What is Geisha Coffee Bean? Are Geisha and Yirgacheffe the Same Coffee Variety?

We know that Gesha coffee is delicious and famous, but do you know how the name "Gesha coffee" came about? Coffee naming comes in many forms - some are named after their producing country or region, others after estates, but Gesha coffee is actually named after a coffee variety. Gesha coffee refers to a coffee variety, called Geisha/Gesha in English. Coincidentally, it shares the same name as "Geisha" in Japanese, so some people refer to the Gesha variety as Geisha. In China, people translated "Geisha" phonetically into "瑰夏" (Guìxià), which beautifully embodies the principles of faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance in translation.

Gesha can be found everywhere - for example: Panama, Ethiopia, Colombia, Costa Rica, and even Yunnan, China all have Gesha coffee. Are all these coffees the same variety? Or are there differences? Gesha coffee originated in Ethiopia and became famous at Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda estate. So what's the difference between Gesha coffee and Ethiopia's Yirgacheffe coffee?

The Discovery of Gesha

The Gesha coffee variety (Geisha) was discovered in 1931 from the Gesha forest in Ethiopia and then sent to a coffee research institute in Kenya. In 1936, it was introduced to Uganda and Tanzania. Costa Rica introduced it in 1953, and Panama in the 1970s when Mr. Francisco Serracin from the Pichilla farm received seeds from CATIE in Costa Rica and began growing Gesha coffee. Actually, at that time, Daniel continuously cupped different harvest batches, noting the flavor of each batch, only to discover that one particular batch had a unique flavor. The only way to find the difference was to compare batch by batch.

After identifying the batch, he then traced back to find the harvest date and harvest area of that batch in the estate, comprehensively reviewed the batch data again, and finally determined the exact harvest location of the batch and traced the specific location. After confirming the location, he began to observe the appearance of coffee trees, leaves, and fruits one by one, which led to the discovery of Gesha. Contrary to external rumors, simply put, it took many times more effort and persistence than others for this legendary variety to emerge.

From an obscure plant to world-renowned fame, Gesha coffee has been introduced and cultivated by various estates in multiple coffee-producing countries, and this journey has certainly not been easy. Ethiopia is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa and one of the most populous countries in the world. Ethiopia is revered as the birthplace of Arabica coffee and possesses rich native varieties and extensive genetic sequences, many of which cannot be found in other countries. Most Ethiopian coffee is grown by small farmers in their small estates or in wild, semi-wild environments, with nearly 15 million people nationwide involved in the industry of growing and processing coffee beans. As the birthplace of Arabica coffee varieties, the history of consuming coffee dates back to the 10th century. The first African nomadic tribes to consume coffee fruits (coffee cherries) mixed coffee beans, oils, and spices to create foods that provided refreshment and physical energy.

Ethiopian Yirgacheffe

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee region is a premium coffee producing region in Ethiopia and also a famous coffee region. Yirgacheffe is located in Ethiopia on the African continent. Yirgacheffe is a small town within Gedeo. In "Yirgacheffe," "Yirga" means "settle down," and "cheffe" refers to wetlands, so Yirgacheffe means "settle down in this wetland." The altitude of Yirgacheffe is quite high, reaching 1700-2200 meters, with low average temperatures, leading to longer growth and maturation times for coffee. Therefore, it absorbs more aromatic substances, and the flavor of coffee fruits becomes more intense.

The Yirgacheffe region is mainly dominated by small-scale farming. Farmers plant coffee trees in their backyards. Since coffee cannot provide year-round income, they grow it mixed with other crops, which can also provide some shade for the coffee trees. During the harvest season, farmers sell mature coffee cherries in bags to cooperatives for processing, and later sell green coffee beans under the name of the cooperative. This is why we often see coffee beans named after cooperatives. The Yirgacheffe region currently has a total of 28 member cooperatives, many of which are already familiar to us, such as Gedeb Cooperative, Worka Cooperative, and Konga Cooperative. Here, we must mention the washed processing technique of Yirgacheffe cooperatives. FrontStreet Coffee believes that a large part of Yirgacheffe's flavor is attributed to washed processing.

