Sanson Garcia Luna, Gesha - Oaxaca, Mexico

“Yogondoy” is Zapotec for “River of Bees”

This past April, right after SCA in San Diego, we made our first ever trip to Oaxaca! We traveled down with Kelly from Spinnaker Chocolate to meet Adam and our partners at Red Fox Coffee Importers, and spent several days in their lab cupping hundreds of coffees from Oaxaca and Veracruz. Out of all of them, Sansón Garcia Luna’s Gesha was hands down one of the standouts.

Sansón’s Gesha is a stunning coffee with lush, tropical notes of papaya and mango cream and a sweet raisin finish. Perfect for a filter brew.

Sansón has grown coffee nearly his whole life and is known for working from sunrise until every last task is done, even if that means late into the night. He farms two plots, Finca El Duraznal and a parcel on Cerro La Bruja. While one farm produces, the other gets to rest. That lets him prune on a schedule, a farming approach that most small producers do not have access to, since it means giving up part of the year’s harvest. 

Sansón lives in San Vicente Yogondoy, in Oaxaca’s Sierra Sur, where coffee grows at 1,700 meters on steep slopes facing the Pacific, shaded by native trees and cooled by ocean breezes. Many farmers here keep beehives right alongside their coffee, hence the name! Led in part by Sansón’s brother Pompilio, Yogondoy’s producers have spent years investing in their farms, and both quality and yields keep climbing every season.

This lot is washed, fermented 18 to 24 hours in wooden tanks, and dried for 6 to 10 days on patios and petates, traditional woven palm mats. 

This coffee has been imported by Red Fox Coffee Importers. 

Tasting Notes: Papaya, mango cream, raisin     

Origin: Oaxaca, Mexico

Producer:  Sanson Garcia Luna

Altitude: 1700 masl

Cultivar: Gesha

Process: Fully washed and dried 6 - 10 days on patios & petate mats