Sandbox - Washed Gesha | Bolivia
Description
Bolivia — Marcial Huanca Finca Palmar Gesha (Washed)
Tastes Like — 🌸 White Florals • 🌺 Jasmine • 🍑 Peach • 🍑 Yellow Stone Fruits
DETAILS
- Producer: Marcial Huanca
- Farm: Finca Palmar
- Cooperative: Cooperative Mejillones
- Region: Caranavi, Nor Yungas, Bolivia
- Varietal: Gesha
- Process: Washed
- Harvest: 2025
- Size: 150g
INTRO
From Marcial Huanca at Finca Palmar in Caranavi — a striking expression of one of the world's most celebrated varieties, grown by a certified Q-Grader and former Cup of Excellence judge on the steep, fertile hillsides of the Bolivian Nor Yungas. Processed with restraint and clarity, letting the Gesha speak entirely for itself. In the cup: delicate white florals and jasmine up front, followed by ripe peach and yellow stone fruits with a silky, refined sweetness and a gentle acidity throughout.
THE PRODUCER
Marcial Huanca farms Finca Palmar in the community of 25 de Abril in Caranavi — a region in Bolivia's Nor Yungas that, despite its relative obscurity on the international specialty stage, consistently produces coffees of exceptional sweetness and complexity from its humid subtropical hillsides and fertile volcanic soils. Marcial brings an unusually high level of technical expertise to his work: a certified Q-Grader and former judge at the Cup of Excellence, he approaches every stage of cultivation and processing with the same rigour he brings to evaluating other producers' lots on the competition floor. He is a member of Cooperative Mejillones — a producer group known for quality-focused practices and competition-level lots from the Bolivian highlands.
Gesha, first collected from the Gori Gesha forest in southwestern Ethiopia in the 1930s and distributed through research stations in Kenya, Tanzania, and Costa Rica before reaching global prominence at the 2005 Best of Panama auction, requires careful cultivation at high altitudes, produces relatively low yields, and demands meticulous attention at every stage. In Bolivia's Caranavi, it finds growing conditions that reward that attention fully.
THE PROCESS
The Washed process at Finca Palmar involves:
🍒 Hand-picking — Gesha cherries carefully harvested at peak ripeness and sorted before processing 🔧 Depulping — Outer skin and fruit flesh removed through a depulper 🧪 Fermentation — Beans placed in fermentation tanks for 24–72 hours, where naturally occurring microbes break down the remaining mucilage layer 💧 Washing — Thoroughly washed with clean water after fermentation to remove all residue ☀️ Raised-bed drying — Dried on raised beds to optimal moisture content
The fermentation and thorough washing are the defining steps — by allowing full microbial fermentation and washing completely afterward, Marcial achieves the exceptional clarity and transparency that allow the Gesha's intrinsic jasmine florality, stone fruit sweetness, and refined acidity to express themselves precisely and without interference.
THE CUP
A beautifully clear and refined washed Gesha from one of Bolivia's most technically accomplished smallholder producers — white florals and jasmine open the nose, ripe peach and yellow stone fruits follow with a silky sweetness, and a gentle acidity ties everything together with lift and precision. A lot that lets the variety speak entirely for itself.
Flavour Notes
🌸 White Florals 🌺 Jasmine 🍑 Peach 🍑 Yellow Stone Fruits
