Linarco Rodríguez White Honey Geisha

Our first time working with famed coffee producer Linarco Rodríguez and we couldn’t be more excited! What he manages to execute beautifully, is letting the coffee speak for itself while subtly and expertly enhancing the natural characteristics of the coffee with a unique aerobic oxidation and white honey processing. This refined coffee is so delectable and sophisticated with tasting notes of apricot, jasmine, cranberry tart, and sarsaparilla (think cola-like with vanilla, caramel, and wintergreen notes.) It displays all the characteristics that we adore about a classic Geisha profile (think elegant and jasmine-like) with a slightly enhanced fruitiness that is also effortlessly sparkling and clean. It’s silky, delicious, and comes highly recommended from our cupping team.

Linarco (Lino affectionately) is a third generation coffee producer from Palestina, Huila, Colombia and this specific Geisha microlot is from his 42 hectare farm Betania. Processing starts with selecting perfectly ripe Geisha coffee cherries, floating the coffee cherry to remove impurities, and depulping the coffee. The coffee then sits in open air tanks for 48 hours for an aerobic oxidation (an oxidation-not fermentation-with oxygen vs. the newly popular anaerobic processing technique that is devoid of oxygen). It is then rinsed and dried, all while leaving a bit of the mucilage intact-called white honey processing. The coffee is then dried on raised beds for 12 days before resting, milling and exporting. Linarco is known for his expertise in the specialty coffee world with a notably unique processing style that fuses tradition with innovation. He and his family also speak of their deep love for the land (a terrior boasting rich volcanic soil and a cool mountain climate favorable for coffee production) and have devoted 5 hectares of their land for native forest conservation.