Offering a nuanced flavor profile and delicate, wafer cookie-like sweetness, this coffee is a delightful expression of the renowned gesha variety. Subtle aromatics of floral honey and apricot lead to a truly elegant cup with flavors of fresh strawberry, kiwi, and bergamot.
Following a long and distinguished career encompassing multiple coffee enterprises in the Tarrazu region, Ivan Gutierrez decided to focus on the production of top specialty coffee on his small farm in the sub-region of Quebrada Grande. This elegant honey processed gesha represents the second consecutive harvest that Passenger has had the privilege of sharing a microlot produced by Ivan and his family.
Ivan Gutierrez has been working with coffee in one way or another since early childhood. He was born and raised in the town of Santa Maria de Dota within the famous coffee producing region of Tarrazu and recalls spending time in the coffee fields at a young age, helping his parents collect coffee cherries during harvest. After a few years away from home to complete his education, Ivan returned and began his coffee career in earnest.
Until recently, Ivan was primarily focused on large scale coffee production that has been a central focus of his family’s business for generations. Over time, he and his relatives pooled resources to purchase a number of plantations throughout Tarrazu, in Santa Maria, Monte Ray, and San Pedro. In 2000, Ivan and his three brothers founded the Montanas del Diamante Mill, a processing site and dry mill that swiftly established a strong international reputation for quality. Then, in 2016, Ivan decided that it was time to shift gears and chose to sell his stake in the Montanas Mill to his siblings. He still wanted to produce coffee, but his new vision was to pursue the highest possible quality on a much smaller scale.
Ivan decided to purchase new land for his project in an up and coming area that he knew would be perfectly suited to the unique varieties (SL28, Gesha, Typica, etc.) that he wanted to plant. His La Esmeralda farm - where this particular lot was produced - is located at 2000 masl in Quebrada Grande: an area that only a few years ago would have been too cold for coffee production. As the climate has continued to change, a few courageous farmers began to plant coffee trees in the region and these early experiments confirmed the Quebrada Grande area as not only perfectly suitable for coffee production, but possessing of all the necessary ingredients for world class coffee production.
As with Passenger’s 2021 offering from Ivan’s farm, the present release is a single-variety lot composed of the gesha variety. But while last year’s coffee was prepared as a wet process, this year’s selection was honey processed: After a meticulous collection of fully ripe coffee cherries, the fruit is floated to remove defects before being pulped and placed in a tank to ferment under shade for 24 hours. At this stage the coffee seeds are transferred to covered drying beds with the majority of the mucilage left intact. The coffee usually reaches its target moisture content in approximately 18 days and is turned regularly throughout this time period to ensure that the parchment dries as evenly and consistently as possible.