Sebastián has become well-known for his complex, floral profiles and meticulous attention to innovative processing. This Gesha lot begins with freshly harvested cherries placed in sealed tanks for a 48-hour carbonic maceration. The cherries are then pulped and lightly washed, leaving some sticky fruit mucilage attached to the parchment. The coffee dries on patios inside structures called "eldas," where it's covered at night. This slow drying process continues until the seeds reach 9-11% humidity.

Finca El Placer, owned by Sebastián Ramírez, is located in Quindío at the heart of the "Eje Cafetero"—also known as the coffee triangle—a part of the Paisa region in rural Colombia. The area encompasses four departments (Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, and Tolima) and produces the majority of Colombia's coffee.

Sebastián, a fourth-generation coffee producer, began working with coffee fourteen years ago, gaining valuable experience managing his parents' farm. This experience led him to develop the El Placer project, which expanded from his family farm to include partner farms of small coffee producers in Quindío and Huila: Andalucía, La Sofia, La Carito, and La Paz.

Their Processing Centre, "El Placer Farms Hacienda Córcega Beneficio Center," is located in Quimbaya. Equipped with the latest technology, it enables all participating farms to process their coffee using cutting-edge techniques. The project includes a Generational Relief initiative that educates and inspires young people to become coffee producers, helping shape the next generation of coffee professionals.

The El Placer farm itself sits between 1,590 and 1,740 masl in Calarcá, a municipality in eastern Quindío. Its lush rolling hills are planted with high-quality varieties like Pink Bourbon, Gesha, Bourbon Sidra, and Wush Wush. Sebastián focuses on perfecting his fermentation protocols, working closely with Q-graders and Q-Processing professionals. This passionate young producer also dedicates time to adopting and caring for rescue dogs with a local charity, and many of his coffee lots bear his dogs' names.

Gesha is a coffee variety originally collected from Ethiopian forests in the 1930s. It was sent to the Lyamungu research station in Tanzania, then brought to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in 1953, where it was logged as accession T2722. Recognized for its tolerance to coffee leaf rust, CATIE distributed it widely throughout Panama in the 1960s. However, farmers didn't favor it due to its brittle branches and relatively low yield, so it wasn't widely planted.

There are actually multiple genetically distinct plant types referred to as Gesha, many sharing similar Ethiopian origins. World Coffee Research has confirmed that the Panamanian Gesha descendant of T2722 is a distinct and uniform variety. When managed well at high altitude, its cup profile can be phenomenal, known for delicate floral and peach aromas.

The lack of a standard translation from Ethiopian dialects to English has resulted in two interchangeably used spellings. The coffee was originally collected near a mountain commonly rendered in English as "Gesha." However, it was first recorded in germplasm records as "Geisha," a spelling mostly maintained by coffee researchers and germplasm banks for decades. The use of "Geisha" is problematic, though, as its non-coffee context carries specific connotations that many feel have been misappropriated for marketing value.

Gesha's global reputation was cemented by the Peterson family of Boquete. Their Hacienda Esmeralda won the Best of Panama competition in 2004 with this variety. The following year, their Gesha received exceptionally high marks and broke the then-record for green coffee auction prices, selling for over $20/pound.

The pulped natural or honey process falls between washed and natural methods in terms of fruit left on the seed during drying. After harvesting, the cherries are pulped to remove the skin, then dried with the sticky fruit mucilage remaining—hence the name "honey." The coffee is sometimes classified by the colour it turns during drying, which depends on how much fruit remains and how it's arranged and turned. Colours range from black honey (darkest) through red, yellow, and sometimes white. More fruit on the seed provides more fuel for fermentation, which can unpredictably affect the flavour profile. However, it usually yields more intense fruit flavours than washed coffee and higher perceived acidity than natural processing.