ABOUT ALEJANDRO RENJIFO

It is a true honor to have the opportunity to work with this selection from the exporter, producer, and all-around legend Alejandro Renjifo of Fairfield Trading. Alejandro has been one of the most influential contributors to the development of Colombian specialty coffee, and works intimately with some of the best and most well-known producers in Colombia. A few years ago, Alejandro started his own farming project atop San Agustín, in southern Huila. This is the second year his farm has produced an exportable amount of coffee, and the potential of this project is extraordinary. 

ABOUT GESHA

Gesha was originally collected from coffee forests of Ethiopia in the 1930's. From there, it was sent to the Lyamungo Research Station in Tanzania, and then brought to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in the 1953, where it was logged as accession T2722. It was distributed throughout Panama via CATIE in the 1960’s after its tolerance to coffee leaf rust was recognized. However, it was not widely planted because the plant's branches were brittle and not favored by farmers. Gesha came to prominence in 2005, when the Peterson family of Boquete, Panama, entered it into the Best of Panama competition and auction. It received exceptionally high marks and broke the then-record for green coffee auction prices, selling for over $20 per pound. Since then, the variety has become a resounding favorite of brewing and roasting competition winners and coffee enthusiasts alike.

ABOUT MITACA

In Colombia there are two coffee harvest cycles each year: the main harvest, and a second—generally, but not always, smaller—second harvest called the Mitaca. Given the vast seasonal differences in microclimate, these harvests vary widely even within the same region. Because seasonality is an important part of our approach to coffee, we will begin differentiating these harvests for greater traceability and transparency.