Colombia Hacienda El Obraje Washed Gesha

Tastes Like: Orange Blossom, Strawberry, Violets, Chamomile

Origin: Tangua, Nariño, Colombia
Variety: Gesha
Producer: Pablo Andrés Guerrero, Hacienda El Obraje
Elevation: 2,200 masl
Process: Washed

Gesha is the variety that put Hacienda El Obraje on the map. Pablo Andrés Guerrero's washed Gesha took first place at the 2021 Colombia Cup of Excellence, a remarkable arc for a farm that grew wheat until the 1990s and didn't see its first coffee tree until Pablo planted one in 2000, the first of any of his neighbors. The wet mill he built on the farm in 2009 became his laboratory, and years of fermentation experiments there taught him exactly when a coffee needs intervention and when it needs restraint.

This lot got restraint. Cherries are held whole for just 20 hours before being depulped and washed, then finished with a short secondary fermentation underwater. It's about as gentle as processing gets, chosen because Gesha grown at 2,200 meters doesn't need help. The equator makes this elevation viable at all, and the sun-drenched days and cold nights stretch ripening out for weeks, building the delicate aromatics the variety is prized for while keeping the acidity fine and structured rather than sharp.

The cup is everything this variety promises at this altitude: orange blossom and violets on the nose, a soft strawberry sweetness through the body, and a chamomile finish that fades gently rather than dropping off. Elegant, composed, and a benchmark for what Colombian Gesha can be.