Gesha Experimental: from Finca Los Pirineos to international acclaim
Some coffees are produced by following a recipe. Others begin with a question: What happens if we dare to experiment?
This story belongs to the second kind.
At Academia Barista Pro, we believe specialty coffee doesn't advance solely by preserving what we already know. It also moves forward when producers, roasters, cuppers, and coffee professionals dare to try, measure, compare, fail, try again, and occasionally celebrate a extraordinary surprise in the cup.
That is exactly what happened with this project developed alongside Diego Baraona and Finca Los Pirineos in El Salvador.
The effort reached the Global Coffee Awards Latin America 2026, where it earned two Gold medals and one Bronze:
GOLD — Filtered Single Origin Experimental
GOLD — Espresso Single Origin Experimental Blend
BRONZE — Espresso Single Origin Experimental
Two Gold medals and one Bronze. But for us, the real story begins long before the awards.
It all started with a question.
To understand this project, you have to travel into the mountains of Finca Los Pirineos in Usulután.
For generations, this farm has represented far more than coffee production. It has been a space where variety conservation, innovation, and the constant pursuit of quality are built into its identity.
Academia Barista Pro has worked with the Baraona family for years—first with the late, remembered Gilberto Baraona, and later with his son Diego, who continues the family legacy.
When trust exists between producer and roaster, something fascinating happens:
conversations stop being strictly about buying and selling coffee.
The questions begin.
What can we do differently?
What can this Gesha truly express?
What happens if we modify the process?
Can we use fermentation in a more controlled way?
What if we then roast that coffee specifically around what the process built?
And, of course, the question we at Academia Barista Pro probably love most: What happens if we taste it in the cup? Because talking about coffee is interesting—cupping it is far more interesting.
The Gesha: A Variety with Much to Say
The Gesha has become one of the most recognized varieties in specialty coffee due to its extraordinary ability to express complex aromatic and sensory profiles.
But a variety doesn't tell the whole story.
Origin, altitude, microclimate, soil, ripeness, agronomic management, processing, and roasting can profoundly transform a coffee's expression.
That is why working with a Salvadoran Gesha is particularly interesting.
It isn't about trying to copy what made Gesha famous in another country. It's about discovering: What can a Gesha say when it grows in El Salvador?
And that is where our experiment began.
Gesha: An Extraordinary Variety
To talk about Gesha is to talk about a variety that has changed how many people understand coffee's sensory potential.
Its modern history is closely tied to Panama, where the variety achieved international recognition for its floral, aromatic, and complex profiles. However, its origin lies much farther away: in Ethiopia, where it was collected before being studied in Central America.
And here arises a question that we find far more interesting than simply knowing its history: What can a Gesha express when grown in El Salvador?
Because a variety does not exist in isolation.
The outcome in the cup is also determined by where it grows, the microclimate, altitude, soil, cherry ripeness, processing decisions, and ultimately, the way the coffee is roasted and brewed.
For that reason, working with the Gesha from Finca Los Pirineos wasn't about reproducing the profile of a famous Gesha from another origin. It was about discovering its own identity.
That was precisely one of the reasons this project was so compelling for us: we had a variety with massive sensory potential, an origin with an extraordinary coffee-growing history, and above all, the freedom to ask ourselves what could happen if we experimented with rigor.
Because before chasing a medal, there was something much more important to discover: what this Salvadoran Gesha could ultimately say in the cup.
When microbiology enters the cup...
For this project, we worked with an experimental process incorporating selected yeast strains, seeking to understand how microbiological activity could modify the sensory expression of the coffee.
This is where the word "experimental" takes on its true meaning. It isn't simply about doing something different because it sounds interesting. It's about controlling variables, observing results, and evaluating them.
Variety.
Ripeness.
Time.
Temperature.
Fermentation medium.
Microorganisms.
Drying.
And finally, roasting.
Because in coffee, there is rarely a single variable responsible for the final result. There is a system. And the more we learn about that system, the more questions emerge.
When microbiology enters the scene...
For this project, Academia Barista Pro provided the selected yeasts used in the experimental process, while Diego and his team carried out the processing at Finca Los Pirineos.
The objective was to work with fermentation under controlled conditions and explore how the activity of microorganisms could modify and enhance the sensory expression of the coffee.
Fermentation is far more than just a step between the cherry and the parchment. It is a complex biological process in which microorganisms interact with available compounds, generating various precursors that can influence the final profile in the cup.
