ABOUT EDGARDO CRUZ MEZA

Edgardo was one of the first producers to grow Gesha in the northern region of Jaén, Cajamarca, Peru. While most of our buying in Peru has been focused on the southern regions around Cusco, this exceptional lot from Edgardo jumped out at us on the buying table. It is always exciting to taste Gesha—which was once largely isolated to Panama—expressed through different soils and climates across the coffee-producing world.

ABOUT GESHA

Gesha was originally collected from coffee forests of Ethiopia in the 1930's. From there, it was sent to the Lyamungo Research Station in Tanzania, and then brought to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in the 1953, where it was logged as accession T2722. It was distributed throughout Panama via CATIE in the 1960’s after its tolerance to coffee leaf rust was recognized. However, it was not widely planted because the plant's branches were brittle and not favored by farmers. Gesha came to prominence in 2005, when the Peterson family of Boquete, Panama, entered it into the Best of Panama competition and auction. It received exceptionally high marks and broke the then-record for green coffee auction prices, selling for over $20 per pound. Since then, the variety has become a resounding favorite of brewing and roasting competition winners and coffee enthusiasts alike.