Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/491377
56 STiR tea & coffee industry international / Issue 2, 2015 (April/May) Coffee growing in Ethiopia sprouts in the nursery before it is transplanted. Harvesting indigenous gesha seeds from the forest near Gesha, Ethiopia Rachel Samuel, partner at Gesha Village Estate, is a professional photographer and documentary film maker. After 20 years of living in the U.S. she, her husband, and brother Yohannes moved back to their native Ethiopia to start a coffee farm. When planted at 1,400 meters and be- low the elliptical cherry from the tall and gangly, low-yielding plants revealed little promise in the cup. Fortunately research- ers in Tanganyika discovered that the big oval leaf trees showed some resistance to disease – especially fungus. This is why the varietal was sent in July 1953 to Costa Rica's coffee research center, the Coffee Institute Inter of Agricultural Sciences (IICA) and later to the Tropical Agri- cultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). In 1963 the coffee made its way to Panama where seeds obtained by Don Pachi Serracin were planted in the mountains near Boquete, an ideal high- mountain terroir at 3,900 feet and up. Trees from Gesha also found their way to Jamaica, Brazil and Colombia where researchers sought fungus-resistant vari- eties but in Panama the cherry from these trees literally blew past the competition. No one knows exactly why, but in time the New World plants came to be known as geisha, a varietal that today is judged to produce some of the finest coffee in the world. Retailers have bid as high as $350 per pound since 2004. Lots generally sell for at least $50 per pound in a specialty market that buys every pound offered. That is why 80 years after geisha left Ethiopia Boot found himself mired in mud looking for a needle of a tree in 425,000 square mile haystack of undeveloped country. Boot, 54, is a grower, consultant and professional coffee taster who roasted his first batch of coffee at the age of 14. He speaks six languages and has a master's degree in business economics from the University of Amsterdam. The Dutch native splits his time between Panama, where he owns Finca La Mula and co-owns Finca Sophia, farms with a total of 35,000 geisha trees, and Mill Valley, near San Francisco. Companies and organizations from around the world have employed the expertise of his California- based Boot Coffee Consulting since 1998. He offers hands-on advanced training from seed to cup. His obsession with geisha dates to 2004. (See The Quest, pg. 55) Boot is keenly aware of the vulnerability of arabica. He knows first-hand the dev- astation caused by la roya (coffee leaf rust) and the coffee berry borer, a beetle that spread from Africa to the Americas with a host of plant diseases. His personal goal is to improve the quality of every aspect of coffee. DNA is fundamental, he explains. According to Boot, planting the right variety to prevent major pests and diseases is ultimately the key decision a grower can make. "Instead of applying massive amounts of chemicals, growers should first look at the options provided by the natural pool of genetics provided by Mother Nature," he said. Genetic diversity Ethiopia is home to an estimated 40,000 wild varieties of coffee. Despite the passage of eons, most of this coffee resembles its ancestors. This is why Boot sought to discover the link between the geisha that migrated to Panama and the trees at origin. Since the variety evolved its resistance to rust over many centuries during which the ambient temperature and rainfall varied, it is safe to assume there are similar relatives whose adaptations remain in their gene stock. Returning to Ethiopia is a first step in the long process of invigorating coffee globally. During the past five years the task has taken on new urgency. The spread of the la roya fungus depends on rain, wind, and higher temperatures. It was largely confined to low altitudes after its arrival in Puerto Rico in 1903. It was eradicated in the New World soon after and did not emerge as a threat until infecting Brazil in 1970. It then spread