Peru - La Lucuma - Geisha Honey (CoE 2023 #2 Farm)

"Upon grinding, aromas of juicy peach, lychee, lemon peel, and bergamot rise from the cup. On the palate, peach leads with bergamot and lemon peel providing a bright, tea-like citrus lift. A faint strawberry sweetness comes through mid-sip, followed by a soft frangipani floral note. The profile is sweet and juicy, with a clean, fragrant finish." Finca La Lucuma is the long-term project of the Huaches Zurita family, who have held the farm since 1984 and steadily expanded it from an initial 2 hectares to around 6.5 hectares by 2005. Their approach has been shaped by a clear focus on cup quality, along with a willingness to adapt when conditions forced change. After rust pressure in 2012 led them to trial more resistant material that didn’t meet their quality goals, the family recommitted to varieties and practices that better aligned with their sensory targets. Franco Huaches Montalvan represents the current face of this work, combining family continuity with a more experimental mindset toward variety selection. The farm sits in the San Ignacio province of Cajamarca, with references placing it around Chirinos and the local terroir noted as El Laurel. Elevation is consistently high, commonly cited at about 1,850 meters and also described as spanning roughly 1,850–1,900 masl, which helps slow cherry maturation. Cooler nights and frequent mist contribute to longer ripening windows and can support cleaner aromatics when harvesting and drying are handled carefully. The combination of altitude and Andean soils is often emphasized as a key driver of clarity and structure in the cup. Geisha at La Lucuma is a relatively recent but deliberate planting, introduced after the family sought new cup profiles and a pathway to compete at the national level. They acquired seed around 2016 and established roughly half a hectare in 2017, which required different agronomic management than the varieties they had previously grown. Early learning curves are part of the farm’s story, with the first harvest arriving in 2020 and confirming the decision in the cup. The variety’s performance then became a motivator for continued refinement, including participation in regional and national competitions. This release is declared as a honey process Geisha, meaning cherries are harvested ripe, depulped, and then dried with a controlled amount of mucilage intentionally left on the parchment. The objective is to keep Geisha’s aromatic definition while adding a rounder sweetness and texture that comes from the retained fruit sugars during drying. Drying is typically managed through careful turning and protection from overly aggressive heat so the sticky parchment dries evenly and avoids defects. Because honey processing sits between washed and natural approaches, it rewards disciplined moisture management and steady airflow more than extended soaking or fully fruit-intact drying. La Lucuma’s reputation is closely linked to its performance in Peru’s Cup of Excellence landscape, including a notably high score and top placement under Franco Huaches Montalvan. That competitive context matters because it signals not only variety choice but also harvest selection and post-harvest precision at farm level. Variety : Geisha Altitude : 1,850–1,900 masl Process : Honey Origin : Cajamarca