Guatemala Finca La Tormenta Cold Washed Gesha
Tastes Like: Peach Rings, Mango, Jasmine, Passionfruit
Origin: San Agustín Acasaguastlán, El Progreso, Guatemala
Variety: Gesha
Producer: Roberto Chéves & Ana Recinos
Elevation: 1800 masl
Process: Cold Washed
Finca La Tormenta sits at 1,800 meters in San Agustín Acasaguastlán, on the southern slopes of the Sierra de las Minas, a UNESCO biosphere reserve holding the largest cloud forest in Mesoamerica. The farm borders the reserve, home to the quetzal and the jaguar, and the Chéves family farms with that forest's protection in mind. Roberto Chéves and Ana Recinos run La Tormenta. In April 2026 their Villa Sarchi took first place in the honey category of Flores del Café, Anacafé's national competition. The farm also placed sixth at the 2025 Cup of Excellence with a honey Villa Sarchi. We've been working with Balam and La Tormenta for 4 years now. We love the coffees they produce and we are always excited we get to showcase their work and share it with you.
Peach rings open the cup, sweet and candied, with ripe mango right behind them. Jasmine rises in the aroma and carries through the middle, and passionfruit brightens the finish as the cup cools. The texture is silky, and the acidity stays bright and clean.
Gesha is an Ethiopian landrace, collected from the country's coffee forests in the 1930s. Its cup profile is known for delicate florals, with jasmine and peach, the notes it carries most often. The plant grows tall on delicate branches, usually producing its first crop in its third or fourth year. It carries intermediate resistance to leaf rust. The cup quality rises with elevation, and World Coffee Research places its best above 1,300 meters in Central America, where the florals are at their clearest.
Whole cherries ferment cold for 90 hours. The intact skin limits oxygen around the mucilage, which favors lactic acid bacteria such as Leuconostoc mesenteroides. They feed on the mucilage's sugars and turn them into lactic acid, and the pH falls as it builds. The low temperature slows that work and holds back fungi that bring off flavors. The cherries are then depulped and washed clean of mucilage. Lactic acid tends to add body and a rounder acidity, and building it is the point of the method.