Where to Buy Geisha Coffee Beans in Guangzhou - Red Label Geisha Coffee Bean Roasting Recommendations

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style).

La Esmeralda Estate Red Label Geisha Coffee Beans

• Country: Panama
• Region: Boquete
• Estate: La Esmeralda Estate
• Altitude: 1700+ meters
• Processing Method: Traditional Natural Process
• Variety: Geisha
• Harvest Season: 2018

1. Region Introduction

La Esmeralda Estate & Boquete

What is Red Label Geisha [Auction Batch]?

• Grown at altitude above 1,600 meters
• Cupping score of 90 points or higher for high-quality Geisha
• Can only be purchased through annual global auction events

The renowned Geisha variety originated in the small mountain town of Boquete, located on the eastern foothills, at La Esmeralda Estate.

Boquete, with its beautiful mountains and waters, has long been a sanctuary for European and American elites seeking retirement and leisure. The town has a population of 20,000, including over 2,000 high-level expatriates. The coffee farm owners here speak fluent English and European languages, possess a global perspective, and have the highest proportion of PhDs or Master's degrees among all coffee-producing countries.

As early as 1904, during the construction of the Panama Canal, large numbers of European engineers and senior managers were employed to work in the hot eastern Panama City. After the Panama Canal was completed in 1917, these highly educated professionals, especially from Nordic countries, fell in love with Boquete, Panama. Here, the climate is cool and spring-like year-round. Many stayed here, bought farms, retired in this area, and enjoyed the picturesque environment of misty clouds and fragrant air.

The Discovery Story of Geisha Coffee Beans

In 1980, Price introduced Caturra and Catuai varieties and established a washed processing plant in 1994. In 1996, Price heard that a neighboring farm in Jaramillo had excellent coffee with strong citrus notes, so he purchased the Jaramillo coffee farm and incorporated it into La Esmeralda Estate. Initially, the Peterson family mixed coffee from both farms for sale, but always noticed a subtle orange fragrance and honey-like quality, completely different from the typical berry flavors of Central American coffee.

One day in 2002, Price's son Daniel had an inspiration, believing this flavor profile must come from a single variety in a specific growing area. Therefore, he cupped every variety from different altitude growing zones within the estate one by one.

The cupping results revealed that the captivating floral, honey, and citrus notes actually came from the windbreak forest on the edge of Jaramillo. This area had the highest altitude, approximately 1500-2000 meters, where the coffee trees were tall and sparse with unremarkable appearance. The vertical spacing between branches was larger than typical coffee trees, and the distance between each flowering and fruiting node on branches reached 7.26 centimeters. This indicated that flowering and fruiting areas on the same branch unit were not dense enough, making it a low-yield variety with low economic value. This might explain why the previous owner relegated it to the most remote and windy area, serving as a windbreak for other high-yield varieties with shorter, more compact nodes.

Their conclusion was: the unknown coffee trees in the windbreak forest possessed unique genetics and needed to be cultivated above 1500 meters altitude, tempered by cold moonlight, mountain air, and strong winds to develop their extraordinary flavor profile.

Typical coffee varieties cannot survive in the Jaramillo windbreak area due to strong winds and low temperatures, but these tall, sparse coffee trees thrived. Their coffee cherries were also plumper than typical varieties and less likely to be blown off by wind. Although production was scarce, the orange-honey fragrance was intoxicating. What variety was this?

After extensive inquiries, they learned this variety was called Geisha, introduced in 1963 by Don Pachi, an Italian-American working for the Ministry of Agriculture. However, because it was planted at 1200 meters altitude with low yield, small bean size, and poor flavor, it was abandoned.

Coffee Trees Under Shade

In 2004, Jeff, the green bean purchasing expert for Intelligentsia, served as a BOP judge. He recalled: Among twenty-five Panama premium coffee beans that reached the finals, one particularly puzzled the judges. It emitted citrus aromas, lime acidity, sugarcane sweetness, jasmine fragrance... permeating the room. When sipped, it was like a hundred flowers blooming, with fireworks-like brilliance in the mouth.

Even Ethiopian Yirgacheffe couldn't have such intense orange-honey notes. The champion bean was determined. The owner Price explained to everyone that this bean was the Geisha variety. From that moment, Geisha's fame skyrocketed.

