Leonela Vanessa Madrid Natural Gesha

Part of our Rare and Experimental series, this naturally processed gesha variety is from Leonela Vanessa Madrid's farm, El Caminito in the Santa Barbara region of Honduras. Venessa is a fourth-generation coffee producer and has a degree in food science from Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School, Tegucigalpa. At just 23 years old, she manages her own farm, helps her other family members with their farms, specifically with post-harvest processing, and has her own cafe nearby that serves delicious baleadas, a traditional dish of Honduras.

This Gesha variety, first planted by Vanessa's father, Franklin Madrid, is grown at 1600 MASL in a beautiful mountainous area near the Montaña de Santa Bárbara National Park. Several things make this coffee remarkable, perhaps chief among them is this is only Vanessa's second harvest of gesha! After the coffee cherries are picked, they are floated in water to separate beans that will produce less favorable flavors. After separating, cherries are put in fermentation tanks for 24 hours and then placed on a solar dryer to dry for 15 to 22 days, depending on the weather. There is only a small amount of this coffee, making it all the more special for us to share.

Dial into this fruit forward and floral coffee at a 1 to 15 coffee to (filtered) water ratio. We taste notes of raspberry, lime, mango, cacao nib, pomegranate, and sweet pastry! The acidity of this coffee reminds us of lime and fresh stone fruit, like apricot. The mouthfeel is juicy like a fruit punch. We love it on an Origami dripper with a Kalita filter ground medium coarse. If we had to guess, this coffee would sing as a flash-brewed iced coffee.

Note: This coffee will taste best at least 10 days off roast.