Description
A stellar & unique single strain coffee. Geisha is an Ethiopian strain known for its sweet, floral and fruity tones, often balanced with tea like spice. It can be one of the tastiest coffees if grown and processed properly. These days it wins most coffee competitions throughout the world. It is a finicky strain, it must be grown at very high altitudes, even for coffee standards, or it can lose its wonderful tastes. It is also prone to disease, which makes it a risky strain to adopt. If it cross pollinates with other strains, it can pretty quickly degrade its overly sweet and floral characteristics. Hard to keep a secluded field in coffee growing territory.
Although you may recognize the name Finca Vista Hermosa, this is not from the Martinez family, but from another wonderful coffee farmer on the other side of Guatemala, whose farm also has a very “beautiful view”. Santa Rosa is in Southern Guatemala, while Huehuetenango is North, almost on the Mexican border.
Fredy Orantes, who owns/operates this Finca Vista Hermosa has gained a well-earned reputation for meticulously processed coffees that encompass a wide swath of varieties. This is his naturally processed Geisha varietal coming from his highest elevation field. A good example of Geisha coffee. Not quite an award winning lot, but very highly rates and comparatively, a wonderful value for a very clean shining example.
Tasting Notes: Best served at light roasts. One can roast out the sweet floral and fruit pretty quickly so be a little careful not to get this one too dark. Hard to get a bad roast on these beans but will be far less distinctive at fuller roast levels. Light roasts are delicate, sweet and balanced. Hints of citric/floral and fruit balance nicely with a fuller bodied dark tone, on the malty side with tea (spice) like accents in the aftertaste. Unlike many light roast coffees, the acidity and tones are gentle and balanced. Medium roasts promote the tea like spice but cut out the sweet floral pretty quicky. Turns the cup low acidity with mostly darker toned complexity, hints of fruit and floral will still poke out as the cup cools.
Roasting Notes: Beautiful large beans screen but with a higher chaff level. Roasts even for a natural processed making it pretty easy to hit desired roast levels. Watch temps as you get pretty close to 1st crack, easy to overshoot a nice light roast especially with the higher chaff levels. A 1-2 days setup time is wise or can risk a bit of sour upfront.
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