Costa Rica | Ivan Gutierrez

Ivan’s farm, La Esmeralda, spans 14 hectares and is located at 2,000 MASL in Quebrada Grande. This release is a special separation of Gesha, harvested in May 2025. This season’s Gesha stands out for its flavor intensity and sweetness. We find lots of sticky, dense fruit in the cup, presenting a very dynamic flavor experience. When hot, we taste notes of raspberry, elderflower, and green apple; as it cools, we find sticky fruits like black currant, mango, and mixed berries, along with vanilla florals. This marks our fifth year working with Ivan, and we’re excited to share this exceptional coffee once again.

Although Ivan’s farm has only been producing cherries for a few seasons, he’s no stranger to coffee. After many years running the Montañas del Diamante Mill with his siblings, Ivan decided in 2016 to sell his portion of the business and focus on producing high-quality coffee on a smaller scale. He purchased land in an up-and-coming region, now known for some of Costa Rica’s finest coffees, and began planting varieties like Gesha and SL-28. By 2021, Ivan had built his own wet mill and drying area, and that year, his coffee took first place in Costa Rica’s Cup of Excellence, marking an impressive start to his new venture.

Cherries are picked at peak ripeness, floated and depulped. The seeds are then left to dry ferment in tanks for 24 hours. The seeds are washed and rinsed of all the mucilage and moved to raised drying beds where they dry for around 10 days.