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe region coffee beans initially used the most traditional natural processing method, and later introduced the washed processing method. FrontStreet Coffee's Red Cherry uses natural processing with mature coffee fruits. This naturally processed Yirgacheffe coffee from FrontStreet Coffee has slightly larger beans, and coffee from this processing plant is considered a high-quality representative of Yirgacheffe, always showing classic floral and lemon flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee has acquired over a dozen varieties of Ethiopian coffee because different coffee regions in Ethiopia have different flavors. To allow coffee enthusiasts to taste more coffee flavors from the birthplace of coffee, FrontStreet Coffee has acquired coffee beans from many different regions.

Differences Between Gesha and Yirgacheffe

Although Gesha coffee originated from Ethiopia, what's the difference between it and Yirgacheffe coffee?

First, Different Varieties

Gesha coffee is a coffee of the Gesha variety. The Gesha variety was discovered in the Gesha forest of Ethiopia in 1931 and later sent to a coffee research institute in Kenya. During this period, the Gesha variety was also introduced to Uganda and Tanzania. In 1953, Costa Rica also introduced Gesha. It wasn't until the 1970s that Gesha seeds took root in Panama. It can be said that the Gesha coffee we drink today is quite precious.

Yirgacheffe belongs to Ethiopian local native varieties, also called Heirloom native varieties. Generally, you can see that the size and shape of the beans are not uniform, possibly because they contain multiple varieties that haven't been separately identified. This is because Ethiopia, as a treasure trove of coffee bean genetics, has too many varieties, making classification difficult. Additionally, the local government chose not to disclose this variety information for protection, so they are collectively referred to as native varieties.

Additionally, Gesha coffee has different flavors in Ethiopia compared to Panama, mainly influenced by growing environment and climate. Although Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee and very suitable for coffee growth, the Gesha variety has extremely picky requirements for its growing environment - it needs shade trees and high altitude, fertile soil from volcanoes, forest cultivation, proper rainfall and sunshine, and meticulous manual management...可以说缺一不可. It's precisely because Panama's environment and farm owners possess all the above conditions that they were able to cultivate the now internationally renowned Gesha flavor.

Panama

Panama is located in Central America, surrounded by quality coffee-producing countries - Costa Rica on the left and Colombia on the right. The local mountains run horizontally from east to west. Cold air flows through the central mountains and converges at altitudes above 6,500 feet, creating unique microclimates in the Boquete and Candela regions. The temperature here is comfortable with abundant rainfall, very suitable for various plant growth.

Gesha coffee trees need to grow in environments with clouds or plant shade and cannot be directly exposed to strong sunlight. The mountains in the Boquete region are often covered by clouds and fog, humid during the day and cool at night, plus the fertile soil brought by the Baru volcano - these are all favorable conditions for growing high-quality coffee like Gesha. The higher the planting altitude, the longer the maturation time of Gesha coffee fruits, the more nutrients absorbed, and the richer and more unique the flavor expression. High-altitude Gesha has intense floral aromas, full juice-like texture, bright acidity, smooth mouthfeel, and rich flavor layers, far superior to batches grown at lower altitudes.

Hacienda La Esmeralda

Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda is both the discoverer and promoter of the Gesha coffee variety.

Hacienda La Esmeralda has the highest recognition, and its coffee mainly comes from three farms: El Velo, Canas Verdes, and Jaramillo. For precise management of coffee cultivation, Hacienda La Esmeralda separately cups coffee beans from different areas of the estate, determining planting plots based on altitude, which resulted in the Gesha grades we know today - Esmeralda Red Label, Esmeralda Green Label, etc.

