Arturo Paz - Itacayo Gesha

MEET THE PRODUCER | In specialty coffee circles, the Paz family in Honduras needs no introduction. Our buddy, Benjamin Paz, is likely the most familiar to you—he's been featured prominently on our menu over the years. Outgoing and gregarious, you might think that Ben is the sole star of his family's dry mill and export company in Santa Barbara, San Vicente Coffee Exporters. 

But there's also a quieter, shyer, unsung hero of the family business as well. His name is Angel Arturo Paz, and his hands are behind this stunning washed Gesha offering.

A third generation coffee producer, Arturo is quiet, charming, and very devoted to his large extended family. He and Benjamin started formally working together in 2012 when they began cultivating coffee on small plots of farmland in a very rural part of Santa Barbara. Today, Arturo serves as the chief of quality control at San Vicente, and he continues to participate (and thrive!) in Honduras Cup of Excellence, with which he's been involved in since its inception.

TRUST THE PROCESS | This lot underwent traditional Honduran washed processing protocols. The result is a straight over-the-plate, low-to-no-fermentation impact Gesha lot—and honestly, it couldn't be lovelier.

TAKE A SIP | Delicate and stunning, this coffee shares a lot of characteristics with the flower it emanates on the nose—gardenia. It’s floral, tropical, and tea-like, reminding us of some of our favorite Ethiopian Gesha coffees. But it’s also remarkably sweet, alluding to its Santa Barbara birthplace. This coffee sips like oolong tea that’s been served alongside a crisp vanilla cookie, making us dream of afternoon tea in the English countryside.

Origin | El Sauce, Santa Barbara, Honduras

Producer | Angel Arturo Paz

Farm | Itacayo

Process | Washed

Variety | Gesha

Elevation | 1550-1730 MASL

Geisha has earned a singular reputation among specialty coffee varietals — prized above all for its ethereal floral aromatics, tea-like delicacy, and pronounced clarity of flavor. When paired with washed processing, which strips away the fruit layer before fermentation and drying, those intrinsic characteristics tend to come through cleanly, unobscured by the heavier fruit notes a natural process might introduce.

This lot comes from producer Angel Arturo Paz in Honduras's Santa Barbara region, one of the country's most celebrated growing areas for high-elevation specialty production. Black & White Coffee Roasters have long championed process-forward, varietal-focused coffees, and this Geisha fits that curatorial sensibility — the gardenia, vanilla, and tropical notes in the cup reflecting both the variety's expressive range and the transparency that washed processing can offer at its best.