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Los Cedros – Geisha

Mircolot

Los Cedros, Cajamarca, Peru – Washed Geisha

– “A delightful prime selection of a local Geisha varietal from the humble and committed producer Maria Nila Heredia.”

What to expect in the cup

White peach, apple, cherry blossom. Sweet and structured, featuring a rounded crisp acidity of stone fruits, complemented by a nuanced floral quality.

£14.00£56.00

Maria Nila has not yet conducted extensive experiments with fermentation on the geisha variety; however, she utilised the same processing technique that she applies to her Caturra and Bourbon, which involves a 36-hour fermentation in tiled tanks. The fresh cherries are thoroughly rinsed to eliminate dirt and floated to discard lower quality beans. Once cleaned and sorted, the cherries are pulped on the same day they are harvested. The pulped cherries are then placed in tiled fermentation tanks, where they undergo fermentation for one day and two nights, approximately 36 hours. Upon completion of fermentation, the coffee is washed twice with fresh spring water to remove the mucilage. Recently, Maria Nila made an investment in new parabolic dryers, alongside her sons, who are also cultivators of high-quality coffee. They collectively decided to enhance their drying infrastructure to improve the quality and shelf life of their coffee. Following fermentation, the coffee is pre-dried in the sun for a few hours to eliminate excess moisture before being transferred to raised beds inside a parabolic dryer, where it dries for 15 days. This marks our first purchase from Maria, and we are privileged to support her small family venture. This specific Geisha is lovely, exhibiting qualities typical of washed Ethiopian heirlooms, combined with the texture and sweetness characteristic of Peruvian coffee.
Maria Nila Heredia is a first-generation coffee farmer who, together with her husband and two sons, manages a 3-hectare farm named Los Cedros located in the El Paraiso village of the Huabal district. Maria Nila and her husband, Rey, dedicated much of their youth to traveling through Jaen and San Ignacio, working on various farms and purchasing small plots of land to cultivate vegetables, relying on their harvests for sustenance. Until they reached their 30s, the couple focused on vegetable farming, selling their produce in the markets of Jaen. However, after accumulating sufficient savings to acquire a larger piece of land, they opted to cultivate coffee, recognising it as a more substantial investment that promised greater profitability and a more stable lifestyle at that time. Maria Nila was among the pioneers to settle in El Paraiso, successfully purchasing a relatively large tract of land, which is now shared among family members. Her farm is situated at an altitude of 1800 meters, rising to approximately 1900 meters at its highest point, an ideal elevation for cultivating high-quality coffee. Initially, she planted Caturra and bourbon varieties, and more recently, Catimors. Eventually, she decided to experiment with new varieties in Peru, such as Geisha and Java, which were suggested by her two sons. Maria Nila sowed the geisha seeds in 2021, and by 2024, they yielded their first significant harvest. In addition to coffee, Maria Nila’s farm is also home to plantain, banana, guaba (inga, a native nitrogen-fixing fruit tree), lucuma (a Peruvian fruit resembling a sweet avocado), and cedars, which inspired the name Los Cedros.