Regional Geisha Reviews|Gesha Village Geisha Coffee Bean Flavor Profile Introduction_Gesha Village Coffee Price Report

African-Style Raised-Bed Natural Geisha Village Coffee

If you were at the coffee exhibition in November 2016 and didn't miss Willem Boot's brilliant lecture, you must still remember his winding dream of becoming a coffee farmer and his journey to trace the roots of Geisha coffee. You have probably been eagerly awaiting the arrival of these beans ever since.

The estate owner, Adam Overton, is a genuine American and a documentary director by profession. His wife, Rachel Samuel, is Ethiopian and a photographer. In 2007 the couple was commissioned to travel to Ethiopia to shoot a documentary about coffee. As filming progressed, they came into deeper and deeper contact with the land and its people, and the dream of establishing their own estate began to take root.

Everything changed after they met Willem Boot. Even the choice of estate location, variety, and processing methods are closely tied to him. To this day, Willem Boot still leads groups to visit every year and stays at the estate to oversee coffee post-processing.

2016 was only the second harvest season for Geisha Village Estate.

That year, we selected a total of four batches of Geisha Village coffee:

❖ Gori Gesha Forest Green Tip Washed HQ/G1-10

Green Tip Gori Gesha Forest Wild Variety [Washed Process, Batch 10]

This batch uses the wild Geisha variety from the green tips of Gori Gesha Forest. It is also the variety Willem Boot ventured deep into southwestern Ethiopia to find, multiple times, in search of the roots of Geisha — he believes it is the closest original variety to the Panamanian Geisha everyone knows today. Willem Boot commissioned Dr. Sarada Krishnan of the Denver Botanic Gardens to carry out genetic comparisons of the two varieties, concluding that they share extremely high genetic similarity and a strong correlation.

Last month (December 2016 — in fact, just a few days ago), the Gori Geisha Forest wild variety washed process received 95 points from Coffee Review.

❖ Gori Gesha Forest Green Tip Maceration Washed Willem Boot WM1

Green Tip Gori Gesha Forest Wild Variety [Willem Boot Special Washed Batch]

This batch also uses the wild Geisha variety from the green tips of Gori Gesha Forest, but the processing is slightly different. It is an extremely limited lot made with the modified washed method Willem Boot uses at his own Panama La Mula estate: maceration washed.

Unlike traditional washed processing, the harvested cherries are not depulped immediately but rest overnight first. Maceration washed is inspired by red wine processing and could be understood as skin-fermentation processing.

This is an experimental batch that Willem Boot personally processed at Geisha Village Estate in early 2016, and it is the first batch, produced in a very limited quantity. Compared with the washed prices at La Mula estate, it is remarkably affordable.

❖ Gori Gesha Forest Green Tip Natural NHQ G1-8

Green Tip Gori Gesha Forest Wild Variety [Natural Process, Lot 8]

This batch again uses the wild Geisha variety from the green tips of Gori Gesha Forest, but is processed by the natural method. Slightly different from the traditional Ethiopian natural process, and under Willem Boot's professional guidance, Geisha Village Estate's natural process follows Panamanian natural techniques — all the materials for the African-style raised beds were imported from Panama.

❖ Ethiopia Geisha Village Coffee Estate Late Harvest Geisha 1931 Natural NHQ

Late Harvest Geisha [1931 Variety, Natural Process, Batch 912]

The origin of every legend: the famous 1931 Geisha variety. Also planted at Geisha Village Estate, it ripens more than a month later than other Geisha varieties. With complex, shifting flavors, it is a magical bean that is hard to describe.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Tracing a Gesha back to its birthplace usually means starting at Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda, the estate that turned the variety into a legend. FrontStreet carries its two Gesha tiers: the Red Label, officially "Esmeralda Special," grown at 1,600-1,800 meters, where every lot must cup above 90 points, carries its own number, and comes from a single small plot — so buyers can pick a lot by the nuances they prefer — and the Green Label, "Private Collection," which blends several plots to express the estate's signature high-altitude Gesha profile at a friendlier price and, as a result, excellent value.

For a first taste of the famous Gesha character, FrontStreet usually points newcomers to the Panama Boquete Gesha, an entry-level Gesha that delivers the classic Panama orange-blossom honey sweetness, an oolong-tea body, and fine fruit acidity with clear layers. From Ethiopia, the birthplace of the variety, FrontStreet's Geisha Village Gold Label is the 1931 Gesha variety — about 10% of the village's total output, its top non-auction coffee and a frequent pick for competition baristas — while the Red Label is the Gori Gesha variety, roughly 15% of production, scoring 88 or above on the SCA 100-point scale as a single-terroir series with full traceability.

If you want the Gesha experience at an everyday price, FrontStreet Strawberry Candy is the go-to: a blend of a Costa Rica honey-process coffee and a Panama Gesha that keeps the delicate florals and sweet fruit but works equally well for pour-over, a moka pot, an espresso machine, or a cold brew. Gesha likes a medium-light roast; FrontStreet suggests grinding to about the size of fine sugar (78% pass-through on a China Standard #20 sieve) and brewing at 91°C, and for pour-over a 15g dose in a small Hario V60 at a 1:16 ratio, poured in three stages: 30g for a 30-second bloom, then to 125g, then to 225g, finishing in roughly 2 minutes 10 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds.