La Cabra has worked with coffees from Café Granja La Esperanza (CGLE) for over a decade, with this lot marking the eleventh year the roastery has purchased Cerro Azul. The team at CGLE are intimately familiar with the care the Geisha plant requires, having been among the first to bring it to Colombia. This expertise is evident in the final cup. La Cabra sees this coffee as a true representation of the Geisha varietal’s potential in Colombia, offering clean acidity, intense and distinct flavours, and some of the most incredible aromatics the roastery has encountered.

The experts at CGLE chose the Cerro Azul farm for its location further southwest in the Cauca Valley. The combination of very high altitude and a cool breeze from the Pacific coast means the trees must fight low average temperatures, which concentrates energy into the cherries as sugar. This natural intensity is captured by CGLE’s commitment to quality at every stage.

This lot undergoes a double fermentation, similar to many of Granja’s washed lots. It is first fermented in closed tanks for 20 hours, followed by de-pulping and a further 35-hour fermentation in open tanks. The parchment coffee is then washed and dried slowly in mechanical driers. This process allows La Cabra to maintain the clean and transparent feel of a washed coffee while offering the heavier sweetness generated by the long fermentation.

In the cup, the quintessential Cerro Azul Geisha profile shines: crisp white floral and citrus aromas are followed by a dense sugary sweetness, crisp peach and white tea. This 100g bag of whole bean coffee is offered for both filter and espresso, roasted by La Cabra in Denmark.