One Week of Coffee Blossoms

Coffee Blossoms in Our Esperanza Variety

There are few moments in a coffee plantation as magical as full bloom. This past week, we experienced our very first blanket of blossoms—a white wave of delicate, star-shaped flowers covering every branch. It’s often said that coffee flowers all look the same, but anyone who walks among them during a bloom knows better. Just like the beans they precede, these flowers whisper of what’s to come in the cup.

If you were here, the first thing you’d notice is the scent. A sweet, heady perfume hovers over the plantation. Some flowers smell like citrus blossom—bright and lemony. Others lean more toward orange peel, and a few have a soft, floral musk. Walk just a few meters, and you’ll notice subtle shifts in the air. That’s because each variety—Milénio, Esperanza, Obatá, Java—offers its own version of the bloom.

Visually, the blossoms are just as diverse. Some have petals tinged with yellow, like a faint watercolor wash. Others are a crisp, stark white. Together, they turn the plantation into a kind of cloud forest, one that only lasts a handful of days. From afar, it looks like snowfall has touched every branch. But unlike snow, these flowers are ephemeral. Fragile. A single touch can bruise them, so we keep our distance.

During bloom, the plantation becomes sacred. We avoid brushing against the trees or walking too close. The flowers are delicate, and any disturbance can affect pollination and, eventually, the development of the cherry. It’s a time of quiet admiration. We watch. We inhale. We photograph. But we don’t touch.

It’s poetic, really, how something so essential to the coffee’s journey begins with something so fleeting. The flower is the first promise of flavor. It’s easy to think of the final cup as shaped by processing, roasting, terroir—and yes, those all matter. But the coffee’s potential begins right here, in this bloom. The same variety that gives us honeyed, floral notes in the cup also produces a flower with that very essence in the air.

This week reminded us that growing coffee isn’t just about harvesting—it’s about witnessing transformation. The plantation in bloom is a once-a-year event, and if you’re lucky enough to catch it, you see coffee not just as a crop, but as a living, breathing expression of nature’s rhythm.

We’re grateful to have experienced our first full bloom. It’s a sign of the season to come. A glimpse of the flavors that will one day fill your cup. And until then, we hold onto the scent, the memory, and the white shimmer of flowers that looked, for just a moment, like snow in the tropics.