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Variety encyclopedia

SL9

SL9 is a rare coffee cultivar name used for distinctive high-elevation coffees from Peru's Incahuasi area. It is sometimes marketed locally as “Inca Gesha,” but available genetic reporting does not identify it as Gesha. Counter Culture says tested material was closest to SL9, while SEY says the precise fingerprint is absent from the current reference database and resembles SL09. Because the lineage remains unsettled, SL9 should be treated as its own documented working identity—not as a synonym for Gesha or as proof of an exact SL09 pedigree.

TagsSL9ArabicaSL09
Where did it come from?

Producers in Peru's Incahuasi area have called this coffee “Inca Gesha” because its plant and cup resemble Gesha. Counter Culture reports that genetic testing did not match Gesha and instead placed the material closest to the little-documented SL9; SEY describes its SL9 lots as part of an Ethiopian Legacy group and close to SL09 while noting that an exact fingerprint is not yet in the reference database. Historical transfer to southern Peru is thought to have occurred through a research site around the 1950s, but the subsequent path to local farms is not documented.

What does it tend to taste like?

Floral aromatics with strawberry, raspberry, apricot, peach and tropical-fruit expressions across documented washed lots.

Plant characteristics

Reported by buyers as Gesha-like in appearance with observable differences; authoritative standardized plant-trait data is not yet publicly available.

Why producers grow it

Its low-volume plantings can produce distinctive floral, tropical-fruit and stone-fruit cups that specialty buyers value.

Sources & further reading

Editorial record last reviewed: . Sources document specific claims, not guarantees about every coffee sold under this variety name.

Coffees in our database

SL9 we've cataloged.

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