Colombia - Luz Ángela's Orange Gesha TSW

Luz Ángela and Edinson are some of the masters of high intervention, thumb pressed hard on the scale processing - the epitome of the modern Colombian style. This Orange Gesha lot has been pushed hard in the direction of fresh squeezed citrus oils and perfumed florals, resulting in a super bright and intense cup.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter/Turbo

Lightest Roaster Influence

Best Rested: 4+ Weeks

Filter: 62g/L & 93°C when fresh, go down to 90°C when rested.

Espresso: 18g/50g+/15-20s Turbo/Soup - super intense, it benefits from dilution

We're tasting: Big perfumed citrus aromatics - we're finding neroli oil and yuzu zest. In the cup the citrus continues with an almost effervescent (fizzy) edge to the body and high sweetness, reminding us of Orangina, with a slightly spiced note like pink peppercorn & coriander seed. As it cools becoming more aromatically intense, concentrated like lemon oleo-saccharum, violets and jasmine, and a sherbet esq fizziness.

Traceability

The Story

Chorro Alto sits at 1600 - 1800 MASL in Huila, spanning 10 hectares run by Luz Angela Rojas alongside her family. Luz Angela spent years in healthcare administration before Covid pushed her work remote, bringing her back to the farm. The systems approach she developed in audit management translated directly to coffee production with tight controls on agricultural practices alongside precise lot separation protocols.

Edinson Argote has brought advanced processing to Chorro Alto, having worked as head of quality at Granja Paraiso 92, where he working with controlled fermentation and targeted yeast applications - the very forefront of the "modern Colombian style. Since leaving to set up their own operation, the couple have continually pushed boundaries, upping the intensity of their coffees year on year.

Orange Gesha is a colour-differentiated selection whose exact provenance remains unconfirmed (and there is likely many iterations from both routes out there), attributed either to a recessive fruit-colour mutation within Gesha or to a hybrid carrying Orange Bourbon, with no genetic characterisation yet published to settle it.

The orange phenotype reflects a shift in the cherry's pigment balance, with carotenoids expressed where anthocyanins would otherwise dominate. Controlled trials from POMA on orange and red Caturra clones, grown under identical conditions, found this pigmentation correlated with measurable differences in volatile aromatics and cup profile, the orange form skewing toward carotenoid-derived compounds. The same pathway is plausibly at work here, though it has not been isolated in Gesha specifically. Pushed to the absolute limit with a heavy hand in the processing intervention, this is a punchy cup and not for the faint of heart.