Soft mists blanket the lush, densely forested highlands of Panama’s Chiriqui province. Scenic views and rare species pepper the landscape, springing forth from the region’s rich volcanic soil and flourishing in the eternal spring of its tropical clime.
From that verdant terroir emerges a treasured varietal: Green Tip Geisha, a coffee cherished for its unique genetic fingerprint and lingering, almost melancholic, sweetness. Geisha has found admirers around the globe, though none as passionate as David Disuanco of Archers, whose journey with the varietal has led him, like Geisha itself, to the highest peaks of coffee craftsmanship.
David Disuanco is cupping coffee
Across nearly a decade of brewing experience, seasoned barista and marketer by trade David Disuanco (@pddisuanco) has sought the perfect cup: clean, with high clarity of flavor. In Green Tip Geisha, he believes he has found it—and the judges of the 2022 World Brewing Cup may be inclined to agree.
But Disuanco’s top-ten performance and the varietal that earned him the spot find their roots in a years-ago experience—one that took him from corporate to coffee and from his native Philippines to the heart of the UAE and, later, the highest reaches of Panama:
“After a simple cupping session, everything changed for me. I went from being a guy working in the corporate world to being in the amazing industry we call coffee.”
As Disuanco began to follow his newfound passion, it eventually led him to Dubai, where, just one year after its inception, Archers (@archers.ae) welcomed him to the team. As its head of marketing, Disuanco faced the responsibility of harnessing the young company’s potential, tasked with generating the kinetic energy that would launch Archers to the fore of Dubai’s growing specialty coffee scene.
Though later joined by fellow marketer Patricia Perello (@patriciaperello), Disuanco’s early efforts were pivotal in shaping Archers’ trajectory and helped establish the company as Dubai’s premier source of high-quality, sustainably sourced coffee.
It was shortly after joining Archers that Disuanco’s search for the perfect cup came to an end, discovering it in the work of Jamison Savage. Head of Savage Coffee (@savagecoffees) and an Archers partner producer, Savage’s work in Panama’s highlands has helped bring Green Tip Geisha to an enthusiastic global consumer base—and into Disuanco’s eager hands.
The varietal’s unique geographic context informs its distinct flavor profile: Pollinators flit back and forth between coffee and mango trees; young flowers blossom alongside each other, growing into ripe cherries and plump fruit.
Within each coffee cherry hums a chorus of tropical flavors that will mature and ferment into a harmonious, vibrant brew that beckons enjoyers to the fruit-laden mountains of its origins. It is this quality—the farm and its rich environs—that first drew Disuanco to Geisha, seeing it as a key aspect any excellent coffee must possess:
“Producing clean coffee with high clarity of flavor boils down to three factors: the farm, the roast, and the brew. It’s only through a collaborative effort between all three that we’re able to produce such quality.”
David Disuanco
With the farm secured, Disuanco and Archers had only to hone their ability to roast and brew the varietal to perfection, a project that culminated with Savage Coffee’s 2022 crop of Geisha—specifically, the Nirvana lot—which launched their partnership to new heights.
But the story began a year earlier, when Disuanco emerged as the champion of the 2021 UAE Brewers Cup and earned the honor of representing Archers and the UAE on the global scene. As he approached this new challenge and the 2022 World Brewers Cup drew ever closer, Disuanco knew only one coffee could accompany him along this journey: Nirvana.
With Nirvana, Disuanco served up revelation in a cup and earned the UAE seventh place, a coveted top-ten spot no other Emirati competitor had ever achieved. His Open Service, rooted in the three central tenets of quality coffee, spoke to the technical expertise of his hard-earned craftsmanship but also paid homage to the global community that is so central to the world of coffee.
From farm to producer and from roaster to brewer, every cup carries the weight of a history and international community that spans the globe. Whether that cup is placed before a World Brewing Cup judge or into the hands of a coffee novice, serving this vast community of coffee enjoyers is what keeps Disuanco in the industry.
“The whole community—the people you meet along the way, the producers you encounter, the life-changing stories you listen to every day at the cafe and in the roastery—I would have never joined this industry if it weren’t for that. I don’t think there’s another industry like it, and that’s what has made me stay all this time.”
Perhaps the coffee industry was not where Disuanco set out to land when he began building a marketing career. But now, many years and many more cups of coffee later, he wouldn’t change it for the world. Through coffee, he has become a part of something greater, finding in himself and in his work at Archers the vital pieces of the equation—of farmer, roaster, and brewer—that he sought for so long to solve.
And, after years of searching and experimenting, Disuanco has discovered the recipe for both professional satisfaction and coffee perfection—and it all starts with 17 grams of Green Tip Geisha, ground medium-fine and brewed for two minutes and fifteen seconds.
