Banchi Maji | Gesha Village | 2018 Geisha | Honey Process | Ethiopian Gesha

Grower's Reserve: Gesha Village Honey Gesha Lot 18/032

✧Red Label Batch✧ Ethiopia - Gesha Village Lot 32 - Gesha Variety - Honey Process

Cupping Notes:

When ground, it reveals lemon peel, apricot, bergamot, and jasmine floral aromas.

The first sip brings lemon peel, sweet orange, and fresh blueberry,

followed by emerging notes of peach, apricot, white grape, and rich florals of gardenia, orange blossom, and jasmine,

with hints of vanilla, finishing with black tea and honey.

Smooth mouthfeel, with a sweet and elegant Geisha flavor profile.

Coffee Information:

Country: Ethiopia

Region: SNNPR Region

Bench Maji Zone

Gori Gesha Forest

Estate: Gesha Village Coffee Estate

Estate Owners: Adam Overton & Rachel Samuel

Altitude: 1,900 - 2,100 meters

Annual Rainfall: Approximately 1,500 - 2,000 mm

Processing Method: Honey Process

The Story Behind Gesha Village

If you did not miss Willem Boot's excellent lecture at the coffee exhibition in November 2016,

you must have been deeply impressed by his winding journey of coffee-farming dreams and his Geisha root-seeking expedition,

and have eagerly awaited the arrival of this coffee bean.

Estate owner Adam Overton is a genuine American and a documentary filmmaker by profession,

while his wife Rachel Samuel is Ethiopian and a photographer.

In 2007, the couple was commissioned to Ethiopia to shoot a documentary about coffee.

As the filming progressed,

and as they came into deeper contact with Ethiopia's land and people,

the dream of establishing their own estate began to sprout.

Everything made a breakthrough after they met Willem Boot —

even the estate location, variety selection, and processing methods

have much to do with Willem Boot.

To this day, Willem Boot still leads groups to visit every year

and stays at the estate to handle coffee post-processing.

2016 was only Gesha Village Estate's second harvesting season.

This batch uses the same wild Geisha variety from the green canopy of the Gori Gesha Forest,

processed using the natural method.

Slightly different from traditional Ethiopian natural processing,

and under Willem Boot's professional advice,

Gesha Village Estate's natural processing method

adopts Panamanian natural processing techniques,

with all materials for the raised African beds imported from Panama.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Gesha Village, in Ethiopia, is where coffee's birthplace keeps its own version of the Geisha story, and it applies a grading system as strict as Panama's. At the village, three Geisha varieties are grown — Gori Gesha, Gesha 1931, and Illubabor Forest — and the lots are sorted into the Gold Label RARITIES, Red Label GROWERS RESERVE, Green Label SINGLE-TERROIR, and CHAKA batches, with the varieties also distinguished from one another.

The FrontStreet Gesha Village Gold Label belongs to the Gesha 1931 variety, makes up 10% of the village's total production, and is the finest coffee it produces outside of auction — often chosen by competition baristas. Our Gold Label lot is delicately natural-processed, and it delivers complex, layered flavors: from the distinctive dry aroma through the sip, mouthfeel, and finish, it leaves a lasting impression on the palate.

The FrontStreet Gesha Village Red Label is the Gori Gesha variety, accounts for 15% of production, and scores 88 or above on the SCA 100-point scale. It is a single-terroir series from the estate, so every lot carries full traceability — farm block name, coffee variety, and processing date. If you want an approachable taste of the same wild forest genetics, our entry-level FrontStreet Gelana Gesha comes from a processing station at the border of Ethiopia's Kochere and Gelana Abaya regions, established in 2014 and run by Israel Degefa, in an area of coffee plantings covering as much as 700 hectares. Grown in the fertile soil and heavy shade of primary rainforest, this Ethiopian native Gesha shows remarkable variety, with hand-picked fully ripe cherries dried on raised beds for 14-20 days depending on the weather. Medium-light roasted, it pours as bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger-lily florals, ripe-fruit sweetness, and a fine, silky texture with the refined finish that defines the Gesha variety.