Panama Dwarf Geisha Pour Over: How Much Coffee and Water for Duncan Estate Dwarf Geisha Brewing Guide

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Kotowa Geisha Dwarf Natural

Kotowa Estate Geisha Dwarf Natural Process Coffee

• Origin: Panama
• Estate: Finca Kotowa Duncan
• Variety: Geisha Dwarf S15
• Altitude: 1800m
• Green Bean Processing: Natural

Kotowa Duncan Estate Story Information

Kotowa

Kotowa comes from the local indigenous Ngäbe language, meaning "mountain." The coffee beans of Kotowa Estate are grown in the beautiful mountainous area of Boquete, Panama, and produced by local people using traditional methods.

Kotowa Estate is located in the Boquete growing region of Panama, at an altitude of 1700-1850 meters. The estate has a strong social and environmental consciousness. To ensure a clean, safe, and sustainable environment, the estate cultivates and processes coffee using traditional concepts with the latest technology. Therefore, they have specially preserved 500 hectares of primary forest as a wildlife sanctuary. The estate mainly has four cultivation areas: Finca Kotowa DUNCAN, Finca Kotowa DON K, Finca Kotowa RÍO CRISTAL, and Finca Kotowa TRADICIONAL. In recent years, they have added another cultivation area, Finca Kotowa LAS BRUJAS, which has performed exceptionally well in the Best of Panama competition in recent years. During the harvest season, Kotowa Estate selects fully ripe coffee cherries and processes them using local clear, cool mountain spring water. Under environmental protection concepts, they use only half a liter of water per pound of coffee, saving approximately 10 to 20 liters compared to other processing plants. The processed pulp and wastewater are then reused as organic fertilizer. Finally, the coffee is slowly and naturally dried in the cool, dry climate at 1700 meters.

Coffee Bean Variety Introduction

Geisha coffee beans, also known as "Guisha" coffee or "Geisha beans," are all the same variety of coffee bean. The name comes from Geisha Mountain in Ethiopia, pronounced similarly to the famous Japanese Geisha, hence the name.

Geisha coffee beans have an extraordinary legend... This variety originally comes from southwestern Ethiopia. In 1963, Don Pachi Serracin introduced Geisha coffee trees from Costa Rica to Panama. Due to low yields, which directly affected harvest volume, coffee farmers had little interest in planting them. It wasn't until Daniel Peterson, the owner of Panama La Esmeralda estate, accidentally discovered that the coffee beans produced by these Geisha coffee trees—originally used as windbreaks at the highest point of his coffee estate—had the characteristic citrus and floral aromas of African beans. After separating these coffee beans and entering them in the 2004 Panama Cupping Competition, they became an overnight success. Since then, Geisha beans have been unstoppable, winning the Panama Cupping Competition for many consecutive years. In the eyes of specialty coffee enthusiasts worldwide today, Geisha coffee beans are undoubtedly supreme treasures.

Processing Method Introduction:

Natural Process

The natural process is the oldest and most original processing method for coffee beans. The processing method involves first pouring harvested coffee cherries into large water tanks, where mature and full cherries sink to the bottom, while underdeveloped or overripe cherries float to the surface. After removing these floating beans, healthy coffee cherries are placed on patios for direct sun drying, reducing moisture content from 60% to 12-15%. Finally, a hulling machine removes the hard outer skin and pulp, and the green beans complete the entire processing process.

(↑ Selecting coffee cherries) (↑ Outdoor sun drying)

The natural processing method can enhance berry and tropical fruit flavors, with mild fruit acidity. However, traditional natural processing sometimes produces negative flavors, such as earthy or over-fermented tastes.

Today, the natural processing method is becoming popular again, even becoming one of the important processing methods for competition-grade coffee beans. This change comes from the use of improved African raised beds. In addition to avoiding ground moisture, animal feces, and earthy flavors, the raised beds also allow fruits to be in a good air convection environment, making drying more uniform. Farmers regularly turn the beans, allowing them to gently absorb the sweetness of the pulp, making the flavor increasingly rich.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Suggestions/Analysis

Geisha, as the most outstanding variety among many coffee varieties, is very popular among coffee lovers. Among them, washed processed Geisha best highlights the flavor characteristics of Geisha itself. The special feature of Geisha lies in its very obvious and clear floral and citrus flavors, extremely high clarity, soft and elegant acidity, persistent cotton-like sweetness, and the mouthfeel of premium black tea.

To fully reveal these characteristics, one must put effort into roasting. Geisha is generally grown at high altitudes above 1500 meters, making it high-hardness, high-density beans. Its form is full, medium-sized, with thick and long bodies, tapering at both ends.

So how to express the unique flavor of Geisha through roasting?

The roasting approach is that due to the bean's high hardness and high density, high heat will be used in the early stage for dehydration, quickly establishing a temperature difference between the bean surface and core. For more floral aroma, the Maillard reaction time needs to be relatively short, so after yellowing, the heat will be adjusted to medium-high, allowing the beans to enter first crack more quickly. Shortening the time from yellowing to the start of first crack can also increase clarity. After first crack, too rapid temperature rise will intensify caramelization, masking the floral and fruit aromas. Therefore, when approaching first crack, the heat will be significantly reduced to lower the temperature rise, and the airflow will be fully opened at the start of first crack. The beans are dropped when the first crack becomes dense, allowing the bean core to develop while retaining maximum aroma and sugar content.

Cupping Flavor Description:

Flavor:

Floral notes, pineapple, oranges, and other tropical fruits, sweet peach, nutty cocoa sweetness, honey and lychee sweetness, rich sweet taste, full aroma. When the temperature drops to 60 degrees Celsius, the aroma of magnolia and bitter almonds gradually becomes prominent, with noticeable improvement in sweetness and viscosity. The overall aftertaste is very pleasant.

Brewing Analysis

Today, FrontStreet Coffee introduces commonly used methods for pour-over Geisha coffee: Three-stage method.

Three-Stage Pouring Method

• Segmented extraction, dividing one portion of water into three stages
• Suitable for light roast, medium-light roast, and medium roast coffee beans
• Uses Kalita wave filter
• Increase bloom time or number of pour interruptions to enhance coffee richness

Three-Stage Pouring Segmented Extraction Method

Advantages: More layered than single-pour, can clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. The method involves increasing the amount of water poured each time after the bloom, usually pouring when the coffee liquid is about to drop to the powder layer surface, using small, medium, and large water flows for three-stage extraction.

Disadvantages: Has relatively high requirements for water flow rate and volume.

FrontStreet Coffee's [Geisha Coffee Pour-over Parameter Suggestions]

The wave filter uses immersion extraction, increasing the contact surface area between coffee grounds and water. Compared to V60 brewing, it can enhance texture, making it more viscous;

• 15g of coffee, water temperature 91-92°C, grind BG 5R (Chinese standard 20 mesh sieve pass rate 64%), water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15-16

Technique: 27g of water for bloom, bloom time 30s. The hot water in the pour-over kettle is poured clockwise in circles centered on the middle of the filter. Start timing when brewing begins, pour water to 27g, then stop pouring, wait 30 seconds for the first pour.

For the first pour, circle as before, but slightly slow down the speed. When reaching the outer circle, speed up slightly. Stop pouring at around 1:15 seconds. When the liquid level drops by 1/3, pour again. For the second pour, concentrate on pouring in the center, avoiding the area where coffee grounds meet the filter paper to prevent channeling effects. End extraction at around 2:05 seconds. The tail end can be discarded (the longer the time, the more astringency and rough texture will increase).

Segments:

30-125-230g

END

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