What are the Best Single-Origin Coffee Beans? 2019 Red Label Geisha New Harvest Season Price and Brewing Guide

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FrontStreet Coffee - Best Single Origin Coffee Beans: Esmeralda Estate Red Label Geisha Introduction

In today's specialty coffee circle, whenever Geisha coffee beans are mentioned, they are always associated with Esmeralda Estate in Panama, and vice versa. In the specialty coffee field, "Geisha" is a supreme existence, but many people don't know the hardships before it became famous.

BOP (Best of Panama) is one of the most authoritative coffee cupping competitions in the coffee world (other equivalent competitions in producing countries include COE, TOH, etc.). All coffee varieties from Panama can participate in BOP, where they are evaluated layer by layer by authoritative international judges, scored, and finally auctioned.

Let's look at the competition results of the Peterson family's participation in BOP in the following years:

2004 Champion - Unknown coffee bean;

2005 Champion - Unknown coffee bean;

2006 Champion - Unknown coffee bean;

2007 Champion - Unknown coffee bean. It wasn't until this year that experts identified this as the Geisha variety from Ethiopia, whereas before this, it was basically considered Typica.

Esmeralda Estate now has four major plots: Jaramillo, Cañas Verdes, Palmira, and El Velo. Based on years of experiments, it was found that only Geisha grown at altitudes above 1400 meters can exhibit its characteristic flavors. Therefore, according to the planting altitude, Esmeralda Estate's Geisha is divided into Red Label, Green Label, and Blue Label.

How impressive is the Red Label auction batch? Simply put, this batch of Geisha coffee can only be purchased through the annual global auction, with the first place being called the "King Bid." In 2018, the winning bid price was $340 per pound.

What does this mean? Let's do the math: $340/pound = ¥2347.19/pound = ¥5.17/gram (current exchange rate), and this is just the price for green beans. If we add costs for transportation, storage, labor, roasting, losses, and intermediary markups, purchasing a 100g bag of the King Bid would cost several thousand yuan per bag.

Red Label - Auction batch, possibly the world's top-tier Geisha coffee, and it can only be obtained through the annual global auction. Grown at altitudes of 1600-1800 meters, with cupping scores above 90 points. Mainly produced in Jaramillo and Cañas Verdes estates, these Geisha beans are harvested from the highest reaches of the Boquete mountain region, possessing special, bright floral aromas and citrus notes.

Although Red Label Geisha is very expensive and possibly the best coffee, the 2019 production season's coffee beans remain highly attractive before the new batches of 2020. FrontStreet Coffee recommends this not because it's expensive, but because its flavor is truly exceptional. For coffee enthusiasts, this is an absolute must-try coffee, and at FrontStreet Coffee, it's only priced at ¥75.

Knowledge Expansion: The Geisha Variety

The Geisha variety originates from Geisha Mountain in Ethiopia, with extremely limited production, and was initially not valued. Due to its tall and resilient nature, it was only planted in surrounding areas as a "windbreak."

FrontStreet Coffee's Brief Statement

FrontStreet Coffee is not just a coffee shop, but a research center dedicated to coffee. We enjoy sharing knowledge about coffee and studying coffee brewing methods with everyone. We share without reservation, hoping to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Additionally, we hold three discounted coffee events every month. The reason for doing this is because FrontStreet Coffee wants to allow more friends to drink the best coffee at the lowest possible price - this has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past six years!

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