Colombia - Inmaculada Family Reserve Geisha Lot 686

100 years in the agro-industry, initially in the sugarcane and palm sector, the Holguín-Ramos family ventured into specialty coffee in 2010. They saw specialty coffee as a way to give back more to the community in Pichindé, Cali, as their coffee plantation and processing facility would create more materially rewarding job opportunities and eventually spur increased economic activity in the area.

The Inmaculada Coffee Farms are situated in the heart of the Andes, surrounded by the Farallones Natural Park, at a maximum altitude of 2000 masl.

Even the most delicate and demanding coffee trees thrive in this protected natural sanctuary because of its unparalleled environmental conditions, which include lower air temperatures, higher soil moisture, the right amount and intensity of sunlight, as well as oceanic winds from the Pacific, said to blow all afternoon, refreshing the plantation.

To remain in harmony with the beauty of the natural environment, Inmaculada implements an agroforestry system, where they intercrop coffee plants with shade trees. The shade trees bear fruits favored by birds and provide organic material that helps keep the land nutrient-rich and fertile. This interaction of agriculture with the surrounding greenery encourages biodiversity, increases carbon storage, and facilitates nutrient cycling — all in all, sustainably supporting productivity while allowing nature to regenerate.

Inmaculada Coffee Farms started with one 5 hectare-farm and have since grown to five farms encompassing 34 hectares, where only rare varieties like Eugenoides, Geisha, Sudan Rume, and Laurina are grown.

To expand the benefits of the Inmaculada Coffee Farms’ business model and contribute to tangibly improving the quality of life of more families and communities beyond their immediate home base, the family established the Fellows’ Farms Program. Fellows’ Farms is a platform for Cauca coffee farmers who cultivate and harvest high-quality coffee cherries to be relieved of what was turning out to be untenable costs of post-harvest processing for them.

Geisha is a rare coffee variety with an extremely delicate root system that requires the perfect alignment of climatic, agronomic, and temporal factors in order to thrive and bear cherries with the level of complexity and flavor clarity coffee champions and discerning specialty coffee connoisseurs appreciate best.

While its exceptional cup quality potential has pre-eminently been recognized in association with Panama since debuting in the global luxury coffee scene in 2004, by way of the Best of Panama Auction, Geisha has also triumphantly been acclimatized to idyllic coffee-growing terrains in Colombia by the elite and progressive among specialty coffee producers, such as Finca Inmaculada.

For this traditionally natural-processed Lot 686 from the Finca Inmaculada Family Reserve, the Geisha cherries were selectively handpicked at the optimal ripeness level and then hand-sorted as a heightened safeguard for individual cherry quality and to ensure physical uniformity, before being placed on raised beds to dry for 28 days.

As a result, Family Reserve Geisha Lot 686 expresses classic Geisha florality and clean, honeyed sweetness balanced by the nectarous succulence of stonefruits.