[118] Colombia - Marisela Sánchez's Gesha [CROP 25/26 ARCHIVE]

We had Marisela's Gesha and her Rosado with the last season of purchases from LaREB, and both were utterly delightful. This year, she's passed on her Rosado plot at El Portal to her nephew Yoiner, as she focuses on higher value, smaller lots as she gets closer to retirement. We've got both coffees again, but this time both producers have done different processes.

Marisela has dried her Gesha as a natural (in-husk drying), and with typical LaREB protocols, it's incredibly clean. Last years anoxic washed was all stonefruits and florals, this year it's berry jam, floral green tea and complex tropical notes.
Reminds us a lot of the Pikudo Gesha, one of the standout coffees of 2025.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter

Lightest Roaster Influence: A Slightly slightly longer roast and lower end temp than we would do for other anoxic naturals, we found this to bring out the brightest & cleanest floral tea-like presentation

Best Rested: 4 weeks

Filter: Fresh - 64g/L & 97°C, with good rest we like to move down to 62g/L & 93°C

Espresso: Turbo shots + 3 weeks rest. 18g/50g+ & 20s. Excellent soup coffee.

We’re tasting: Aromas of white florals, roasted peach and melon. In the cup the front note is like raspberry jam, with hints of pineapple and fizzy haribo cherries. There's a delightfully floral green tea note - like jasmine oolong. As it cools there's a honeydew melon note, intense sweetness like white chocolate, and dried mango - alongside a fresh raspberry acidity.

Traceability

The Story

LaReb - La Real Expedición Botánica - are a radical producer-owned export co-operative/movement. Their goal is to develop de-colonised supply chains and operate outside the typical multinational pathways of coffee, and it’s a mission that’s really resonated with us. By pooling together collective knowledge, financing, quality, export and import, LaReb members are able to define their own terms of engagement. It’s genuinely so refreshing to work with Herbert and the team, and we know we’ll only to continue to grow our purchasing relationship over the years.

This is our third year of purchasing from LaReb, and our first releases are from firm favourites and core LaREB members - the Sánchez family. Returning for a second year we have Gesha from Marisela Sanchez - this year a natural instead of washed.

The Sánchez family have a small “estate” in El Portal, Palestina - land that Marisela's father settled in 1949 after being displaced south from Cundinamarca, when he brought Typica seeds that became the foundation of 75 years of multi-generational coffee farming. His displacement occurred during the most violent phase of "La Violencia", the bipartisan conflict that killed between 200,000 and 300,000 Colombians between 1948 and 1958. Cundinamarca's coffee-growing regions were particularly targeted by Conservative paramilitaries, with death tolls escalating from approximately 18,500 in 1949 to over 50,000 in 1950. Displaced families fled to frontier departments like Huila, claiming uncultivated baldíos under Law 200 of 1936, which granted land titles to settlers who demonstrated productive use over five years.

The migration pattern that carried Marisela's father from Cundinamarca to Palestina was replicated across thousands of families, transforming Huila from a frontier region into Colombia's leading coffee-producing department. Displaced campesinos brought generations of coffee knowledge from established growing areas like Viotá and the Sumapaz, adapting their expertise to Huila's volcanic soils and abundant water sources. Palestina, officially founded in 1937 and situated at high (1550 MASL) elevation in the Macizo Colombiano, offered ideal conditions for the Typica and Bourbon varieties these families cultivated. What was born from violence and forced migration ultimately built the small-holder coffee economy that now defines the region, with Huila producing 17% of Colombia's total coffee output across approximately 87,000 family farms - and well known as a hotbed of speciality coffee production.

With the passing of the land to the second generation - the family have split the estate into smaller plots, each owned and managed by Marisela’s siblings and wider family, with the main processing and drying station situated at Marisela’s house. 

Marisela’s parents have deep connection to the community - her father Orlando had 2 terms as Mayor of Palestina around the turn of the millennium. As Marisela is approaching retirement age, we learned from Herbert that last year was her last year producing Rosado - she has transferred the plot this coffee was grown on to her nephew Yoiner, instead deciding to focus both on the community work she does, and for her coffee production lower yield, high value varieties; one of which we're showcasing with this Gesha lot. We've purchased Rosado from Yoiner this year, from the very same trees - and we like what he's done with it. Watch this space for the next release

The pooling of processing and quality knowledge that is key to LaReb’s on mission shows in lots like these. Well orchestrated extended fermentation steps producing very fruit-forward characteristics in the cup, without any trace of acetic-acid/funk - incredibly clean for an anoxic natty.