El Salvador Coffee | Las Camelias Estate | Geisha Coffee

El Salvador Las Camelias Geisha Green Tip Natural #5A

El Salvador HIU Series Las Camelias Estate Green Tip Geisha Natural Process 5A Batch.

Flavor Description

The dry aroma reveals floral notes, sweet orange, and lemon peel.

Upon entry, it showcases fresh blueberry, strawberry, jasmine, orange peel, and pomelo flavors.

The finish presents deep notes of candied orange peel chocolate.

The smooth and delicate texture is quite captivating.

Origin and Region

Among the various producing countries in Central America, El Salvador is notably the smallest in terms of land area.

Although its production volume is significantly lower than other countries, the Pacific sea breezes and volcanic environment give Salvadoran coffee farmers unique cultivation advantages and diverse flavor expressions.

Currently, the Pacamara variety, a consistent winner in numerous cupping competitions, originated in El Salvador.

Santa Ana Volcano Region

Among El Salvador's producing regions, the area with superior soil quality and cultivation altitude is located near Santa Ana Volcano, west of the capital, at an elevation of 2,381 meters.

Santa Ana Volcano, which remains active, last erupted in 2005.

Although the eruption caused significant economic losses for local coffee farmers and some casualties that year, the subsequent organic volcanic ash provided an extremely rich nutrient source for the local soil.

To this day, Santa Ana continues to be recognized as one of El Salvador's premier producing regions.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Geisha is the variety that this Salvadoran lot belongs to, and few names carry more weight in specialty coffee. It rose to fame after the Panama estate Esmeralda entered the Best of Panama competition in 2003 and stunned the judges with an average cupping score of 94.6, setting a BOP record and turning Geisha almost overnight into the most sought-after variety in the world. FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha lineup follows the same logic of provenance and quality.

Esmeralda splits its Geisha into red and green labels. The Red Label, officially Esmeralda Special, is grown at 1,600-1,800 m, and every lot must cup above 90 points; each lot carries its own number and comes from a single small plot, so buyers can choose by subtle flavor preference. The Green Label, formerly Private Collection, mixes batches from several plots and focuses on the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character at a more accessible price. From Ethiopia, FrontStreet also offers the Geisha Village lots: the Gold Label RARITIES is a Geisha 1931 making up 10% of the village's output and is the village's top coffee outside auction, while the Red Label GROWERS RESERVE is a Gori Gesha making up 15%, scoring 88 or above on the SCA 100-point scale and fully traceable to farm block, variety, and processing date.

For an easier entry, FrontStreet's Grana Geisha comes from a station established in 2014 at the border of Ethiopia's Kochere and Grana Abaya areas, with 700 hectares of mostly untamed, fertile, shade-covered land; hand-picked ripe cherries are dried on raised beds for 14-20 days depending on weather, and a medium-light roast brings out a bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger-flower aroma, and ripe fruit sweetness with a delicate, silky body. Geisha is a medium-light, fruit-and-floral variety with a hard texture that tends to clog the dripper, so FrontStreet suggests a grind passing about 78% through a China standard #20 sieve, roughly fine sugar, brewed with 15 g of coffee, a 1:16 ratio, and 91°C water in a small Hario V60, poured in three stages for a total extraction of about 2:10 to 2:20.