Santa Felisa African Geisha Natural

Siblings Anabella and Antonio Meneses are the fourth generation of Meneses to own and manage Santa Felisa Estate. The estate was founded in 1902 and today, it’s the perfect blend of age-old know-how and modern coffee artisanship. While continually improving their typical processing methods, Anabella and Antonio are also constantly experimenting with new processing methods to find new flavors.

The conditions in the Acatenango Valley make coffee cultivation so fruitful. Breezes from the Sierra Madre Mountains that cool the mornings are followed by warm, sunny days. By the afternoon, fresh winds coming off the Pacific Ocean create the cool nights that cause cherry to concentrate sugars for dense, sweet beans.

Santa Felisa differentiates itself by planting new and exceptional coffee varieties (such as this prized Geisha), many of which are not common in Guatemala. In addition, Anabella has been implementing, over more than a decade, an innovative concept of 'Precise Agriculture', which takes a highly ecological emphasis and focuses on community and natural systems as a means to optimize plant productivity and growth.  All coffee is shade-grown and cultivated in a way that prioritizes biodiversity. 

Anabella and Antonio only harvest when cherries have reached 18 to 23 brix as an indicator of ripeness. After selective handpicking, ripe cherry is washed fully. After washing, for natural lots such as this one, they prefer to use raised beds for drying since the drying process provides a more gentle and constant flow of air that moves all around the cherries providing a uniform drying process. They also note that it is ergonomically better (and easier) for the people in charge of turning the cherries to dry them slowly.

While drying, beans are protected from direct sunlight. It is very important to control the temperature that will limit the ecological succession of the microorganisms responsible for the production of the secondary metabolites that we want. Most of the coffee produced at Santa Felisa were naturally inoculated with naturally existing microorganisms on the farm - the farm's 'microbiota', which helps provide unique and interesting results in the cup.

Geisha (also known as Gesha) is known for its exceptional cup quality, especially when grown at high altitudes. The variety comes from Ethiopian landrace coffees and was collected from Ethiopian coffee forests in the 1930s. The name supposedly derives from Ethiopia’s Gori Gesha forest.

There is some confusion with several genetically distinct varieties that have all been called Geisha, but the most famous variety is the Panama one. The variety was brought to Lyamungu research station in Tanzania and from there to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in 1953. At CATIE, the variety was logged as T2722. CATIE distributed T2722 across Panama in the 1960s for its Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) resistance, but its brittle branches meant it was not widely planted.

Panama Geisha reached its modern fame in 2005 when a Geisha lot won the “Best of Panama” competition and broke contemporary records at over $20/pound. DNA analysis has demonstrated that the Panama Geisha descended from T2722 is distinct and uniform. Today, Geisha is known for its delicate florals, jasmine and stone fruit.