Mexico Pluma Hidalgo Gesha Washed - Filter Roast

THE LUCY FOUNDATION
In 2014, a group of young people from Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand, decided to do something bold and disruptive. Having learned about the disadvantage experienced by disabled people around the world, they knew they had to respond to the injustice.

They started thinking... How can we do things differently and lead by example? How can we demonstrate the value of diversity in business? What product can’t Kiwis live without, and would be willing to pay more for if they knew it had been produced in an ethical and disability inclusive way? COFFEE.

For the sake of time, let’s fast forward seven years of hard work, research, fundraising, visits and whanaungatanga - The Lucy Foundation is now a blossoming social enterprise actively transforming the global coffee industry through an end-to-end value chain of coffee that is entirely inclusive of disabled people.

We do this by partnering with local coffee-farming families in rural Mexico to help them grow healthier, stronger and higher yield crops. We also support disabled community members into training and employment within the local coffee industry.

Coffee produced by the farmers is then purchased by the TLF supply chain and processed by disabled team members and their whānau in Pluma Hidalgo, Mexico, before being exported to Aotearoa New Zealand.

In 2016, The Lucy Foundation established a team on the ground in Pluma Hidalgo – an isolated coffee-farming village, high in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. The aim of the Pluma Coffee Project is to transform the global coffee industry by developing a sustainable value chain of coffee that is not only good for the environment, the community, and the economy, but is also inclusive of disabled people, from farmer to consumer.

Coffee is a good source of seasonal income for farmers in this remote region of Mexico where poverty is high. Pluma coffee is exclusively grown in Pluma Hidalgo, Mexico and is new to coffee drinkers in Aotearoa New Zealand. Coffee is the economic backbone of Pluma Hidalgo with many families having a small number of trees in their backyard. We work side-by-side with these coffee farmers and their families to help improve their crops and promote inclusive economic opportunities within the community

WASHED PROCESS
After the coffee cherries have been picked, the cherries are depulped (skin removed) or demucilaged (skin and pulp removed).
The coffees are typically then held in “fermentation tanks” for 12–72 hours, allowing for a gentle controlled fermentation to cause any remaining pulp to separate from the beans. Fermentation may occur from the moment of harvest until the seeds reach an inhospitable moisture content for them (11% moisture)
The beans are finally dried for up to 15 days on patios, raised beds, or in parabolic dryers until the ideal moisture content is reached.
Typically washed coffees have clean, articulate flavours; caramel or sugary sweetness; a wide spectrum of fruit acidity depending on other factors; capable of bright, crisp notes

GESHA
Gesha (also spelled Geisha) is a once-rare variety that was ‘rediscovered’ in Panama in 2004, though it is increasingly becoming more common due to increased production in response to the high prices that the varietal fetches.

The variety originally hails from the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia. The story goes that in 1931, the British Ambassador to Ethiopia selected a bunch of coffee cherries (most likely from different coffee trees) in the southwest part of Ethiopia, near a town called Geisha, to use them in his research. In 1932, the seeds were exported to Kenya’s Kitale centre under the name of Abyssinia or Geisha. In 1936, the sprouts from these seeds were sent to Kwanda station in Uganda and Lyamungu station in Tanzania for experimental lots. It wasn’t until the mid-1950s, however, that these ‘Geisha’ seeds made their way across the water from Tanzania to Costa Rica’s CATIE centre, where they were first planted in Central America.

Initial efforts to establish Geisha in Central America weren’t particularly successful, however. Although Don Pachi Serracin brought the first Geisha seeds from Costa Rica to Panama in 1963, by all accounts first attempts to cultivate the trees were disappointing due to the resulting ‘poor cup quality’. Later it became apparent that this was a result of planting the variety at low altitudes; nonetheless, the variety languished for decades, sometimes popping up here and there across Costa Rica and Panama, usually used in blends but never really taking off.

It wasn’t until 2004 that Geisha gained the recognition it deserved on the speciality coffee ‘scene’. In a gutsy move, one farm entered a sample of their Geisha in that year’s Taste of Panama competition. The lot created a sensation, not only winning the competition by a mile but earning staggering reviews by the judges.

Since this time, Geisha has come to be considered one of the most complex, intensely flavoured and desirable profiles of all the coffee varietals. Today it is grown widely in Panama and Costa Rica, though the plant is relatively demanding.