Panama Finca Lerida Gesha

This coffee represents the Crème de la Crème of Central and South American coffee. Boquete, Panama is the home of the world's best Gesha coffee and this offering stands among them. Slightly crisp with juicy sweetness, this coffee has a refreshing floral finish and a full body with velvety texture. Look for balanced notes of peach, cherry, lime and hibiscus.

Arrival Date: October 1st, 2021

Acidity & Brightness: Slightly crisp, juicy sweetness

Balance & Finish: Fairly balanced, refreshing floral finish

Body & Texture: Full Body, velvety texture

Flavors: Peach, Cherry, Lime, Hibiscus

Grade: SHB, grown at 1600-2000 masl

Processing: Fully washed, sun dried on raised tables

Grower: Finca Lerida Coffee Estate

Region: Boquete, Panama

Varieties: Gesha (Geisha)

Roasting: We fell that in order to enjoy gesha to its full potential, it's best to keep roasts on the lighter end. Start with a city+, or near the end of the 1st crack. To bring out more brightness and floral flavors, go even lighter, around a minute after 1st crack. Avoid roasts past 2nd crack!

Reminder: this coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing

Our Review: "Panama’s gesha cultivar, originally descended from a landrace collected in the district of Gesha, near Ethiopia’s Keffa Forest, has had a niche marketplace all to itself for over 15 years. Of all the many attempts to cultivate the original gesha’s genetics across the Americas, many coffee tasters still believe nowhere is it better expressed than where it was first debuted: the Boquete valley in western Panama, under the command of the Baru volcano’s very specific soil and climate. Almost entirely as a result of gesha’s success, Panama is now an origin that constantly makes headlines in the specialty coffee world, mostly for the astounding auction prices in each year’s Best of Panama cupping competition, which now features dozens of gesha microlots processed a kaleidoscopic number of ways. At Royal we are privileged to have a perennial relationship with Finca Lerida, a 900-acre estate in the famed Boquete growing region nestled under the ecological wonderland of Volcan Buru where over 550 species of birds make their home. Finca Lerida is currently owned and managed by Sonia Amoruso and her extended family, who purchased the property in 2009. As a farm however, the estate dates back over 100 years. Sonia works with 30 year-round employees and another 60 people who meticulously pick ripe cherry during the harvest. Lerida’s central wet mill is as old as the farm itself, and fresh-picked cherry is still sorted for under-ripes and damages using the siphon invented by the original owner in the 1920s. Then the coffee is depulped, fermented, washed, and carefully dried on covered patios and raised bed. Finca Lerida also has housing and a school for employees and their families." - Royal Coffee

Gesha, sometimes spelled geisha and always pronounced "geh-sha" (not "gey-sha"), has a bit of a Cinderella story. The cultivar was originally discovered in Ethiopia's Gori Gesha forest in the 1930s. In the 1960s the Panamanian government went looking for new coffee varieties to help its farmers stand out in the International market and after purchasing some gesha plants along with a few other varieties, they distributed them to farmers in the Boquete region of Panama. But it wasn't until 2004 that a gesha coffee caught the attention of a international jury of expert judges at the Best of Panama competition. You see, they thought they were mistakenly given an Ethiopian coffee! After Hacienda la Esmeralda confirmed they had indeed grown the coffee at their estate in Boquete, Panama, they were awarded 1st place and gesha quickly went from a relatively unknown cultivar to the jewel of the specialty coffee world.

As Panamanian geshas go, you'd be hard pressed to find a better example of the best the cultivar has to offer than this offering from Finca Lerida. If you've never had a gesha before, think of the best washed Ethiopian coffee you've ever had. Now think of how it could be even better! Slightly crisp with juicy sweetness, this coffee has a refreshing floral finish and a full body with velvety texture. Look for balanced notes of peach, cherry, lime and hibiscus.