"Upon grinding, aromas of delicate jasmine, bergamot, lemon peel, and yuzu come through. On the palate, yuzu tea leads with bergamot and jasmine florals, supported by a crisp lemon peel note. A gentle honey sweetness rounds out the cup. The finish is clean, elegant, and aromatic."
La Lucuma is a family farm run by Franco Huaches Montalvan, part of the Huaches Zurita family who have owned the property since 1984. What began as a 2-hectare holding was expanded to about 6.5 hectares in 2005, with the family steadily orienting the farm toward higher-quality coffee rather than volume. After coffee leaf rust impacted the farm in 2012 and pushed them toward more resistant plantings that didn’t meet their cup goals, the family recommitted to quality through variety renewal and better agronomic advice. Their approach today reads as pragmatic and iterative: learn, adjust, and keep experimenting until the cup matches the ambition.
The farm sits in Cajamarca, northern Peru, at around 1,850 meters above sea level. At this elevation, slower cherry maturation tends to concentrate sugars and preserve aromatic clarity, while cooler nights help keep acidity structured. The result is a terroir that can support “clean” processing outcomes without losing sweetness, especially when harvest timing is disciplined. Cajamarca’s mountainous landscape also encourages small-lot separation, which fits a variety like Geisha that rewards careful selection.
Geisha was introduced as a deliberate pivot: the family acquired seed in 2016 and established roughly 0.5 hectares in 2017, seeking new cup profiles and a path to national-level competition. The variety demanded different management than what they had grown before, and the early learning curve was steep, but by 2020 they were already seeing satisfying results from the first meaningful harvest. In this context, Geisha isn’t treated as a novelty plant; it’s a small, high-attention block intended to translate farm work directly into aromatic detail and finish.
For this release, the declared processing is washed, which frames the cup around clarity and a more transparent expression of cultivar and site. Cherries are selectively hand-picked, then pulped soon after harvest to standardize the start point of fermentation. Fermentation proceeds in tanks/vats to break down remaining mucilage, after which the parchment is washed with clean water to remove residual sugars and halt further microbial activity. Drying is completed under sun on patios or raised beds, a method that supports even moisture reduction when turning and bed depth are controlled.
Variety : Geisha
Altitude : 1850m
Process : Washed
Origin : Cajamarca