This coffee was roasted March 19 and March 26, 2025. The second coffee of our 2025 season comes to us from a favorite producer of our 2024 season: Lino Rodriguez. A six-time Cup of Excellence awarded producer, Lino's reputation for quality is rivaled only by his professionalism and sincerity. From Christopher: "I've been buying coffee from Lino Rodriguez for almost ten years—since before he won the Cup of Excellence or built the reputation he has today. In the years I've roasted coffee from Lino and his family, I've bought Tabi, Castillo, Caturra, and Pink Bourbon from their farm—but never Gesha. This is notable only because Gesha—which was introduced to Colombia in 2005—was one of the first exotic cultivars Lino planted, as a result of a planting program sponsored by Banexport in 2010. "Through the program, Banexport provided seeds—purportedly from the Esmeralda estate in Panama—with the guarantee of purchasing any of the coffee produced. After a few years, the program ended as the pricing for gesha became uncompetitive. However, the trees remained. "Aviary's first release of 2025 from Nancy Mendoza was a Gesha from the CATIE collection in Costa Rica resulting from the FAO Mission to Ethiopia in 1964; the mythology of the gesha germplasm grown by Lino, sourced from Panama, is that it originated earlier, collected from Ethiopia in the 1930s and then sent to Tanzania and Kenya, from where it made its way to Panama and infamy." "This coffee, which Lino exported through his cooperative in Palestina and shipped my home via Fedex, presents in the cup with notes of **jasmine, orange blossom** **and pomegranate with a blood orange and brown sugar sweetness."**