The QC team at Cima Cafe blended a few great nanolots of higher end washed Gesha from their producer partners' 2025 harvest. We were excited to buy this lot because it meant more money goes into producer's pockets on their most labor intensive lot, and we get to build a more consistent buying relationship with Cima Cafe as an import partner for Honduras coffee. We have a few more Honduras lots coming soon that we cannot wait to share with you all.We recommend sipping this coffee slowly to see how it changes. When hot, it reminds us of bergamot, brown spices and ice cream. At cool, we found strong aroma of elderberry, and notes of persimmon and blackberry. The finish is subtle and herbaceous like Thai basil and white pepper. It's a well-balanced, entirely complex and creamy cup that does not disappoint.
This coffee launched on March 12th as part of Drop 6! The espresso/drip profile is a longer, more soluble roast profile meant to potentially pair with milk.
Note that as of 4/30, this coffee has been showing some age to us.
This is a curated blend of washed Geshas from several of Cima Cafe's producer partners. Throughout the season, sometimes producers do not have enough yield to sell a lot on its own. In this case, their were multiple exceptional coffees at various sizes around 15-20lbs, but none enough to fill the final bag and sell on their own.
In normal circumstances, these coffees never make it into the shipping containers and the producer loses out on that sale. For the first time, Cima Cafe's QC team has implemented their blending skills in order to combine the remaining Geshas that pair well with one another. The result is a cohesive offering that highlights quality, sustainability, and the collective work of multiple Honduran producers.
Like many other coffee varietals, Gesha originated in Ethiopia. It was harvested from the Gori Gesha Forest. It's known for its silky body and delicate florals. Gesha coffee is usually the highest per kg price from a producer. Panama, and the Panama COE is probably one of the biggest motivators for the price hike surrounding this varietal. Another contributor to the price difference is that Gesha trees are also often more delicate to weather conditions and diseases, require more farm supervision, and yield less crop.
All lots included in this community blend are traditionally washed according to each farm's standard practice. This does mean that steps, like time in fermentation tank, vary per farm.
Yet, the overall cup profile displays cohesion, high clarity, florality, and elegance that Gesha is classically known for. This is a lot that honors craftsmanship, reduces waste, and brings together the best of several farms.
We got to cup with Andres, an owner of the exporter Cima Cafe, and Fabio Caballero at Multimodal in Queens, NY. There we tried Fabio's CoE winning geisha, along with a few other great lots, on the cupping table. We knew we wanted to work with Cima due to their focus on Honduras coffee and community. Aside from coffee, they also fund and lead projects in healthcare, food security, and clean water in Honduras. They work to spread awareness and share sustainable farm practice to their producing partners, such as the importance protecting the native birds & bees, shade growing, recycling cascara for fertilizer, and treating honey water.
In all honesty, we were immediately excited by the high quality cup variability this lot offered us during sampling. As whiskey fans, this lot reminded us of our first infinity bottle -- ever evolving but often mysteriously delicious. This lot resonates with Base Coat for its innovate and creative way to reduce waste and increase money going into producers' pockets. Gesha lots can often start as high as $15+/lb; so, we're delighted to buy this community blend at $13.46/lb (not including shipping or tariffs) and help producers earn every penny from these meticulously grown and kept Gesha trees.
Green cost: $29.61/kg ($2/kg Tariff; $3.33/kg Shipping)
Package and roasting costs: $2.91/bag; $10/kg
Profile and sample use: ~2.5kg
Approx. Margin: 25.99%
Resting: We understand this is a rough timeline to wait but we recommend resting 45-55 days for peak experience (degas the night before by opening bag for about an hour). We're impatient and think this has tasted high clarity as early as 40 days after roast too. If you're experiencing an abrasive nutty/woody flavor or tasting "coffee ice cream", let it rest more! We promise it will not disappoint once properly rested.
We're enjoy this coffee in a variety of forms, but here's our favorite recipes at the moment.
