By Michael Barker
We recently launched a brand new ‘supreme’ coffee, a delicious washed Gesha from Hermanos Burbano in Colombia. Our supreme range features the most exquisite coffees we can find. We aim to source coffees that are special not simply for their price and quality, but also for their story. This particular coffee is special for many different reasons, and it’s more than earned its space in our supreme range…
What is a ‘gesha’?
Firstly, let’s unpack exactly what this coffee is. You’ll notice on the label that it says ‘gesha’, and might be a little confused as to what that actually means. There are many different varieties of coffee plant, and many of these are known to hold distinct flavours.
The Gesha variety in particular has been industry-defining for specialty coffee. It gained prominence back in the early 2000s when Panamanian farm Hacienda la Esmerelda entered their Gesha lot into the Panama Cup of Excellence. It was thought at the time that an Ethiopian coffee had accidentally been added to the table as its sweet, fruity and floral notes were unlike anything coming out of Panama at the time. It naturally won the competition, and the variety soon spread across Central and South America. Nowadays, it is regularly the variety chosen by competitors in Barista Championships, having won endless titles over the past 20 years.
Put plainly, this varietal is one-of-a-kind in the complexity of flavours it can produce. Although far more widespread than it once was and naturally varying in quality, a good Gesha like this one never fails to amaze us on the cupping table…
What makes this specific Gesha so special?
There’s a number of different reasons why this particular Gesha lot is special. It can be put down to the story behind its foundations, the meticulous processing that it went through and the importer that we bought it from.
It comes from El Quebradon in San Augustin, Colombia, from a farm founded by three brothers - José, Miguel Ángel and Jesús Burbano. Their uncle offered José his own farmland to cultivate coffee, but José instead asked to share the farm with his brothers. They’ve used El Quebradon as not simply a family business, but a project that produces coffee sustainably to benefit themselves, their land and communities. Rather than plant more common varieties with higher yields, they choose more exotic cultivars, utilising the terroir and climate of their farm to ensure their trees get the best nutrition and develop the maximum sweetness in their fruits.
This Gesha, in particular, underwent meticulous processing at origin to bring out its flavour. Between January and March, only fully ripe cherries were picked every 20 days and fermented overnight. They were then de-pulped, before a wet fermentation for 72 hours. This process allowed more of the fruit qualities to develop in the coffee and helped bring out its silky texture. The cherries were then rinsed and laid out on raised beds until the outer parchment started to dry, before being moved into large mounds to slow down the drying time to 21-29 days. Slow drying preserved some of the fruit and delicate notes of the Gesha, which in turn has enhanced the floral profile in the final cup.
This lot comes to us through Semilla, an importing company founded in 2019. What’s extra special about Semilla is that Rachel, our ex-roaster who left us back in April, now works for them. This is the first coffee we’ve been fortunate enough to source through her. Semilla has a mission to “represent specific groups, for better or worse, as they move forward along the value stream from periphery to core”. We had a chance to break down the meaning of this mission and learn more about the work that they do in the latest installment of our Importer Focus Series, which you can check out here.
If you’d like to try this coffee, we have it available online and in the cafe now, and you can find it here. We’re tasting bright florals, peach, tangerine, lemon verbena and a silky texture throughout…
Enjoy!