We are incredibly excited to share the second ever harvest of Gesha variety from our friends at La Maravilla, “The Wonder” farm. ST ALi has been working with producer Nicolas Fernandez and his family farm for a long time now, we’ve been fangirling over their work since 2018 and the obsession is only getting stronger. For years, we’ve been so obsessed with their coffee that we’ve bought out their entire small crop. This year, Nicolas’s harvest was bigger than ever—so big that for the first time, we couldn’t take it all. It’s an exciting milestone for them, and we can’t wait to see his exceptional coffee make its way into more cafes and roasteries around the world.
The Las Flores region in Santa Barbara is fast gaining a reputation for quality and Cup of Excellence winners. This is even more impressive when you know that it’s been only a decade since the region's devastating 2012-2013 leaf rust epidemic—where conditions were so bad a state of emergency was declared. Bourbon, Caturra, and Typica varietals are difficult to grow with the threat of leaf rust ever-present, so farmers have turned to varieties like Catuai and Parainema—genetic variations from the original Timor hybrid—that are resistant to this disease. This resistance comes at a real cost though, with no guarantees the plants will fruit the following season. For the 120k families involved in the production of coffee in Honduras, coffee farming is never easy.
Nicolas inherited the land for La Maravilla from his father, working it with his own family. His father was one of the first owners of the land and started sowing it with coffee. As is traditional for coffee farmers in this area, part of the land was handed down to Nicolas on his 18th birthday. His farm is small, producing cherry from only one hectare. When ST ALi’s green buyer, Lucy, was first introduced to Nicolas in 2018 and visited his farm, he was using his fathers mill and drying bed for his small plot. Lucy was so impressed by his passion and dedication to producing great coffee, that (we like to imagine) she emptied her pockets and threw all her money at him, begging for some beans. Since then Nicolas and his brothers have teamed up and built their own mill, continuing to expand their land and drying beds, and Lucy has continued to happily take their beans.
We are truly honoured to be able to buy from farmers like Nicolas year after year, and are thrilled to present to you this sweet, delicate, classic Gesha.