Oxo Rapid Brewer Soup:
Temperature: 203°F
Water: Tap/Demineralized & 1/3 Third Wave Water Light Roast
Grind Settings: Finer Coarse (550-650µm)
Ratio: 20g coffee to 150g water, 40-50g of water bypass at the end. Wait 30s to beginning pulsing.
Pourover:
Temperature range: 198-201°F
Water: Tap/Demineralized and Third Wave Water Light Roast
Grind Settings: Medium Coarse (700-750µm)
Target Drawdown Time: 2:30-2:45
4 Pour Recipe
1. First two pours: 1/4 water every 30 seconds with medium agitation and spiral. Swirl the dripper on the bloom.
2. Pour 1/4 water with low agitation and spiral; let drain completely (may take 40-50 seconds) .
3. Final 1/4 water, low agitation center and spout height center pour. let drain completely.
It took us about 3kg to get this profile right. Some of the complexity in profiling this coffee was because of the variability of coffee seed in this lot. Since it is essentially (the most expensive/fanciest) pre-roast mix blend we've ever seen, varying coffee density, size, and processing meant our first crack happens all over the place. In addition, we saw quite a few lot defects while sorting this one. We are very very happy with the end product. It really showcases what some of these Honduras producers have to offer in the premium nanolots. We hope we have the opportunity to bring back a few of these producers as standalone lots one day.
To mitigate some of the seed variability, we keep pressure relatively uniform compared to other profiles. This meant only making one airflow valve adjustment, and minimizing our range that we open it throughout the roast. In addition, this is our first profile where we don't use full gas. We minimized our batch size to keep roast time fast, but saw too much tipping with hotter charges and even full gas. As a result, this is a slightly longer than usually roast length in general, especially if you consider it is using the smaller 400g batch size setting.
Expect some cup variability and minor sorting before brewing on this one! It's got some great herbal qualities that sit next to a fruit forward and creamy cup.
Sensory Feedback
(Cupping) 1 day off of roast
Very sweet like coffee ice cream, lots of brown spices on aroma, bergamot is somewhat present. Too sweet to be tomato like, and is more like a slightly less-ripe persimmon. Strong aromas of black cherry / blackberry / currants. Those berries also live midway through the palette. Herbaceous finish, like sap, juniper, rosemary, thai basil.
(Brewing) 3 days off of roast
Strong coffee ice cream in the body. Hard to taste through but coffee is very sweet, and has lots of balance. Brown spices are there, getting vibes of an expressed orange peel over open flame. Roast character is winning. Cup is a bit wild and harsh too.
(Cupping) 6 days off roast
Strong aroma of baking spices, brown sugar, stone fruit. Tastes are rough though. Strong savory acid like tomato, some fruit and sweetness but its muddled by harsh grassy/hay/earth-y flavors. This coffee needs much more rest still.
(Brewing & Soup) 20 days off roast
Soup was better than brew. Had more clarity of acid, which has been berry-forward and persimmon-like. Brew has tons of aroma of black cherry and brown spices. Mid pallete reminds me of forest berries and bergamot. Getting herbal finish, but sweet like thai basil.
(Brewing & Soup) 30 days off roast
This is near peak; "coffee ice cream" is settling down into just a creamy body character like ice cream, berries are much louder, acid is shining pretty. Elderberry captures some of the character as it blends the currants and blackberry well.
(Brew) 35 days off roast
This is tasting pretty degassed now. I'd bet brews will be best this week on.
Last updated:
At Base Coat, we overshare everything. This page is dedicated to sharing our roasting insights and subsequent quality control so you can have the shared experience of (almost) everything that happened during the process of roasting this coffee -- but only if you care for it. Others just use this page as a fun way to see what references we found along the way before we finalized our bag notes. Some even just use this as a way to get to the product page or see brew and rest recommendations. We are very happy to support any of these use cases!
