David Dagua Geisha - Colombia

The Day We Stepped Through the Portal

David Dagua Tello has been growing coffee at Finca Berlín for over 35 years. The farm sits at 1,950 to 2,050 masl in the mountains of Planadas, the southernmost municipality in Tolima, and it’s mostly a sugar cane operation. Only four of its 25 hectares are coffee. David works alongside six family members, employs nine year-round workers, and brings on 10 to 12 pickers for the main harvest from April through June. He grows four varieties at roughly 4,000 trees per hectare, with bigger plots of Colombia and F8 and smaller, high-altitude plantings of Gesha and Pink Bourbon. Those small plots are where these two lots come from. The process is deliberate. Cherries ferment whole in barrels for 48 hours, get depulped, then ferment again in bags for another 48 hours. They finish on raised beds inside a parabolic greenhouse dryer for 5 to 8 days. Two lots, one farmer, one process. Taste them side by side and you’re tasting what the variety does, which is the whole fun of it.