Origin: Buesaquito, Nariño, Colombia

Producers: Wilder Santacruz

Process: Natural

Varieties: Gesha

Altitude: 1920masl

Importer: Shared Source

Roast: Light-medium

Notes: Orange Soda, Grape Jelly, Elderflower, Raspberry

Transparency: 

• We paid Shared Source 12.89 USD per pound of exportable green coffee + shipping & storage fees
• Shared Source paid Wilder $5,000,000 pesos per carga of dry parchment. As well as transport to the mill.
  

I've always had a love for coffees out of Narino. One of the first regions I worked with as a roaster, they bring a very nostalgic flavour profile.

We asked our pals at Shared Source to help us source some more tasty coffees from Narino, and they helped link us up with some amazing coffees from the talented Wilder Santacruz. This is the second lot from Wilder this harvest, and we're super excited to be roasting his Natural Gesha.

Wilder Santacruz, Buesaquito, Nariño

Wilder comes from a coffee producing family, with his father placing in the Colombian Cup of Excellence in 2012! Wilder took a different path in life, and worked as a business administrator for most of his adult life. When a plot of land near his father's farm came up for sale in 2010 he bought it, originally asking his father to manage it. In 2019 Wilder decided to leave the world of business administration and learn the family craft from his father. 

Since then they have been building a name for themselves in the world of specialty coffee. Coming at it from a very business focused mindset, he was determined to have high quality, differentiated products, doing experimental processing, and growing many varietals, including SL28 and Gesha.

This lot comes from his farm Villa Sol, in Buesaquito. His farm starts at 1810masl, and the high elevation keeps temperatures cool with plenty of humidity. The high elevation also keeps pests and plagues at bay. 

Wilder has made some improvements to the processing infrastructure on his farm- he covered the fermentation tank with a stainless steel sheet that maintains the tank’s temperature and allows for more efficient cleaning. Additionally, they installed a cylindrical sieve onto the pulper, which helps to remove under-ripe cherries.

For this Natural Gesha lot, the cherries are left to begin a controlled anaerobic fermentation in sealed, shaded barrels for two days. From there, the cherries are moved to a mechanical dryer, which runs on rice husks.

In the dryer, the temperature is carefully controlled so that it doesn’t go past 35C, and the coffee spends 48 hours in the mechanical silo dryer. From there, it moves to a patio to finish drying.

He is also progressive with his use of coffee by-product for farm fertilizing. Mixing his coffee's de-pulped cherry with lime and chicken feces to create a natural fertilizer.

Brewing Recommendations:

This Gesha is super expressive, confectionary, and complex. Lots of fun fruit notes, deep rich pu-erh tea, Elderflower Liqueur, and fresh berry on the finish.

Pour-over: 1:16-17 ratio, 15g in, 250ml water, I like going 45g bloom, up to 150g, 200g, 250g, try to have it end in 2:10-2:30 depending on your taste preferences!

Espresso: 18g-18.5g in / 37g-39g out / 27-30 seconds.