Eli Espinoza

This very affordable geisha lot is a perfect example of how unpredictable the flavour of a certain lot can be over time and how this can affect pricing.

After harvest, this lot tasted like a good specialty coffee but not outstanding. The prices are set at this point to reflect the quality of the lot combined with the cost of production of the farmer. A little after the arrival in the warehouse in Antwerp, this lots suddenly opened up and started showing it's geisha qualities. This is one of the very rare instances where a coffee increased in quality after arrival.

It's not uncommon for a lot to lose some of its aromatic qualities by the time we get it in the roastery. It's sometimes disheartening but it is also a part of the risk of buying coffees when they are still at origin. You can buy coffees that are harder to get but you also take the risk of them not arriving as good as you hoped. In this case, the opposite happened and we ended up with an outstanding coffee at a very attractive price point.

We price our coffees according to what we pay (just like Falcon did in this instance), this way we aspire to keep a fair margin across the whole supply chain. We could have easily marked this coffee up but we didn't think this fair to the importer and the producer, who kept their price the same although the quality ended up increasing over time. 

Eli Espinoza owns 4 hectares of coffee, spread across several parcels between 1,850 and 2,000 masl in the village of las Pirias in Chirinos. He came to the area looking for work as young coffee picker. He worked on local farms before gradually acquiring his own land and building his own home, where he now processes all his coffees. Eli plants mostly typica, caturra and bourbon. Next to this he also plants geisha. 

This geisha lot is a beautiful example of Peruvian geisha; citrusy, clean, floral and bright. Expect lots of raspberries, with delicate jasmine and orange peel aromatics.