Brazil - Guariroba Geisha

TASTING NOTES

Jasmine, lemongrass, pink peppercorn

WHY WE LIKE IT

It's a bright and floral coffee. Jasmine appears clean and fragrant, leaning towards citrus. As it cools, a spicy note emerges, between ginger and pink pepper, giving it character without breaking the cleanliness of the cup. The acidity is medium and juicy, the body silky, and the finish lingers, with a hint of black tea and lemongrass. A coffee to be savored slowly, especially when brewed with a filter, designed for those who enjoy aromatic, expressive, and elegant cups.

HISTORY

Fazenda Guariroba has been located in Santo Antônio do Amparo for over a hundred years, a municipality in the interior of Minas Gerais that belongs to the Campo das Vertentes region. It is an area of hills and moderate altitudes (the farm is around 1,100 meters) that rarely appears in conversations about Brazilian specialty coffee, almost always occupied by Cerrado and southern Minas. The farm has taken the opposite path to its region: today it is a reference inside and outside Brazil, and has been a Cup of Excellence champion.

Gabriel Lamounier Vieira and Elisa Paiva Lamounier are at the helm. They manage the farm as a research project: more than ten varieties planted, written protocols for each lot, selective harvesting, and a constant cupping routine that allows them to monitor how each batch evolves and understand which field or patio decision is behind each result. Here, almost nothing is left to chance, and that includes planting geisha in Brazil at an altitude where almost no one attempts it.

Guariroba also gave rise to Projeto Vovó Candinha, initiated by Elisa: a series of lots harvested and processed exclusively by the women who work in the harvest. In a sector where women are usually in the field but not on the label, it is a very concrete way to change who signs the coffee. Added to this is the work with the community of Santo Antônio do Amparo, with training and shared projects, and a long-standing relationship with the Japanese market, which is where this type of coffee is scrutinized most closely.

VARIETAL AND PROCESS

Geisha is probably the most recognizable varietal in specialty coffee, and also one of the most difficult to cultivate: a tall and fragile plant, low production, and a reputation built in the altitudes of Panama, well above 1,600 meters. Finding it in Brazil, at 1,100 meters, is unusual. Its presence here has as much to do with cultivation as with what happens after harvesting.

The process is an anaerobic natural. Natural means that the coffee is dried with all the pulp on, without depulping, so that the bean absorbs sugars from the fruit throughout the drying process. Anaerobic means that, before drying, the cherry ferments for a time in a closed tank, without oxygen. By eliminating air, the types of microorganisms that can act are limited: fermentation becomes slower and more controllable, aromatic intensity is gained, and the risk of defects appearing is reduced.

At Guariroba, this is not an isolated experiment; it's their specialty. They ferment in bioreactors, using native yeasts and bacteria from the farm itself instead of commercial cultures, and they document every variable to be able to repeat or correct a result. This is exactly the difference between an anaerobic process that masks the varietal and one that enhances it.

RECIPE

For filter:
We use 18 g of ground coffee and 306 g of water at 90 ºC. We start with a pre-infusion of 54 g and wait 45", then complete with successive pours up to 306 g in a total time of 2'30"