Luz Helena Salazar natural geisha
Another tropical gem of a coffee from Luz Helena Salazar. This is a seriosuly funky and fruity natural process geisha!
Origin: Colombia, Quindio, Armenia
Farm: La Leona
Farmer: Luz Helena Salazar
Variety: geisha
Process: natural
Notes: papaya, pineapple, watermelon, canteloupe, lime, honey
Cupping score: 89
Brewing: roasted primarily for filter coffee, but can also definitely be brewed as espresso.
Rest from roast date: 2-3 weeks ideally. 10 days minimum.
This coffee is somewhat unsual for us as we have our main focus on clean washed coffees and this one is full of funk and tropical fruit. It doesn't go in a boozy direction though and has such wonderful tropical fruit and intensity that it's become one of my current favourites.
This coffee is also served at the Curious Coffee Cafe and has been very popular indeed. It's one hundred percent fruit and as good as no chocolate and nut. We're brewing it on the Orea V4 narrow with sibarist papers. We grind fine and use a water temperature of 94.5 degrees. This coffee can also work well on immersion brewers like the aeropress.
6oz/170g bags
Luz Helena grew up in Armenia (Colombia) and has been producing coffee for the last 20 years. She owns Maracay, an 8-hectare farm located at 1450 m.a.s.l, in Armenia Quindio. Luz is Carlos and Felipe’s mother, and wife of Jairo Arcila.
Luz’s passion for coffee was inspired by her husband’s work on coffee farms and as a dry mill manager. Luz would hear Jairo talking about coffee and wanted to be more involved in the industry. With the support of Jairo, Luz started learning how to care for coffee plants and what steps she needed to take to produce high-quality, ripe cherries. Luz found dealing with insects very challenging at the start and would draw on Jairo’s knowledge to help with this.
For several years now, her focus has been on producing Specialty Coffee. With the support of Cofinet, Luz has been able to improve farm practices and focus on producing the best cherries she can. Once ripe, the cherries are then processed by Cofinet at our processing station, La Pradera.
When Luz is not tending to her coffee trees, she enjoys spending time with her friends and being part of local support groups for vulnerable people.