We love a good origin story, and this one starts with soccer dreams and ends in delicious coffee. Jonathan Gasca and his brother Johan grew up in a fourth-generation coffee farming family in Huila, Colombia. A few years ago, they shifted their focus from commercial coffee to high-quality, small-batch lots by combining their deep roots in agriculture with bold, modern processing techniques. The result is a new-school coffee from an old-school family farm.
Zarza is still pretty new to the specialty world, but they're moving fast. With just three years of experience, Jonathan is already experimenting with thermal shock and long anaerobic fermentations. This lot, a vibrant Pacamara, is a showcase of that approach. After hand-picking and sorting, the cherries are fermented in stages, pulped, hit with both hot and cold water, and dried slowly on canopies to lock in sweetness and complexity.
We were hooked from the first sip. There's so much energy in this coffee, and it reflects everything we love about working with up-and-coming producers who are pushing the envelope. We’re excited to introduce Zarza to our menu for the very first time!