Elida Estate

Elida Estate has a hundred-year history of coffee cultivation, founded in 1918 by the Lamastus family, and the estate ownership has now passed to the fourth generation. More than half of Elida's planting area is located within the Baru Volcano National Park, the highest in Central America. The microclimate brought by the volcano and high-altitude growing environment allow plants to grow excellently. Besides coffee, many rare high-altitude fruit varieties are also grown here.

FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Gesha coffee is also one of FrontStreet Coffee's daily coffee beans and a representative coffee from the Panama coffee region.

Coffee Bean Processing Methods

FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans initially used the most traditional natural processing method, later introducing the washed processing method. The most famous are FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Cherry coffee and FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yirgacheffe coffee. As for Gesha coffee, there are both natural and washed varieties, such as: FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Green Label Gesha from Esmeralda Estate, FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Label Gesha, FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Boquete Gesha, and FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Elida coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters:

Since FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe coffee beans and FrontStreet Coffee's Gesha coffee beans are both lightly roasted, they require high-temperature water at 91°C during brewing to extract the floral and fruit flavors from the coffee. FrontStreet Coffee recommends a medium-fine grind size (80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve). If too coarse, it cannot extract the full-bodied substances, and the brewed coffee will taste thin. If too fine, it's prone to over-extraction at high water temperatures, and the brewed coffee can easily become bitter.

The specific brewing parameters used by FrontStreet Coffee are: V60 dripper, water temperature 91°C, water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, coffee amount 15g, medium-fine grind (80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee's (FrontStreet Coffee) segmented extraction technique: First, use 30g of water to fully moisten the coffee grounds into a "hamburger" shape and let it bloom for 30s; For the second pour, at 1'00" on the timer, inject water to 125g, then wait for the water level to drop to 2/3 of the coffee bed before the third pour; For the third pour, at 1'40" on the timer, inject water to 225g, and wait for all coffee liquid to finish dripping. The total extraction time is 1'59". The total brewing time is 2'00". After coffee extraction is complete, gently shake to ensure the coffee liquid is fully uniform before tasting.

FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Yirgacheffe Gedeb coffee flavor: Lemon, floral notes, orange, cane sugar, overall clean and refreshing, with honey flavors in the aftertaste and oolong tea finish.

FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Red Cherry coffee flavor characteristics: Lemon, licorice, citrus, berries, sweet orange, overall high sweetness, with caramel and cream flavors in the aftertaste, and black tea aroma in the finish.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Boquete Gesha coffee flavor characteristics: Clear acidity of citrus, lemon, and bergamot, with creamy smooth mouthfeel when swallowed, finishing with the sweetness of green tea and honey.

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Natural Elida coffee flavor characteristics: Fermented aroma, roses, berries, citrus, green tea, cream, nuts.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Suggestions:

To brew a delicious cup of coffee, you still need to pay attention to the freshness of coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans greatly affects the flavor of coffee. Therefore, the coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all roasted within 5 days. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Good Coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The resting period for coffee is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's precisely when the flavor is at its best.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee kindly reminds: once coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide in the packaging can also help mellow the coffee flavor, so you can immediately brew a cup when you receive the coffee grounds. However, coffee grounds need to be brewed promptly, because they oxidize relatively quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate more quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests buying whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better taste the coffee's flavor.

Although Gesha coffee is delicious, not everyone will necessarily like it, after all, everyone has different taste preferences. Perhaps some people will like Ethiopia's light floral notes and bright fruit acidity; some like Indonesia's Mandheling with its pine, herbal nutty notes; others might like specially processed Costa Rican FrontStreet Coffee's Mirasu coffee or FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart coffee with its grape honey processing flavor... And FrontStreet Coffee has all these coffee beans. If you don't know which flavor to choose, you can try FrontStreet Coffee's daily coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee's daily coffee beans are representatives from major coffee-producing countries with very high cost-effectiveness. Since they are representatives from major coffee-producing countries, the taste certainly won't be disappointing, and at the same time, it's also a very wise choice!

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Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

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