Santa Lucia Gesha

*FINAL ROAST JULY 26TH – 4 OUNCE BAGS AVAILABLE WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Ricardo Perez, along with brothers Marvin and Felipe Rodriguez, co-own the famed “west valley” mill Helsar del Zarcero. All three producers are champions of organic coffee growing practices, pioneering modern techniques that yield excellent results.

This is a particularly special lot of Gesha variety coffee from the farm immediately connected to the Helsar Mill, Santa Lucia.  This particular variety, of Ethiopian heritage, was successfully introduced into the esteemed agricultural research center, CATIE, in Costa Rica in 1953. The adoption of this variety was slow-moving until it made its reappearance as a standout winner in quality competitions within Panama starting back in 1994. 

Since then this prized variety, while slower growing and smaller yielding, has been making its way into specialty coffee producer’s fields across the Americas. This is partly because the quality and complexity of the resulting coffee mean these offerings can fetch well-deserved prices at market, but also because the variety has so far been found to be fairly hardy in its resistance to coffee leaf rust – one of the biggest natural maladies coffees encounter in this part of the world.

Santa Lucia’s Gesha plot sits at the altitude of 1750 MASL, on a valley hillside that gets morning shade, afternoon sunlight and cool breezes from the nearby Pacific Ocean. The coffee is harvested by hand at the peak of ripeness and then processed at a special mill designed to work with boutique small lots grown using organic practices. After being depulped it is mechanically washed using an eco-pulper. 

Ricardo has chosen to prepare this coffee as a ‘Red Honey’, meaning that the eco-pulper is calibrated to leave a healthy amount of fruit still on the beans as they head into the drying stage. To dry, this coffee is laid out for several weeks on raised beds newly constructed for the harvest.

Let us assure you that this fresh crop Gesha has a mind-bogglingly beautiful flavor profile, crisp and sparkling with a rich, fruit forward mouthfeel.

This is Gesha, roasted as only Ritual can.