Gesha Village

Gesha as a variety is easy now to associate with Colombia, with Panama - these countries are producing some of the most complex, beautiful Geshas that are taking over the championships and highlighting just how impressive a coffee can be.
The true origin of the Gesha however, is Ethiopia. The Gesha Village project was dedicated to returning the Gesha variety to its glory in Ethiopia and reviving production of the worlds best coffee. The Gesha Village Coffee Estate is a 471-hectare farm sitting at 1930 - 2040 masl that has been built from the ground up for 11 years; harvesting prized stock from the Gori Gesha forest, and bringing it to the Gesha Village Estate, then cultivating the highest quality crops has been their mission.

2024____________________________________________

Ethiopia Gesha Village GVA 11 (Farm Reserve) and FE.5 (Flavor Expressions)
Look, if you say your coffee is “the most celebrated coffee in the world” (quote) we would normally probably not even cup a sample. But Gesha Village, for better or worse, is kind of hard to ignore. And that’s not because of their marketing department. It’s because the idea behind this farm is pretty cool, the people behind it are pretty cool as well and yes, the coffee… pretty cool.
This is why we ended up bidding at their auctions. Bidding and buying at an auction: exactly.. pretty cool. And also a bit boring.
Anyway, gesha village is a project that started around ten years ago with Willem Boot, Adam Overton and Rachel Samuel. Willem Boot, born in the Netherlands now living in California, was an early adapter of “gesha-coffee”. In the beginning all the prize-winning geshas were from Panama, but Ethiopia was (and probably will always be) the promised land for coffee. So Willem decided he was going to build a farm in Ethiopia, growing only gesha.
Willem is the kind of guy that does what he says and says what he does, so thanks to him and Rachel and Adam we now have the perfect variety grown in the perfect place.

Ok, cool but what does it taste like?
The auction this year had 27 exceptional auction lots: 18 natural, 4 washed and 5 honey. They've categorised them further in: Farm Reserve (GVA) Champions Reserve (GVA.RSV) and Flavor Expressions (GVA.FE) Flavor Expressions means they did some experiments during processing
It’s not like these are 27 completely different coffees though. They all taste a bit like gesha and they all taste a lot like Ethiopia. Which is great of course (:
Gesha Village also has a normal line-up of coffees, but the auction features their best scoring lots.
We’ve managed to buy two lots: GVA.11 and FE.5

GVA.11
The GVA.11 is a classic natural that is so clean that I would have also believed that it’s washed. It has the citric notes typical for Ethiopian coffee, it’s clean floral and sweet like a true gesha, and the natural process gives it some creamyness.

Notes: MANDARINE, FLORAL ORANGE BLOSSOM, JASMINE, FIG
Variety: Gesha 1931
Auction Lot: GVA 11 (Farm Reserve)
Producers: Willem, Rachel and Adam
Block: Surma
Country: Ethiopia
Altitude: 1909 - 2063 masl
Process: Natural

FE.5
The FE.5 is a honey process but with some extended fermentation but its clean as can be.

Notes: BERGAMOT, JASMINE, BLACK TEA, LIME, NECTARINE
Variety: Gesha 1931
Auction Lot: FE.5 (Flavor Expressions)
Producers: Willem, Rachel and Adam
Block: Oma
Country: Ethiopia
Altitude: 1909 - 2063 masl
Process: Honey

2023____________________________________________

This year’s Gesha Village auction was one of extremely high standards, and we’re happy to be able to present these two coffees from their offering. We hope you like them too.

This natural Gesha 1931 varietal underwent a 60-hour semi-anaerobic process, giving it a creamy body with lots of tropical fruit notes, such as guava and papaya.
You can buy this coffee HERE!

An incredibly clean, bright Gesha with dried apricot, sweet black tea, and hibiscus notes. This lot underwent a honey process, and has a real classic Ethiopia feel running through it. 
You can buy this coffee HERE!