Peru Finca Santa Teresa Gesha

Finca Santa Teresa is located in northern Peru, very close to the border with Ecuador. The surrounding region boasts a biodiverse and fertile environment, with flora, fauna, moorlands, rainforest, and high mountains all combining to offer excellent conditions for growing coffee.

Andres has set a benchmark when it comes to producing gesha coffee in northern Peru. He is part of a multigenerational coffee-growing family, following in the footsteps of his parents and grandparents who grew coffee here before him. In recent years, Andres has started experimenting with fermentation methods to bring new life to the family’s repertoire, and even came sixth in the 2021 Peru Cup of Excellence competition.

Gesha is one of the world’s most highly-prized coffee varieties, winning competitions and often setting record prices at auctions. Today geshas are renowned for their intensely floral and sweet tasting notes, and are more expensive than most coffees because of it, but the variety was originally prized for its robustness. It was mostly forgotten about until 2004 when the variety won the Best of Panama auction, and in the decades since gesha has grown in prestige to its current status at the pinnacle of the speciality coffee world.

Peru is one of the world's top ten coffee producers—number one when it comes to organic coffee—with smallholders making up the vast majority of growers. Nearly 225,000 families rely on coffee for the majority of their income.

For the first century after its introduction from Ecuador in the mid-18th century, coffee was grown primarily for domestic consumption. However exports began to grow towards the end of the century and when the Peruvian government defaulted on a loan to the British in the early 1900s it offered 2 million hectares of land as payment—much of which was promptly converted into coffee plantations which helped boost production.

Like much of Latin America, coffee production in the early days was dominated by large landowners, although land reform and other changes in the mid-20th century shifted ownership towards smaller farmers. Today Peru is the world's 9th largest exporter of coffee, and top when it comes to organic coffee, with smallholders making up the majority of growers.

Did you know?

• Coffee plantations occupy as much as 40% of farmland nationally, and up to 70% of farms situated in the Peruvian highlands.
• Peru is the world's largest exporter of organic coffee, with roughly 90,000 hectares certified organic. In addition, a large portion of the country's coffee is organic by default, which has been attributed to the number of smallholder farmers who lack the capital to invest in chemicals.
• Peru's coffee farmers are overwhelmingly small-scale, with the average producer growing coffee on just under three acres. Cooperatives can help small farmers gain access to credit facilities and larger export markets.

Our speciality coffees are 100% traceable and ethically sourced. We work direct with farmers, or through trusted partners, to bring you the best coffee from around the world.

Sourced in partnership with: Royalty Specialty Coffees
Producer relationship length: 1 year