Costa Rica El Beneficio Geisha Natural

Geisha madness continues at Willoughby's - a different geisha varietal coffee each week for the next few weeks or so. We are "breaking into the cellar" and clearing out our remaining 2019 coffee to make room for new crop coffee that is beginning to head this way, arriving later this summer. This coffee arrived the beginning of Fall 2019 and was in vacuum packaging. We have also reduced the price a bit.

We have offered coffee from the Brumas del Zurqui micromill in the past, and were always impressed by the care and attention the owner, Juan Ramon Alvarado, takes with his coffee processing. The mill was established in 2004 on his El Beneficio farm, and processes coffees from several other farms. Juan Ramon is considered a pioneer in honey coffee, which involves analyzing sugar levels in coffee and the amount of mucilage left on the coffee bean after the cherry has been removed. All coffee cherry coming through the micromill is either honey or natural processed.

A brief explaination of coffee processing is required to understand the terminology. Since the advent of micro milling machines, most notably that developed by Penagos in Colombia, small farms have the ability to process their own coffee for a somewhat modest cost of entry. These machines use pressurized water mist to strip away the outer skin of the coffee cherry, and can remove pulp (the fruit surrounding the coffee husk) to a fine tolerance, leaving selective amounts of pulp to dry on the husk. When all the pulp is removed it is fully washed. When a tiny amount remains, it is called yellow honey; when a little more remains it is considered red honey, and a lot remaining is black honey. Neither the skin nor the pulp being removed results in a natural processed coffee (like this one). Fully Natural processed coffee like this is dried in the cherry before milling, which imparts fruit flavors into the beans (seeds) within.

Geisha is an heirloom varietal from Ethiopia that produces a blue-green elongated coffee bean that is especially aromatic and floral. Price Peterson, who owns Hacienda Esmeralda in Panama, experimented by planting it some years ago along with a broader group of varietals. The result was the rediscovery of a great cultivar with extreme fruitiness and floral scents and flavors, but with balance and finesse not seen in other coffees. Coffee farmers in other countries soon followed suit, and the varietal regularly takes home awards in Cup of Excellence competitions held throughout the world.

• Province: Heredia
• Canton: San Isidro
• District: San Francisco
• Altitude: 1500-1600m above sea level
• Coffee variety: Geisha
• Processing: Natural Process
• Farm: El Beneficio
• Mill: Brumas del Zurqui

Geisha coffees can be very expensive and there is a great deal of demand, particularly from the international community. This coffee is a relative bargain; despite it being priced higher than other coffees we typically offer, it is inexpensive for a Geisha variety. This small lot coffee was selected for us. Price is for a full pound.