Francy Castillo - Colombia Geisha
Our second year working with Francy, her coffees are some of our favourite each year coming from Narińo. This Geisha is unique with a clean profile and long finish.
200G
- Variety: Geisha
- Region: Nariño
- Process: Washed
- Altitude: 2148 MASL
- Harvest: Fall 2023
- Producer: Francy Castillo
- Farm: Finca El Uberrimo
- Roast Level: Light
In the cup
we get a bright, sweet and delicate Geisha. When hot, we taste delicate white florals and herbals that remind us of Eucalyptus. When the cup cools we get sweet limeade, white grape, and honey. Our favourite part of this coffee... it's long sweet finish that is distinct and addictive. This coffee has a silky body.
Funky
Process
About The Producer
Francy and her four sisters grew up helping their parents at the coffee farm, which inspired her to major in Agronomy to support and manage the family business. She completed her university degree through distance learning while working on her farm to pay for her studies. After graduating in 2019, she began working at the FNC as a Field Assistant around her hometown of Arboleda, Nariño. She also gained experience in sensory development by working at a private export lab in Buesaco. She said, "I became even more interested in coffee and day by day, I wanted to learn more about the beautiful world of coffee." At El Ubérrimo, farm tasks like planting, fertilization, and harvesting are done with the help of Francy's neighbours and family members. Production practices on the farm focus on using the least amount of chemicals to preserve the naturally occurring microbial life in the soil. This helps support the growth of healthy coffee plants.
Processing
Before harvest, the cherries are left on the tree to ripen further until they develop a deep, wine-like colour, usually taking an additional three weeks. Once the majority of cherries have reached their ideal sweetness and colour, the ripe ones are picked and left in clean sacks to ferment for approximately 36 hours in a cool environment. Afterwards, the cherries are soaked in water, removing floaters before depulping. The coffees are then placed in clean tanks to ferment without water for 100 hours. Finally, they are washed and dried on patios for 15 to 20 days.
Variety
This variety was originally collected from coffee forests in Ethiopia in the 1930s. From there, it was sent to the Lyamungu 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 1960s after it had been recognized for tolerance to coffee leaf rust. However, the plant's branches were brittle and not favored by farmers so it was not widely planted. The coffee 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/pound.There is significant confusion about Geisha because there are multiple genetically distinct plant types that have been referred to as Geisha, many of which share similar geographic origins in Ethiopia. Recent genetic diversity analyses conducted by World Coffee Research confirm that Panamanian Geisha descendent from T2722 is distinct and uniform. It is associated with extremely high cup quality when the plants are managed well at high altitude, and is known for its delicate floral, jasmine, and peach-like aromas.