Eliza Fully Washed Green Tip Gesha

1/3

$10.00

Since Choco Vilcamundo's (CVM) inception in 2016, they've already placed in top 10 in Ecuador CoE and Qima auctions multiple times. Just this year they had 7 coffees from their three farms place in the final top 30, which required scores of 87+ to enter. Coffee excellence is rooted in their farming practice. This lot features their traditional fully washed process, which is in-cherry for maximum of 24 hours, then depulped and finally washed.

This coffee is remarkably floral, delicate, and soft. It is easily the best natural expression of florals we've sourced in a green to date. It has strong white and yellow floral aroma. You're greeted with a unique tea profile that feels somewhat like what we imagine a blend of green tea and earl grey tea might taste like; rich black tea flavors but the body and structure of green tea. The starts with a delicate but powerful sweetness that reminds us of honey and comice pear. The body is subtle fruit like melon; we think of honeydew. The finish returns to white florals; our most common references were jasmine and chamomile but we could probably list a number of others on a given day.

Choco Vilcamundo (CVM) is the organizing group behind Finca El Dorado, la Noria, and Eliza. These farms have already racked up quite a number of awards considering they are just reaching a decade old this year. The family that manages CVM moved to Loja from Ibague, Colombia in 2016 with the purpose to grow very high quality Ecuadorian coffee in the high elevation Andes. Eliza, specifically, is a passion project embarked on by both that managing family at CVM alongside Martin Kutsch. Bernie Uhe is the managing director of CVM and largely oversees the day-to-day operations at the three farms. They have local Indigenous staff they've built their whole business around who have worked with them since inception when they started plotting how they'd organize their farms. In fact, much of their farm practice and coffee cultivating is rooted in shared knowledge between them and their staff, and not a one-sided effort. Martin wants to create and preserve a legacy that he could pass on to his daughters.

Eliza is a showcase of thoughtful and intentional practice from the get-go. The farm blends (what we think is) the best of all coffee farming practice. It's sold is rich in nutrient, and sits at a moderate high altitude of 1730 MASL while being in an optimal microclimate for coffee in the Andes mountains. The farm gets clean mountain water run off and its plots are filled with local, nurturing shade trees. They use their own neem and worm tea as fertilizer too. It's really a model for high-quality coffee farming that captures "terroir coffee" well. As a result, most of their spot list are all washed lots with these slightly manipulated anaerobic or in-cherry stages to slightly alter coffee flavor for different markets. It's an ingenious setup.

These gesha seeds were sourced by Martin after his trips to Boquete region of Panama. He was moved by the farming practice there and the resulting cup quality he was tasting. Green tip gesha is not named for its cherry but actually its green tipped leaves. Commonly, it is thought to have more powerful expression of citric acidity, florals, and silkiness (when grown in Panama). Elida estate claims to have cultivated this varietal, also an heirloom Ethiopian Gesha mutation, in Volcan Baru national park. Take it all at face value. There's also some great deal of marketing at play here (we fell into it too LOL...). The proof is in the pudding though.

This lot features their traditional fully washed process, which is in-cherry for maximum of 24 hours, then depulped and finally washed. It is shade dried until moisture reaches around 11%.

This is our first time featuring Ecuador coffee and, prior to buying, Loja was a coffee region we were embarrassingly all too unfamiliar with. We'd had the classic Jijon lots, which are amazing. Aidan buys at least one of these coffees from other roasters every year. But, we new we wanted to find other producers here to work with. Ecuador coffee can be incredibly expensive for a variety of reasons -- some unrelated to coffee. Buying expensive green requires a decent bit of trust with the farm you're sourcing from and you really want to feel like the green can live up to that price, regardless of what seems to demand that markup. What we particularly admired about CVM as we learned more about them was their deep-rooted care in doing (literally) every facet of their project properly, and to the best of their ability. We felt the trust and the passion immediately for that reason. In addition, the green tasted as incredibly complex and most similar to many well nurtured coffee grown in famous coffee farms in Panama. We really hope you all see what we saw when first cupping these coffees with Darrin.

A short aside about this green: This same process coffee -- different lot seperation -- scored just 28th out of the final 30 in Qima's auction. We honestly could not believe it when we finally reached it on the Qima Auction cupping table. We preferred it to 90% of the other cups we tasted, especially in the top 10. The judging of that event really seemed to favor a different profile of coffee, which is totally fine. On the other hand, we're even more excited to have the opportunity to represent a near identical lot and show what we think was actually one of the best greens on that table.

Green cost: $54/kg (+$5/kg shipping)
Package and roasting costs: $2.91/bag; $10/kg
Profile and sample use: ~1kg
Approx. Margin: ___%

Resting: Wait around 35 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 25 days after roast too.

We've primarily enjoyed this offering as a pourover and soup, but this is such beautiful coffee that is hard to do wrong by. Be careful though; it can be easier to stall than some of our other coffees due to the difference in standard roast profile.

Temperature range: 198-201°F
Water: Tap/Demineralized and Third Wave Water Light Roast
Grind Settings: Finer Coarse (500-650µm)
Target Drawdown Time: 2:45-3:00 (12g dose, with longer bloom)

2 Pour Recipe has been the move!
1. 50g swirl bloom. Lightly swirl dripper. Wait 45-1 min.
2. Pour 150, but start light-medium agitation and flow rate while swirling. 100g in, transition to low flow rate, light agitation center pour until reaching 200g.

Coffee should have moderate bypass and drain within 3 minutes total.

Drops are typically prepared in two formats: a standard 100g / 200g bag offering at your preferred roast level or as a roast experiment.

Standard bag lets you support the producer, exporter, and the project without having to buy and drink coffee you're less interested in. You still get to observe and critique our roast methods at your preferred lightness but in larger quantities.
Roast experiment lets you participate in 3 blind tastings of 60g bags to evaluate 3 different roast curves. After the drops have been released, profile info and our own sensory feedback will be shared alongside any collected feedback from tasters.

Note that roast level selection does not apply to experiments sent out.

We work as quickly as possible to roast and ship your coffee within a week of your order placement. Times vary on roaster rental availability and our limited roasting schedule. We typically roast on two subsequent days twice a month. Once your order has shipped, you will receive an email with further information. Delivery times vary on location.

Because we are selling an agricultural product with limited shelf life, we do not accept returns. However, our goal is for every customer to be absolutely satisfied with their purchase. If you aren't enjoying the experience, let us know in an Instagram DM and we'll do our best to work with you to make it right!

Eliza Fully Washed Green Tip Gesha

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