Peru is such an interesting origin with some ideal conditions for quality coffee, high elevations, excellent varieties, and widespread use of organic agricultural practices. For a long while the country has had a reputation for producing reasonable quality, community lots and certified coffees ideally suited for blending. In recent years producers with more of a focus on quality have been replacing cultivars like catimor with some exotic and traditional varieties and improving their processing and drying practices, inspired by the premiums which some specialty exporters pay for higher scoring lots. There are some absolute gems to be found here and this delightful gesha is undoubtedly one of them.
Finca Artemira is a family farm located close to the border with Ecuador. The farm is named after the matriarch, Artemira Villegas, but is managed by four brothers and their families. The farm has been growing coffee and raising cattle for over 40 years and since 2017, they have been expanding, planting new varieties. They also practice regenerative agriculture through coffee agroforestry systems and are continually experimenting with cultivation techniques and processes.
Today the farm has 15 hectares of coffee trees, planted with a number of varieties, from catuai and caturra through to more exotic varieties such as pink bourbon and gesha. They have two distinct lines of gesha, one of which came from seed they bought from a large farm in central Peru which had imported the seed from Finca Serracín in Panama and the other from seeds which a friend of one of the brothers brought back from a trade show in the USA. Whilst the plants are slightly different their cup profiles are very similar, and the brothers often combine the harvest from the two lines.
This lot is harvested from a single line of gesha that they grow and from the highest plot on the farm. Leodan entered this coffee into a regional quality competition, Expo Cajamarca, where it placed 4th.