Guatemala Finca La Tormenta Cold Washed Gesha
Tastes Like: Pink Lady Apple, Cane Sugar, Mandarin Orange, White Grape
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 the farm, which placed sixth at the 2025 Cup of Excellence and was named a 2026 National Winner for this Gesha lot. 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.
Pink Lady apple opens the cup, crisp with a little tartness at the skin, and cane sugar runs underneath it as a light, clean sweetness that lasts. Mandarin orange comes up through the middle, juicy and round, and as the cup cools, white grape gathers in the finish, delicate and sweet. 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 to favor lactic acid bacteria, which turn the fruit's sugars into lactic acid while the low temperature slows the fermentation. The cherries are then depulped and washed, which gives the cup a washed lot's clarity. Building lactic character in the whole cherry and then washing the coffee clean is the intention of the method, and you taste it in a cup of Pink Lady apple, cane sugar, mandarin orange and white grape, sweet and bright throughout.