensive. After first crack drop the heat and try to stretch out the devopment time, but end the roast before second crack begins. If the roast is not perfectly even that's ok.