The Origin Stories and Flavor Profile Differences Between Panama Geisha and Ethiopian Geisha Village Coffee Varieties

Geisha coffee's reputation in the coffee world is akin to Rolls-Royce in the automotive industry. The Geisha variety traveled from Africa across the ocean to Central America, where it eventually shocked the world overnight at an opportune moment. Among FrontStreet Coffee's coffee bean selection, there are numerous Geisha varieties, with the most representative being the American Geisha varieties centered around Panama and the African Geisha varieties centered around Ethiopia.

The Rise to Fame of Geisha Coffee

In 1931, the Geisha variety was discovered in the Geisha forest of Ethiopia. It was then sent to a coffee research institute in Kenya, introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, brought to Costa Rica in 1953, and finally to Panama in 1970. Initially, Geisha didn't attract much attention until Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama separated it from other varieties in 2003, and it became the champion of the BOP competition in 2004. It was then that Geisha coffee (beans) officially entered everyone's spotlight.

FrontStreet Coffee · Panama Geisha Coffee Beans

Panama's Geisha coffee became world-famous as a result, and the entire Panama Geisha coffee cultivation revolves around the Chiriquí volcanic region. The most exceptional area is the Boquete region, where unique volcanic fertile soil, abundant water, regular rainfall, dense vegetation, and cloud cover nourish the coffee trees, thereby producing high-quality coffee beans with rich flavors. Many different microclimates also contribute to producing coffee beans with various flavor characteristics. When discussing Geisha coffee, it's impossible to avoid mentioning the legendary Hacienda La Esmeralda.

The Legendary Hacienda La Esmeralda

In 1964, American banker Rudolph Petersen retired, moved to Panama, and purchased Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete, initially focusing on dairy farming. Later, his son Price resigned from his position as a doctor to help his father manage the farm. In 1987, they introduced Caturra and Catuai coffee bean varieties, and in 1994, established a washed processing plant, giving them their own coffee processing facility.

Later, Petersen discovered a variety of coffee tree with weaker morphology on the border of his estate. The coffee beans it produced were aromatic and sweet, so Petersen decided to select these trees for focused cultivation. By 2004, Petersen entered this coffee bean in the BOP green bean competition and won the championship—it was the Geisha variety.

Currently, Hacienda La Esmeralda mainly has three estates cultivating Geisha varieties: El Velo, Cañas Verdes, and Jaramillo. In 1996, they acquired the nearby Jaramillo, which had superior geographical conditions and good-flavored original coffee varieties. El Velo was acquired by Hacienda La Esmeralda in 2012. FrontStreet Coffee believes that Hacienda La Esmeralda's decision to acquire estates with high altitude and excellent production was unique at the time, which has enabled Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha coffee to occupy a significant position in the coffee industry.

Among these, the Jaramillo estate is where Geisha varieties are cultivated. Due to its low yield, the previous owner only used it as a windbreak tree until its acquisition when its extraordinary flavor was discovered. FrontStreet Coffee finds this to be part of Geisha's charm—the harsher the growing environment, the better the flavor expression.

Although Hacienda La Esmeralda initially discovered coffee beans with flavor characteristics, they conducted cupping tests on coffee beans from different areas within the estate to ensure precision, determining planting plots based on altitude. This is why we now know the Red Label, Green Label, and Blue Label Geisha grades.

This year, FrontStreet Coffee purchased Red Label from the Mario plot of Hacienda La Esmeralda. The Mario plot belongs to Jaramillo, a renowned sub-estate of Hacienda La Esmeralda. This area is filled with glory—in 2004, Hacienda La Esmeralda became famous overnight thanks to the Geisha from this plot.

FrontStreet Coffee has selected the slow natural processing batch of Esmeralda Red Label. The exquisite processing techniques and strict quality control standards of Hacienda La Esmeralda result in the Frontsteet Red Label Geisha's slow natural processing batch having richer fruity notes, with excellent sweetness and acidity, not to mention Geisha's signature sweet fruity aroma and jasmine fragrance.

Hacienda La Esmeralda's quality control is unquestionable—the green coffee beans are full and plump, with the easily recognizable elongated, pointed appearance characteristic of Geisha coffee beans, with no obvious defective beans.

