Guatemala La Princesa Gesha

Description

Princesa Gesha comes from Finca La Bolsa in La Libertad, Huehuetenango, a farm founded in 1958 by Dr. Jorge Vides and today is carried forward by the second and third generations of the Vides family. Sitting at 1,650 meters above sea level, La Bolsa is shaded by chalum, pine, and other native trees and has developed a reputation for carefully managed coffees rooted in generations of experience. Third-generation producer Renardo Ovalle introduced Gesha to La Bolsa, adapting the variety to the conditions of the farm and eventually developing the lot the family calls Princesa Gesha—a fitting name for a coffee they describe as exceptionally delicate and floral. The processing of this lot is equally deliberate. Ripe cherries first rest for 36 hours before being sorted through a siphon to remove underripe and lower-quality fruit. The selected cherries are then depulped and undergo an additional 15-hour dry fermentation before being washed and transferred to African raised beds. Drying takes approximately 16 days and is managed with remarkable attention. For the first eight days, the coffee is moved every hour; beginning on the ninth day, it is turned every four hours until drying is complete. It is a level of precision intended to preserve the clarity and delicacy of the Gesha variety. For this Modicum release, Princesa Gesha represents what we look for in coffees produced at this level: a distinctive variety, a specific place, generations of accumulated knowledge, and careful decisions made at every stage from harvest through drying.