La Lia Geisha

Costa Rican season is upon us and with it we see the return of our Swedish friends, Koppi. A lovely thing about the way Koppi purchase their coffee is that it's all farm gate trading. They are return to visit these farms year-after-year, strengthening the relationships and allowing them the opportunity to select multiple small lots from the same producer/cooperative.

A small note on this producer from Koppi:

"La Lia is a farm and micro mill in the heart of Tarrazu owned by the brothers Luis and Oscar Monge. The farm has been in the family for almost 70 years but it was in 2008 that the brothers took over the production and started their own micro mill named after their mother Lia.

The farm is divided in 7 plots of land with the highest parts reaching up to 2100 meters above sea level where the coffee cherries ripen very slowly resulting in high sugar concentration. They grow mainly Red Catuai on the highest altitudes and Caturra slightly lower. They also have extended their range of varieties to Bourbon, Pacamara, Typica, Yellow Typica, SL28, Kenia and Geisha to name a few. The annual production of the 60 hectare farm land is around 1000 bags of green coffee. All coffees are separated by farm, cultivar and picking date. The same families that have returned to work at the farm for 14 years are handpicking the coffee. The 60 pickers have been trained to only pick the perfectly ripe cherries and also to sort the cherries after the picking. This is hard work but very important to be able to produce delicious coffee.

We have been working with Oscar and Luis since 2012. They are doing an amazing job and their coffees are consistently tasting amazing. Visiting Luis, Oscar and Lia each year has made them feel like family and it is always with great warmth we set foot in Tarrazu. To be able to work with people like Luis and Oscar means everything to us and we are so happy to be able to share their coffee with all of you year after year."

Luis and Oscar own a handful of other farms which deliver parchment to their Dry Mill at La Lia. This coffee is named after the dry mill but in fact was harvested from their farm Pie San.

Geisha is one of those varieties that is famous for a reason; floral, sweet, tea-like and obviously special. True to its reputation this coffee gives you everything you asked for with some added texture offered by the Red Honey process.

Producer  →  Luis Monge & Oscar Monge
Farm  →  Pie San
Location  → Tarrazu, Costa Rica
Variety → Geisha
Altitude  → 1,900 - 2,000 masl
Process  → Red Honey