What Makes Ethiopian Gesha Coffee Beans Special and How It Differs from Other Gesha Varieties

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

Introduction to Geisha Coffee

Rich floral notes, tropical fruit aromas, and intense sweet-tart acidity reminiscent of juice - this is FrontStreet Coffee's impression of Geisha coffee. Perhaps many people are not yet familiar with the story of Geisha coffee. The Geisha coffee variety is an ancient variety of Ethiopian coffee beans from the Gori Geisha forest. It was sent to Kenya for research as a sample, then introduced to countries like Uganda and Panama. Ultimately, Geisha coffee, one of Ethiopia's coffee varieties, flourished in Panama.

Panamanian vs. Ethiopian Geisha

Panamanian Geisha coffee has been introduced in many of FrontStreet Coffee's articles, so today FrontStreet Coffee would like to introduce Geisha Village from its place of origin - Ethiopia. Both are African Ethiopian coffee beans, sharing high similarity with the intense fruit flavors and floral elements of the Yirgacheffe region. However, influenced by weather, soil, and altitude, Geisha coffee and coffee beans from the Yirgacheffe region also have their differences.

Geisha coffee is also known as Geisha coffee because the pronunciation "geisha" is similar to Japanese. Geisha coffee is actually a derived variety of the Typica family - it's the name of a coffee variety, not a specific coffee blend. The cultivation model in Geisha Village is different from typical Ethiopian wild coffee trees that are mixed-planted; instead, only Geisha varieties are cultivated, along with Illubabor provided by the local Ethiopian Coffee Research Center. The owners of Geisha Village Estate are documentary director Adam Overton and his photographer wife Rachel Samuel. They planted Geisha coffee varieties collected from the Gera coffee forest in the Bench Maji region on their own established estate, which is the Geisha Village Estate that FrontStreet Coffee is introducing today.

Geisha Village Classification System

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Geisha Village Estate, like Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda, has a strict classification system, including Auction, Gold Label, Red Label, Green Label Geisha, and Chaka batches. FrontStreet Coffee also offers Geisha coffee beans from Geisha Village. Through cupping comparisons between Panamanian Geisha coffee and Geisha Village Geisha coffee, FrontStreet Coffee found that their flavors are quite different. Through comparison, FrontStreet Coffee discovered that Hacienda La Esmeralda's Green Label has excellent cleanliness with no off-flavors, very smooth texture, and more prominent floral and tea-like notes. In contrast, Geisha Village's Green Label Geisha tends toward candied fruit flavors and possesses higher sweetness. The flavor differences between these two green labels partly stem from cultivation altitude.

Altitude Effects on Coffee Flavor

Geisha Village's altitude is relatively high, with coffee trees generally planted between 1900-2000 meters, which is even higher than the altitude of Geisha coffee at Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama. For example, Panama's Red Label and Green Label Geisha are cultivated at altitudes between 1600-1800 meters, while Blue Label is planted at lower altitudes, generally between 1400-1500 meters. Geisha Village's high altitude is very conducive to the formation of coffee flavor compounds. The higher the altitude, the harder the beans become, and the resulting brewed flavors are excellent.

Another country famous for honey processing methods also grows Geisha coffee - Costa Rica's Las Lajas Estate. In fact, besides Ethiopian Geisha Village and Panama being suitable for growing Geisha coffee, Las Lajas Estate's climate is also very suitable for Geisha cultivation. Las Lajas Estate has significant day-night temperature differences, which slows down the growth rate of coffee trees, allowing them to slowly accumulate flavor compounds over time. FrontStreet Coffee believes that high-altitude coffee flavors are generally better than those from lower altitude regions.

Costa Rican Geisha Coffee

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee was very curious about Costa Rican Geisha coffee flavors and acquired Geisha coffee beans from Las Lajas Estate. This is a washed processed Geisha coffee, different from Ethiopian Geisha Village Geisha coffee, which only uses natural processing. Las Lajas Estate uses washed processing mainly to highlight the bright acidity and intense floral notes of Geisha coffee.

The washed process involves: first placing selected coffee fruits in a depulper to remove the skin and pulp; placing coffee beans with remaining mucilage in water for about 24 hours of fermentation; after fermentation, washing the parchment coffee beans in flowing water channels to remove pulp and mucilage; drying the coffee beans naturally or with dryers until moisture content reaches about 12%; and finally removing the parchment from the green coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee conducts cupping tests 8 hours after each roasting batch, using 200ml standard cupping bowls, with a grind size of 70%-75% passing through a #20 sieve, and 11.1g of coffee. Water temperature is 94°C. After grinding, FrontStreet Coffee smells the dry aroma - this Las Lajas Estate coffee emits citrus notes. Then water is added to fill the bowl, and the wet aroma reveals intense floral notes. After 4 minutes, the crust is broken and removed for flavor tasting. The overall flavor profile of this Geisha coffee is: jasmine, lemon, green tea, and honey. FrontStreet Coffee then uses the following brewing parameters:

Brewing Parameters

Dripper: V60 #01

Dose: 15g

Ratio: 1:15

Grind: BG6m (80% passing through #20 sieve)

Temperature: 90-91°C

FrontStreet Coffee then uses the common three-stage method for extraction: first, bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then continue pouring in a circular motion with a small water stream to 125g for the first stage, and when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop. When the water level is about to expose the coffee bed again (timing from the bloom), remove the dripper. Total extraction time is 2'01".

Flavor Comparison

The Geisha coffee brewed using this technique yields flavors basically consistent with FrontStreet Coffee's cupping notes: intense jasmine floral aroma, with lemon-like acidity and honey-green-tea-like aftertaste. Compared to Ethiopian Geisha Village Geisha coffee, Las Lajas Estate's Geisha coffee has fewer flavor layers than the high-altitude Geisha coffee, and its sweetness is lighter compared to Geisha Village coffee.

The Geisha coffees discussed by FrontStreet Coffee above each have their own characteristics. Geisha coffee stands out among Panamanian coffees, on par with the world's most expensive Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee and Hawaiian Queen Kona coffee, fully demonstrating the uniqueness of Geisha coffee flavors.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: 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