Panama Geisha Estate Coffee Bean Variety Story: Flavor Profile Differences Between Blue, Green, and Red Label Geisha Coffee

When you enjoy a delicious cup of coffee, what do you think about? Do you think about the harvesting process and craftsmanship behind this cup of coffee? Have you considered what processing method was used for these coffee beans? As a specialty coffee-focused café, FrontStreet Coffee researches and understands relevant knowledge about each coffee before listing it, including detailed information about origin, variety, cultivation and harvesting, post-processing, and more.

The Rise of Geisha Coffee

In 1931, Geisha was first collected from the wild Kaffa forest in southern Ethiopia, with the purpose of finding new disease-resistant varieties. It was named after the nearby Geisha Mountain. Later, it was transferred to research institutes in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania for trial cultivation. In 1953, the Geisha variety arrived at CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) in Costa Rica and was recorded as T2722. Although there were cultivation records on several local farms, Geisha's brittle branches and low yield did not make it popular among farmers, nor was it widely cultivated.

Starting from the 1960s, CATIE gave T2722 Geisha to Panamanian coffee farmers, and Geisha truly began to set foot on the fertile land of Panama. In the 1990s, the Peterson family, owners of Hacienda La Esmeralda, began to focus on coffee production and acquired a new high-altitude farm, Jaramillo. Many coffee trees in the farm suffered from leaf rust, but Daniel Peterson noticed that Geisha trees were not severely damaged. Therefore, they decided to transplant the Geisha, which was originally mixed with other varieties, to more areas of the farm while increasing its planting altitude.

In 2003, the Peterson family finally discovered Geisha's potential. When they first cupped it, it showed quite intense white flower aromas, an extremely clean taste, and presented berry, citrus, and bergamot-like aftertaste, thus forming a very typical Panamanian Geisha flavor. The amazed people decided to take it to participate in the 2004 BOP (Best of Panama) competition and named it "Geisha". Therefore, today's stunning Panamanian Geisha coffee is the T2722 variety from that year.

On FrontStreet Coffee's bean list, you might see three types of FrontStreet Coffee's Panamanian Geisha coffee: Red Label, Green Label, and Blue Label. However, many people don't understand the differences between these three FrontStreet Coffee Panamanian coffees, so today FrontStreet Coffee will give you a brief introduction. These three FrontStreet Coffee Geisha coffees all come from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda, which grades Geisha coffee based on planting altitude and cupping scores.

FrontStreet Coffee · Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is planted at an altitude of 1600-1800 meters, with cupping scores above 90 points. It is mainly produced in Jaramillo and Cannas Verdes estates and is also the highest quality Panamanian coffee beans from Hacienda La Esmeralda. The Geisha beans harvested from the highest points of the Boquete mountain region possess special, bright floral aromas and citrus fragrances. This grade of coffee will be processed into natural or washed green beans and can only be purchased through annual global auction events. FrontStreet Coffee acquired the natural batch of Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label, which presents richer tropical fruit flavors.

Hacienda La Esmeralda's natural processing involves first sending the harvested coffee cherries directly to the courtyard for drying. The coffee cherries slowly dry while the coffee beans remain inside, filled with fruity and aromatic scents. The coffee cherries are dried evenly. Depending on weather and site composition, the coffee is dried on concrete patios for 3 to 5 days (8 hours per day). When it reaches sufficient dryness, it is placed in a Guardiola dryer to rotate for 72 hours to complete the drying process and prevent fermentation. After drying is complete, machines are used to remove the pulp and other parts.

FrontStreet Coffee · Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha is planted at an altitude of 1,600-1,800 meters, coming from micro-batch mixed beans from two different estates: Jaramillo and Quiel. Although not the highest grade competition beans, this grade of Geisha beans still carries the classic flavors of Geisha coffee beans - floral, fruity, citrus acidity, and thick, juicy taste. The selection of perfectly ripe coffee cherries creates rich sweetness, bright fruit acidity, and delicious flavors. This grade of Geisha beans also has both washed and natural processed green beans to choose from. FrontStreet Coffee chose the washed processed FrontStreet Coffee Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label, with clear fruit flavors and a fresh, clean taste.

FrontStreet Coffee · Hacienda La Esmeralda Volcanic Rock Geisha Coffee Beans

FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Blue Label Geisha is planted at an altitude of 1400-1,500 meters, coming from mixed beans from three different estates: Jaramillo, Canas Verdes, and El Velo. FrontStreet Coffee's Blue Label Geisha has subtle floral aromas, obvious fermentation notes, berry juice-like texture, and high sweetness. Because Daniel and his sister Rachel hoped to improve the positioning of Hacienda La Esmeralda, the Blue Label Geisha batches were canceled during 2019-2022, and then the Geisha coffee from this area was sold to a brand company. This brand company introduced "Las Rocas," also called Volcanic Rock Geisha Coffee Beans, which is what we know as the Blue Label.

FrontStreet Coffee · Hacienda La Esmeralda Diamond Mountain Coffee Beans

In addition to planting Geisha varieties, Hacienda La Esmeralda also grows Catuai varieties and has established two brands: Diamond Mountain and Pamira. Among them, FrontStreet Coffee has acquired FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain Coffee Beans launched by Hacienda La Esmeralda, which uses natural processing and presents citrus, berry, and cocoa notes. Whether it's the cultivation of Geisha varieties or other coffee varieties, Hacienda La Esmeralda adopts a very precise cultivation system and is very forward-thinking about coffee cultivation. The emergence of Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha coffee has continuously increased the fame of Panamanian coffee. Combined with Panama's complex microclimate, it creates the flavor of Panamanian coffee. Therefore, generally, Geisha coffee beans are full and light in weight, with soft acidity and balanced flavors.

When FrontStreet Coffee received FrontStreet Coffee's Panamanian Geisha coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee found that the Geisha coffee beans were full and slender in shape. FrontStreet Coffee uses both cupping and pour-over methods to experience the aroma of Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha coffee, and conducted flavor comparisons of these three FrontStreet Coffee Geisha coffees.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee uses light roasting to highlight the rich floral aromas and bright, varied fruit acidity characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee's Panamanian Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha coffee. Because lightly roasted coffee beans have a lower dissolution rate than dark roasts, FrontStreet Coffee uses higher water temperature for brewing to ensure full extraction of Geisha flavors, while also choosing a finer grind size. Here, FrontStreet Coffee suggests you can use brewing parameters of a Hario V60 dripper, 91°C water temperature, 15g coffee dose, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and EK43s grind setting 10 (Chinese standard 20-mesh sieve pass rate 80%) for extraction.

FrontStreet Coffee adopts the common three-stage brewing method. In the first stage, use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. In the second stage, use a small water flow to pour in circles until reaching 125g, then segment. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue with the third stage by pouring water until reaching 225g, then stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. The extraction time is 2'00" (timing starts from the bloom).

Flavor Profiles

FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha has very bright rose floral aromas, rich juice-like texture similar to berries and apricots, rich flavor layers, and very obvious sweetness. As for FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha, the floral aroma it emits is different from the rose floral aroma of FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label, but rather tends toward rich jasmine floral aromas, high sweetness, overall rich flavor layers, with floral and citrus notes in the aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Blue Label's floral aroma is relatively light, and the taste is not as clean and bright as FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label and FrontStreet Coffee's Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label Geisha coffee. It has honey sweetness in the middle and oolong tea feeling and brown sugar sweetness in the finish.

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

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