Colombia
El Obraje Geisha
250g
QUALITY SCORE: 90.75
Cup Notes
Blueberry / Peach / Passion fruit / Mango
Suggested for espresso and filter
A few years after the first release, we are thrilled to introduce to this extremely clean lot, with delicate but very defined flavours. In the absence of extensive fermentation, this coffee showcases the variety – our beloved Gesha – and the terroir, marked by high elevation of 2200 meters above sea level.
Persistent and complex on the palate, it has intense fruity notes of blueberry and passion fruit, accompanied by mango sweetness and a peach-like acidity.
when we roast
We freshly roast to order all coffees on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (excluding national holidays), and ship the same day! Cut-off time is 11:59pm (UTC+1) of the day before the roast day. *We only ship whole beans*
Details
- Quality Score
- 90.75
- Series
- Premium Rarities
- Producer
- Pablo Andres Guerrero - El Obraje
- Country
- Colombia
- Terroir
- Nariño
- Altitude
- 2200 masl
- Process
- Classic Natural - Raised Beds
- Arabica cultivar
- Geisha
- Picked in
- June 2022
- Arrived in
- February 2023
- Shipped in
- GrainPro bags + Jute
- Roast profile by
- Rubens Gardelli
- Roasted on
- Customised solid-drum roaster
Suggested brewing recipe
To help you make the best out of your coffee, Rubens has crafted recipes for brewing this particular lot in filter.
There are two recipes: one for conical brewer (think v60) and one for flat-bottom brewer (think Kalita), however you can surely brew our coffees with any other brewing device, such as immersion brewers.
Please remember that these recipes are intended as starting points and may require further adjustments if the equipment you use is not identical to the one in the recipe; the characteristics of water used can also make a big difference in brewing.
Finally, the recipes suited specifically to Rubens’ roasting style, hence we do not guarantee that they will work as a universal reference.
There are two recipes: one for conical brewer (think v60) and one for flat-bottom brewer (think Kalita), however you can surely brew our coffees with any other brewing device, such as immersion brewers.
Please remember that these recipes are intended as starting points and may require further adjustments if the equipment you use is not identical to the one in the recipe; the characteristics of water used can also make a big difference in brewing.
Finally, the recipes suited specifically to Rubens’ roasting style, hence we do not guarantee that they will work as a universal reference.
Have fun brewing!
V60 STYLE
- Coffee:
- 17g
- Grind:
- Comandante 25 clicks (medium)
- Water:
- 250g (40tds) at 91 Celsius
- Time:
- 2:28
- Brew strenght:
- 1,47 tds
FLATBED
- Coffee:
- 17g
- Grind:
- Comandante 20 clicks (medium)
- Water:
- 250g (40tds) at 91 Celsius
- Time:
- 2:25
- Brew strenght:
- 1,45 tds
STORY BEHIND
Hacienda El Obraje is a truly stunning farm of the Guerrero family in the mountains of the Nariño department in Colombia, with coffee planted on the slopes descending to a river valley.
The nearly 100-hectare estate now cultivates coffee on only 25 hectares; the rest of the land has been converted into a natural forest reserve by Pablo Guerrero.
When Pablo first began planting coffee in the Tangua area outside the city of Pasto in 2000, he cultivated more conventional varieties for the area and didn’t have a mill of his own.
By 2009 he had built a facility to process his own coffee and entered the specialty coffee market.
Transitioning to coffee production was risky because he was unsure how productive coffee cultivation would be at such high elevations (2200 masl), but the coffee trees flourished, and now others are following in his footsteps.
Pablo brought Gesha seeds to El Obraje from Panama in 2011, starting with 2,000 trees. Four years later he planted other 7,000 trees. Gesha trees are planted at the distance of 3 meters between them to give their broad-stature branches room to grow.
Gesha cherries are selectively harvested when they are at full maturity and have a red-purple color. The climate and terrain of Obraje farm – situated near many volcanic mountains, with rocky soil, rich with minerals – are major contributing factors to the unique cup profile of coffee grown here.
This Gesha lot coffee underwent Natural processing at the mill at El Obraje. All processing times vary according to the variables of climate at the time of harvest.
THE VARIETY
Rare, exclusive and fetching a heavy price tag, Gesha is often associated with coffees from Panama, while, in fact, the cultivation of the Gesha varietal began there as late as in the 1960s.
Gesha is an original variety of coffee that was discovered in the 1930s in the mountains around the Southwestern town of Gesha, Ethiopia. Gesha trees grow tall and can be distinguished by their beautiful elongated leaves. The quality of this coffee can be drastically improved when grown at extremely high elevation.
The Geisha revolution brought about an intense search for Geisha among coffee buyers and a primal pilgrimage to Ethiopia to find the source of that flavor. The roads those buyers traveled brought them in a wood in far western Ethiopia near a small town called Gesha in the forests where coffee was born and still grows wild.
Gesha 1931 comes from this place.
Its name reflects the place and year it was collected by scientists who fanned out on a research expedition in Ethiopia to catalogue its coffee varieties.
THE FERMENTATION PROCESS
Dry process seems simple: pick the fruit, lay it out in the sun until it turns from red to brown to near-black, and then hull off the thick, dried outer layer in one step to reveal the green bean.
It is a method suited to arid regions, where the sun and heat can dry the seed inside the intact fruit skin.
It's often referred to as "natural coffee" because of its simplicity, and because the fruit remains intact and undisturbed, a bit like drying grapes into raisins. Since it requires minimal investment, the dry process method is a default to create cheap commodity-grade coffee in areas that have the right climate capable of drying the fruit and seed.
But it’s a fail in humid or wet regions
If the drying isn't progressing fast enough, the fruit degrades, rots or gets covered with mould.
Dry-processed coffees can also be wildly inconsistent. If you want a cleanly-fruited, sweet, intense cup, dry process (DP) takes more hand labor than wet process. Even the most careful pickers will take green unripe or semi-ripe coffee off the branch as they pick red, ripe cherry. If these are not removed in the first days of drying, the green turns to brown that is hard to distinguish from the ripe fruit.
For this lot, the coffee bean was dried inside the cherry as the whole coffee fruit. The drying was subsequently completed on raised African beds in full sun for 21-40 days.