Through cupping, one can taste flavors of citrus, berries, honey, and grapes. As the temperature decreases, the honey sweetness becomes particularly evident, accompanied by the aroma of ginger flowers.

In addition to Hacienda La Esmeralda, Panama has many other estates with excellent Geisha quality, such as the Geisha coffee beans from Finca Deborah.

FrontStreet Coffee · Finca Deborah Savage Geisha

Finca Deborah is situated in the high mountains of the Chiriquí volcano, making it one of the highest and most remote coffee farms in Panama. Its manager, Mr. Jamison Savage, in addition to managing this estate, has two other projects: one is his new estate, Finca Morgana, and the other is the Savage Coffee project. This project, named after Savage, indicates Mr. Savage's emphasis on it. The FrontStreet Coffee's Finca Deborah Geisha coffee purchased this time is from the Savage Coffee project.

Savage positions himself as one of the most mature coffee producers globally, so he doesn't just process coffee beans from his own estate. The Savage Coffee project acquires high-quality coffee beans from around Finca Deborah and processes them using Finca Deborah's coffee processing techniques. For this FrontStreet Coffee Finca Deborah Savage series Geisha coffee bean, Frontsteet decided to use medium-light roasting, developing it for 1 minute and 20 seconds after the first crack began to express this bean's sweetness, acidity, and floral and fruit aromas.

Excellent green coffee beans combined with Frontsteet's careful roasting have resulted in this FrontStreet Coffee Finca Deborah Geisha coffee having rich floral, lactic, pineapple, and berry flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee · Africa's Geisha — Gesha Village Coffee Estate

In 2007, documentary director Adam Overton and his photographer wife Rachel Samuel, while filming a documentary about Ethiopian coffee for the Ethiopian government, came into contact with the Gera coffee forest in the Bench Maji region. During this process, they conceived the idea of establishing their own coffee estate and brand. In 2009, they had the good fortune to meet the renowned mule estate owner and BOP judge Willem Boot. Willem Boot's ideas also provided an opportunity for the Overton couple: return to Ethiopia to find Geisha's birthplace. Finally, they arrived at Bench Maji, a region in southwestern Ethiopia near South Sudan, where many places are called Gesha village and is most likely to find the original Geisha.

Adam followed Willem Boot to begin "exploring" in the forests surrounding the estate. In a jungle magically enveloped by dense forest, they discovered various wild tree species, and to their greatest surprise, found wild Geisha. Later they learned that this was the Gori Gesha forest, the place where Geisha variety was first discovered. So they collected seeds from the native Geisha trees, screened them, and then planted them in Gesha Village. They decided to establish the estate here and named it Gesha Village Coffee Estate, a 475-hectare coffee farm located about 12 miles from the Gori Gesha forest.

The Ethiopia region originally had no estates and estate grading systems. After Willem Boot and Adam discovered the Geisha forest, they decided to bring Panama's coffee estate management model to this area, making Gesha Village Coffee Estate the only coffee estate in Ethiopia.

At Gesha Village, every step of cultivation and processing strives to not compromise on quality. Through their coffee laboratory in Addis Ababa and SCA's official standards, they carefully select each batch through strict cupping processes, conduct rigorous grading, and ensure buyers receive the highest quality coffee beans. Finally, from extremely high-end and delicious treasures to refined mixed Chaka, they are divided into four grades, provided to the global coffee market. Their approach is that each batch, with a single label, can be traced back to detailed information about these beans. Gesha Village has a strict internal grading system: Auction, Gold Label, Red Label, Green Label, and Chaka batches.

The Gold Label batch is the highest quality Geisha second only to the Auction batch, accounting for only 5% of Gesha Village's annual production. The Gold Label batch selected by Frontsteet comes from the Oma plot, with the variety being Gesha 1931, which has similar characteristics to Panama Geisha.

Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that the Gesha Village Gold Label Natural Geisha coffee has distinct yellow stone fruit flavors, white floral aromas, a slight tea sensation mixed with a distinct creamy aftertaste.

The advantage is the ultra-high sweetness brought by refined natural processing, which persists throughout. In the front section, due to the high sweetness, the acidity is not fruity acidity but rather a gentle acidity, while the creaminess in the tail section is more evident. However, the disadvantage is the lack of body thickness, and it becomes somewhat bland at lower temperatures.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473