Large-Scale Processing Equipment at La Esmeralda Estate

It can be said that the European retired engineers from a century ago were the pioneers of today's livestock and coffee cultivation industries in Boquete. The advanced washed processing plants and agricultural hardware facilities here were all masterpieces of those engineers.

2. La Esmeralda Estate

La Esmeralda Estate is located on a corner of Baru Volcano, so coffee beans from this region were often named after Baru Mountain before becoming famous. The area around Boquete has beautiful scenery with many leisure hotels, villas, and vacation estates, even built along the important Rio Caldera River. La Esmeralda Estate is located in Jaramillo on the right side of this river, later expanding to the higher altitude area of Canas Verdes on the left side of the river. We must thank Rudolph Peterson for his decision to purchase this property back then.

The Peterson Family

First Generation Estate Owner: Rudolph A. Peterson

In 1964, Swedish-American financier Rudolph A. Peterson retired, moved to Panama, and purchased La Esmeralda Estate in Boquete, focusing on dairy farming. Having previously served as President of Bank of America, he was a major figure in the financial world of his time. Rudolph bought Hacienda La Esmeralda primarily for vacation and later retirement use, likely not anticipating that this estate would become world-famous and even representative of Panama's premium coffee estates.

In 1973, his son Price Peterson earned a PhD in Neurochemistry in the United States but returned to Boquete to help his father manage the farm. After taking over, Price segmented the market into three major brands based on altitude, microclimate, cupping performance, and cultivated varieties (Esmeralda Special, Diamond Mountain grows, Palmyra). Since 2012, Geisha was added as the fourth brand.

La Esmeralda Estate includes 4 farms: Cañas Verdes, El Velo, Jaramillo, and Palmira. All coffee beans are sent to these 4 farms for post-processing. The first farm purchased by the Peterson family was Palmira.

Esmeralda Special is the estate's independent auction, exclusively featuring Geisha, organized by production area names, with each area further subdivided into small batches for auction. Only Geisha batches that the estate offers for independent auction can use the Esmeralda Special name. Since 2013, Esmeralda Special has had nine batches.

Geisha participated in auctions in 2004, and bidding wars had already pushed Geisha to astonishing prices. Looking back at the 2017 Panama Premium Coffee auction, a natural processed Geisha from La Esmeralda Estate reached an incredible price of $601 per pound, almost double the previous auction. This means the price per kilogram of green beans reached as high as 8,900 RMB.

This year, 2018, the champion of the Panama Coffee Competition was also Geisha produced by La Esmeralda Estate, with a bidding price of $340 per pound, won by HARU International Corp.

2018 Geisha Auction Groups:

• Yeast Processing (ES-Y): Four LOT batches total, nine boxes of beans
• Natural Processing (ES-N): Nine natural processed batches total, thirty-five boxes of beans
• Washed Processing (ES-W): Two traditional washed batches total, six boxes of beans

The champion bid price was $340 per pound, belonging to the yeast group Lot ES-Y-1.

Natural group highest: $109 per pound, ES-N-9-1.

Washed group highest: $105 per pound, ES-W-1-5.

Lot ES-Y-1 Details:

• Harvest Time: January 31, 2018
• Processing Method: Yeast fermentation for 48 hours, then washed, followed by 4 days of drying on raised beds
• Altitude: 1600 meters
• Region: Cañas Verdes, Palmira
• Estate: Cañas Verdes
• Variety: Green Tip Geisha

Geisha Varieties: Green Tip Geisha and Bronze Tip Geisha. Green Tip Geisha is characterized by floral aromas, intense acidity, and sweetness. In contrast, Bronze Tip Geisha emphasizes body and sweetness, with less pronounced acidity.

El Velo Farm

El Velo Farm was acquired by La Esmeralda Estate in 2012 and is the newest farm in the estate. El Velo Farm often processes micro-batch coffee beans, which are sold in small quantities through direct trade.

For example, Prueba 4 harvested coffee cherries from the Burton plot of El Velo Farm. This batch of coffee beans used titanium dioxide immersion processing. First, mature red coffee cherries are depulped, then the depulped coffee cherries are placed in a sealed container filled with titanium dioxide for 62 hours. After that, the coffee cherries are dried on a concrete patio for 32 hours (still with mucilage remaining, so it's honey processing), with patio temperature controlled between 17°C to 24°C. Prueba 4 belongs to a special innovative batch from La Esmeralda Estate's special reserve plots.

