Nicaragua Los Alpes Gesha — Dry Process

Roasted Saturday. Hand-delivered free on Sunday to Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, and Hermosa Beach.

A Gesha grown at 1,500 meters in the mountains of Nueva Segovia, dried whole in the fruit. This is the rarest lot we have offered — a Panamanian-descended Gesha tree, planted in Nicaraguan volcanic soil, then dry processed with the patience of a winemaker.

Los Alpes belongs to the Valladarez family — Luis Emilio and his son Olman — in Dipilto, a mountain district on Nicaragua's northern border where the cloud cover sits low and the nights run cold. Gesha is a difficult tree: it yields little, it sprawls, and it punishes impatience. The Valladarez family grows it anyway. After picking, the whole cherries are laid on raised beds under covered drying tunnels, where they turn slowly for weeks until the fruit has candied onto the seed.

In the cup, the dry process does what it always does — it amplifies. Berry jam and dried cranberry arrive first, thick and syrupy. Underneath sits the Gesha itself: jasmine, orange rind, and a long cocoa finish. Sweet Maria's cupped this lot at 91.4.

We roast it to City+ and stop there. Push a dry process Gesha darker and you trade the florals for roast character, which defeats the point of buying a Gesha at all.

Tasting Notes
Berry Jam · Dried Cranberry · Plum · Jasmine · Orange Rind · Cocoa

The Details

• Origin: Los Alpes, Dipilto, Nueva Segovia, Nicaragua
• Producer: The Valladarez family
• Variety: Gesha
• Altitude: 1,500 meters
• Process: Dry process (natural), raised beds under covered tunnels
• Roast: Light (City+)
• Cupping Score: 91.4 (Sweet Maria's)
• Size: 125g (4.4 oz) whole bean

Rest 10-20 days after the roast date for the fruit to settle, then enjoy within six weeks.

Only 8 bags. When they are gone, this lot is gone — we buy Gesha in single-digit quantities because that is what a home roastery can honestly commit to.