Every single one of these variables had the potential to alter the end result. There is no single variable responsible for the outcome; there is a system. And that is precisely where the fascination of this type of experimentation lies.
From the Mill to the Roaster
After processing, the work was far from complete. An experimental coffee requires a roast profile designed to express everything built during the process.
At Academia Barista Pro, we developed the roast with the aim of preserving and highlighting the characteristics that made this lot special. The intention was not to impose a profile onto it, but to find the best way to reveal it.
When the time finally came to submit it for competition, we had something in front of us that thrilled us deeply: a Los Pirineos Gesha, experimentally processed with selected yeasts, and roasted in El Salvador by our team.
Now, only one thing remained: putting it in front of the judges.
The Result: Two Golds and a Bronze
At the Global Coffee Awards Latin America 2026, this coffee earned three international honors:
GOLD — Filtered Single Origin Experimental A recognition for the experimental Gesha developed alongside Finca Los Pirineos—a coffee born from the combination of variety, origin, processing experimentation, sensory evaluation, and roasting.
GOLD — Espresso
Single Origin Experimental Blend
In this category, the submission also incorporated the CM Gesha from Finca El Ángel, taking the experimentation toward a different expression in espresso. Because the brewing method can reveal a whole new sensory expression from the same coffee. And that is part of what makes it so fascinating.
BRONZE — Espresso Single Origin Experimental
A third award that confirms something we learn continuously in our projects: experimentation doesn't always yield a single outcome. It yields knowledge. It yields new questions. And sometimes, it yields medals.
A profile that confirmed something we had already learned during the process: when you work with exceptional raw material and experiment with rigor, sensory expressions can emerge that surprise even the team developing them.
But these three honors do not belong to Academia Barista Pro alone
And here, for us, is the most important part of this story. A medal might have one name on it, but behind a winning coffee are many people.
There is Diego Baraona, trusting the process and putting in the field work. There is Finca Los Pirineos, with generations of accumulated knowledge. There is the vision that Diego continues today. There is the work of selection and process development. There is the microbiology. There is the processing mill. There is the roast. There is the evaluation. There is the cupping. And there are years of friendship, conversations, and experimentation that made it possible for an idea to become a real coffee.
That is why these recognitions represent far more than awards to us.
Three medals, but a much bigger story
It is easy to look at a medal and think the story ends there. For us, it begins long before. Behind every honor is a producer who decided to experiment.
There is a farm.
There is a variety.
There is microbiology.
There is processing.
There is drying.
There is cupping.
There is roasting.
There is analysis.
There are conversations.
And there are countless hours of work that never appear in an award ceremony photograph.
That is why we don't view these honors simply as trophies for Academia Barista Pro.
We see them as a celebration of collaborative work that allows a Salvadoran coffee to reach an international evaluation table and have something to say.
Salvadoran coffee doesn't have to choose between tradition and innovation
One of the things that excites us most about this story is that it proves tradition and innovation are not opposing concepts. We can respect a farm with generations of history while simultaneously experimenting with new tools. We can preserve heritage varieties and study new methods of processing. We can work from traditional knowledge while leaning on science. We can honor origin and, at the same time, ask ourselves what else it can express. That is part of what specialty coffee means to us.
It isn't just about producing a different coffee. It's about understanding why it is different.
What's next?
Probably the most dangerous question for anyone working in coffee is: "What's next?"
Because once you find an answer, another question immediately takes its place.
What would happen with another variety?
What would happen with another microorganism?
What would happen with another process?
What would happen with another roast profile?
What would happen if producer, roaster, and cupper start the project together from the very beginning?
And that is how we keep going.
Asking.
Experimenting.
Cupping.
Learning.
And roasting.
Because for us, the true success of a project like this isn't just seeing two Gold medals and a Bronze.
It is proving that from El Salvador, we can develop coffee with an international vision—using knowledge, science, creativity, and collaboration without losing sight of something fundamental: the origin.
From Finca Los Pirineos to an international judging table, this project carried with it a story of legacy, friendship, experimentation, and Salvadoran coffee.
Thank you, Diego, for trusting us once again. Thank you to the entire team that made every stage of the process possible. And thank you to everyone who keeps believing that behind every cup of coffee, there is always something more to discover.
Because every project we develop also turns into knowledge that we can share with our students and the coffee community.
At Academia Barista Pro, we will keep asking questions.
Because in the end, some of the best answers… start with a good cup of coffee.
Academia Barista Pro
Education, science, and passion for coffee.
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