3. Processing Method Introduction

Natural processing is the oldest green bean processing method.

Step 1: Remove Floating Beans

The harvested coffee cherries are poured into large water tanks. Mature, full cherries will sink to the bottom; underdeveloped or overripe cherries will float to the surface. These floating beans must be removed.

Step 2: Natural Drying

Next, the entire coffee cherries with pulp, skin, and parchment are placed on drying patios for natural sun drying until the moisture content reaches about 12%. This takes about two to four weeks, depending on the local climate.

Step 3: Hulling

The naturally dried "fruit dry" is hulled using a hulling machine to remove the dry hard skin, pulp, and parchment layer, revealing the green beans.

Advantages of Natural Processing:

1. Simple process with low processing costs.
2. Green beans dry naturally within the fruit pulp, absorbing the fruit's essence, resulting in intense fruit aroma, noticeable sweetness, and excellent body.

4. Green Bean Analysis

Geisha coffee green beans possess a beautiful blue-green color with a jade-like warm texture. They smell of fresh grass, peach, berry notes, and a unique milk-sweet fragrance characteristic of oolong tea that most coffee beans lack. It seems aroma and flavor require association and imagination, but the faint tea quality is something we can clearly perceive.

5. Roasting Analysis

When you get a batch of Geisha, how should you roast it?

To fully reveal Geisha's character, careful attention must be paid to roasting. Geisha is generally grown at high altitudes above 1500 meters. We have beans from 1700 meters altitude with high density and hardness. Their shape is plump, medium-sized, thick and long, with pointed ends.

To highlight this bean's characteristics and aroma, light roasting is preferred. This roast level better showcases the bean's inherent qualities. Too dark a roast would damage the floral aromas and fruit acidity. Of course, this should also be adjusted according to the bean's characteristics and the roaster's understanding of the bean itself.

Personal experience: during the roasting process, note that the Geisha roasting curve should not be too long, otherwise the flavors will become dull. After first crack, the temperature rise should not be too high. Geisha beans have pointed ends that easily develop black scorch marks. A temperature rise below 6 degrees would be better. Light roasting better reveals the tea rose aroma.

Roasting Machine: Yangjia 600g Semi-Direct Flame

Preheat to 170°C, open damper to 3. After 30 seconds, adjust heat to 140°C, damper unchanged. Return to temperature at 1'25", adjust heat once at 140°C. At this point, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, dehydration complete. Adjust heat to 100°C, damper to 4.

At 7'40", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 8'12", reduce heat to 80°C, damper to 4 (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that cracking stops). Develop for 1'30" after first crack, discharge at 189°C.

Cupping results: refined, gentle acidity on entry, with sweetness quickly appearing on the palate and lasting long. The mouthfeel is clean and bright, like black tea. Aromas of roses, honeysuckle, sweet potato, grapefruit, lemon, black tea, and cane sugar, with clear layers and long aftertaste.

6. Brewing Recommendations

Recommended Brewing Method: Pour-over

Grind Size: 3.5 (Fuji R440 Japan)

Water Temperature: 91-92°C

Cake filter, 15g coffee, water temperature 91°C, grind 3.5, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15.

35g water for bloom, bloom time 30s.

分段：注水到100ml 断水，缓慢注水到225ml。

That is: 30-100-95.

So everyone thinks Geisha is expensive...

This year's Red Label Geisha is relatively normal. In 2018, La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha auction price was $340 per pound, with other auction Geishas between $80-100 per pound. Looking back, the annual 2018 Red Label Geisha auction results are out! First place was $340 per pound! Geisha production is extremely low, which is just an excuse for being expensive. What truly captivates people is Geisha's unique and alluring coffee flavor, which is the most important reason for its exceptionally high price. At FrontStreet Coffee in Guangzhou, this year we obtained 3kg of Red Label Natural Geisha and yeast-processed Red Label Geisha. A cup of Red Label Natural Geisha costs 75 yuan/cup, which is considered quite accessible, though quantities are limited, haha.

Geisha Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

The Panama La Esmeralda Estate Red Label Geisha coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee have full guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they offer excellent value for money. One 100-gram bag costs only 350 yuan. Calculating at 15g per cup, one bag can make 6 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 60 yuan. Compared to café prices that often exceed 100 yuan per cup, this is truly a conscientious recommendation.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473