How to Pour Over Geisha Coffee? Flavor Profile and Origins of Geisha Coffee

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

The Legendary Geisha Coffee

If you're a coffee enthusiast, you're surely no stranger to Geisha coffee.

If you're just stepping into the world of specialty coffee, it's time to understand this legendary coffee variety.

Named Geisha coffee, does it come from Japan? In fact, this coffee has absolutely nothing to do with Japanese geisha culture. It's simply because the original name of this coffee variety sounded similar to "geisha," so it was translated as Geisha coffee. In China, it's known as Guisha coffee.

Geisha coffee was originally a wild coffee variety growing in southwestern Ethiopia. In 1963, it was brought to coffee estates in the Boquete region of Panama. Due to poor yields and tall trees, it was planted as a windbreak next to the coffee estates.

2004 was the year that changed Geisha coffee's destiny.

That year, the son of a coffee estate owner, preparing for the national coffee competition, searched through the estate's coffee trees for testing and unexpectedly discovered Geisha coffee.

In the competition, Geisha won first place with its strong, complex flavors, making a stunning debut. One judge described it as "God's Cup," and it went on to win first place for four consecutive years.

In auction houses, Geisha coffee has also broken many high-price records.

Compared to typical Panamanian coffee flavors, Geisha coffee's distinctive characteristics leave a deep impression. It's filled with jasmine-like aromas, with fruity acidity and sweetness of orange, lemon, and honey, with a clean and light mouthfeel.

Slightly acidic but not bitter, full of floral and fruit aromas—no wonder some describe it as "coffee that doesn't taste like coffee."

Geisha coffee is of the Typica variety, originating from Geisha Mountain in Ethiopia. It was introduced from Costa Rica to Panama in 1963, but due to low productivity, no farmers were willing to grow it. Until two years ago, Daniel Peterson unexpectedly discovered this coffee on his farm. Panama is the only country that produces Geisha coffee. Currently, the two estates producing Geisha are Esmeralda Special and Don Pachi, but Geisha production is extremely scarce.

After completing a four-peat at B.O.P, the Esmeralda estate has been hosting its own single-estate global online auction since 2008—the "King of Geisha" Red Label auction, which attracts specialty coffee buyers from around the world. This July, the Esmeralda estate set a new record high price of $601 per pound at the auction. Over 13 years, the auction price of Esmeralda's Geisha coffee has increased more than 20-fold.

FrontStreet Coffee suggests roasting Geisha coffee to around the first crack, which preserves its floral and fruit aromas as well as its pleasant citrus acidity, creating rich layering.

Cupping Characteristics

Extremely lush and delicate sweet floral aromas, especially jasmine and coffee flowers, with distinct lemon-lime citrus acidity. Rich fruit and light candy flavors. Soft, rich, delicate, and light chocolate notes. A coffee with obvious pedigree and very approachable character.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a cake cup to enhance the richness of Geisha coffee's mouthfeel. The entry brings citrus acidity with rose tea-like aromas.

FrontStreet Coffee: A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online shop services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473