| Country | Honduras |
|---|---|
| Farm | Los Potreros |
| Varietal | Arabica Geisha |
| Processing | Honey |
| Crop | July 2024 |
| Partnership | since 2020 |
| Coffee type | Whole bean |
| Flavour | Juicy & Exotic |
About this coffee
In addition to Parainema and Pacas, Esmelin also grows a small amount of Geisha coffee trees on his farm. Since we were thrilled with both the washed and honey processing of this highly prized variety last year, we decided to buy the entire harvest this year and offer this coffee in the standard Farm edition.
The story of Geisha is already notorious. It reached Central America through the Costa Rican Coffee Institute, where it was bred in the 1950s for its high resistance to coffee leaf rust. Its true origin remains unverified, but it is said that it was named after the village of Gesha in Ethiopia. It was only in 2004 that the owner of the farm Hacienda La Esmeralda Daniel Peterson was surprised to discover that the strangely tall bushes with elongated cherries were showing extraordinary results on the tasting table. The Peterson family decided to process Geisha cherries separately from other varieties and held the first ever online coffee auction. Over the next few years, Geisha changed the coffee world and is now found almost everywhere.
Farm Coffee Series
How does it taste?
Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Honduras last year, so we chose from samples sent by our partner exporter Benjamin Paz, who owns the San Vicente beneficio and is mainly responsible for the huge progress of the entire Santa Barbara region.
Honey Geisha from Esmelin absolutely thrilled us at the tasting table from the beginning. It's not often that we can buy more than 500 kg of 88-point coffee of this variety, which also arrived at the roastery in perfect condition. The intense aromatics and sweetness are accompanied by notes of peach and apricot. The sparkling acidity and syrupy, creamy body underline the exceptional quality of this coffee.
Los Potreros Farm
Although Esmelin comes from a coffee family, he is a relative newcomer as a coffee farmer. He works as a bank officer, and only a few years ago he bought 3 hectares of land from his grandfather, on which he planted mostly parainema coffee trees.
With the support of his cousin, he discovered the potential of specialty coffee, and now you have the opportunity to taste one of his first harvests.
Benjamin Paz
We discovered coffees from Honduras thanks to the charismatic Benjamin Paz, who took over the management of the San Vincente processing plant and export company after his father. Ben works closely with farmers in the Santa Barbara region, helping them turn the region's potential into great coffee. He connects small family farms with roasters that share the same philosophy.
Benjamin is also a successful farmer on his own who won first place in the prestigious Cup of Excellence competition in 2022 and 2024 with his geisha.
From an unknown region to a star on the coffee map
For a long time Honduras was an unknown territory for us. The largest coffee producing country in Central America has been focusing mainly on commodity coffee. Over the last few years, also with the help of producers and exporters from Santa Barbara, the situation has changed significantly. We purchased our first Honduran coffee in the year 2015. From the very beginning, we decided to work with Mr. Edwin Pineda and his wife Bersi Sagastume, together with Esmelin Sagastume.
