Gesha Village lies in the Bench Maji zone of South Western Ethiopia, not far from the border with South Sudan. This area, in the high altitude humid forests where the Great Rift Valley passes into South Sudan, is thought to be the birthplace of Arabica coffee, and is still home to great genetic diversity. Here at Gesha Village however, one varietal sits in the spotlight; Geisha. Adam Overton and Rachel Samuel first travelled to Ethiopia in 2007 to make a documentary about its unique method of coffee production, and fell in love with the country. They decided during that short trip that they would eventually move to the country to start producing coffee themselves. They found a 471 hectare plot of land in Bench Maji, further west than we normally find specialty coffee in Ethiopia, in a remote area of untouched high altitude forest. The wild forest remained as coffee was planted, maintaining as much as possible of the biodiversity so crucial to the Ethiopian mode of production, while also providing ample shade for the fragile Geisha trees.

This lot of Gesha 1931 was grown on the Surma plot of Gesha Village, reaching up to 2060 masl, named for one of the ethnic groups that inhabit the area around the farm. The cherries for this lot were harvested on the 16th of December last year, before processing with an anoxic pre-fermentation. Full cherries were placed in the same GrainPro bags that coffee is often shipped in, and placed under a plastic cover to protect from sunlight. These thick plastic bags are impermeable to water and oxygen, so when they are sealed and the cherries begin to ferment, the bags expand as carbon dioxide is produced. After 60 hours of fermentation, the cherries were dried using raised African beds in very thin layers, so almost no fermentation is allowed to occur on the beds.

This incredible raw material, grown in its native wild forest, combined with careful processing, creates an intense yet clean and delicate flavour experience. The florals are softened into violet, and notes of ripe tropical fruit are enhanced.