BOL I V I AFINCA TAKESI GEISHA

DIRECT TRADE SPECIAL SELECTION

DIRECT TRADE PARTNERCarlos and Mariana Iturralde/ Finca TakesiREGIONYanacachi, Sud YungasCULTIVAR GeishaELEVATION1900 - 2000 m.a.s.l.HARVESTOctober - November, 2016

PEACH • WHITE GRAPECOFFEE BLOSSOM

There are some people that are not afraid to challenge the status quo. They reject conventional wisdom. They push boundaries.  When these people succeed, they create new paradigms. They write a new set of rules.  The family behind Finca Takesi—the world’s highest altitude coffee farm — has redefined the accepted standards surrounding the elevation at which coffee can thrive. The results achieved are truly stunning coffees.

In 2001, the Iturralde family made the decision to start a coffee farm, partially in response to the dismal reputation of Bolivian coffee.  They were determined to produce world class coffee and in turn show other Bolivian producers that a focus on quality was a path to a sustainable livelihood.Dozens of coffee experts visited the future site of the farm and told the Iturralde family that coffee could not survive at such a high altitudes.  Fortunately, the Iturraldes chose to ignore the experts.  

Today, Finca Takesi grows Typica, Catuai, Java, and Geisha varieties on 40 hectares of land at altitudes reaching 2,600 meters above sea level. For Finca Takesi, the journey to becoming a fully-functioning coffee farm has not been easy. The Iturralde family has had to adapt almost all of their agricultural practices to meet the challenges of extreme elevation, cold temperatures, and a mere four to five hours of daily sunlight.  

Seed germination on Finca Takesi takes twice as long as other farms, only 60% of seedlings in the nursery survive, it takes an extra year and a half for trees to bear fruit, an extra year to recover from pruning, and only select areas

of the mountain receive sufficient sunlight and warmth for coffee to thrive.  Despite these challenges, Finca Takesi has the some of healthiest and most well cared for coffee trees I have ever seen.  

The extreme elevation also transforms the harvesting process. The harvest period on most farms normally lasts three or four months, whereas on Finca Takesi it becomes a nearly year round endeavor. Due to uneven flowering and cherry ripening cycles caused by the higher altitudes, the farm is harvesting small quantities of ripe cherries beginning as early as March. The peak of harvest is between August and September, but the trees will continue to produce small amounts of ripe cherries well into December.  The cherries are then pulped, fermented, and washed on the farm and dried in a small mechanical dryer that is powered by a nearby hydroelectric dam.

The Geisha grown on Finca Takesi continues to be simply one of the finest coffees we have ever tasted. This variety gained international fame at the 2003 Cup of Excellence Competition in Panama when Daniel Peterson of the Esmeralda Estate submitted a sample of Geisha. The competition was over before it began. The Geisha enchanted the international jury. With rare exception, a Geisha coffee has won every competition it has entered for almost a decade. It has set and then broken five records for most expensive auction coffee in the world.   In the process it has become the most talked about coffee in the industry. The origin of the variety can be traced back to 1931 when botanists made an expedition into the forests of Southwestern Ethiopia to collect coffee seeds

in an area that was referred to by locals as “Geisha” (or “Gesha”).  Those seeds were taken to Kenya and planted in a nursery to grow.  Over the past 80 years, the seeds from those trees were distributed to other parts of Africa, Central and South America. Intelligentsia’s own senior barista, Sarah Anderson, from our Pasadena, California location, took home the title of 2015 United States Brewers Cup Champion brewing the Geisha from Finca Takesi.

We are privileged to continue, for the fourth consecutive year, our exclusive Direct Trade relationship with Finca Takesi and are once again proud to be the only roaster in North America to offer this unparalleled Geisha variety from this extraordinary farm.

- Benjamin Morse Green Coffee Buyer

View from the Finca Takesi nursury.

Coffee blossoms lend the crisp mountain air a gentle, enticing fragrance.Thriving coffee trees on Finca Takesi.