What is the difference between Geisha Village and Geisha? Geisha coffee has a taste profile that resembles flower and fruit tea

FrontStreet Coffee - Gesha Village Gesha Introduction

Gesha traveled from Ethiopia to Panama, where it won a competition in 2004 and became famous overnight for its complex aroma, sweet citrus, and elegant floral and fruity character.

Only a handful of estates in the world can hold their own auctions — the most famous being Panama's Esmeralda, Guatemala's El Injerto, Brazil's Daterra, Nicaragua's Mierisch, and Ethiopia's Gesha Village. Gesha Village's owner, Adam Overton, came to Ethiopia in 2007 to shoot a coffee documentary. The deeper he got into coffee, the more it captivated him, and he decided to stay in coffee's birthplace — Ethiopia — and devote himself to the business.

By a stroke of fate, Adam and his wife found an isolated forest near the Sudan border in Bench-Maji, at an altitude of 1,900-2,100 meters. They began preparing the land to build Gesha Village in October 2011. The first harvest came in 2015, and thanks to the enthusiastic response from all sides, they held their first international auction on May 31, 2017, with the assistance of Willem Boot. The winning bid closed at $85 USD per pound — breaking every previous auction price for an African coffee! Gesha Village is divided into 8 planting plots according to microclimate and variety: Shewa-Jibabu, Dimma, Shaya, Bangi, Gaylee, Narsha, Oma, and Surma.

The carefully selected varieties planted here include not only the Gori Gesha variety from the nearby Gori Gesha original coffee forest, but also Gesha 1931 — selected from the Gori Gesha forest by morphology, with flavors similar to Panama Gesha — and the IF variety bred by the Ethiopian research laboratory.

Becoming the most environmentally friendly estate in Ethiopia, and promoting environmental awareness within the country, is Gesha Village's ultimate mission. In pursuit of it, Adam and his wife strictly control every step of planting and processing: they run their own washing station and laboratory, never compromise on quality, and nurture lasting relationships with employees and customers.

Aroma Profile

Dry Aroma: Pineapple, orange, peach, longan honey, citrus aroma

Wet Aroma: Jasmine, apricot, lime, malt sugar

Sip: Floral notes, berries, passion fruit, with a delicate honey sweetness in the aftertaste

Knowledge Expansion

In the original forest known locally as Gori Gesha, samples very similar to the native Gesha variety cultivated at Hacienda La Esmeralda were discovered.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Want to taste Gesha Village for yourself? FrontStreet Coffee's Gesha Village Gold Label is the estate's Gesha 1931 variety — just 10% of the village's total production and its top non-auction coffee, frequently chosen by competing baristas on the international stage. This batch uses a refined natural process, delivering complex, layered flavors whose distinctive dry aroma, sip, and lingering finish linger on the palate. The Gesha Village Red Label, meanwhile, is the Gori Gesha variety — 15% of production, scoring 88 or above on the SCA 100-point scale — part of the estate's single-terroir series, with every batch number fully traceable down to the farm block, variety, and processing date.

For a more approachable Ethiopian Gesha, try FrontStreet Coffee's Genji Chelbesa (Granana Estate) Gesha. The Granana processing station, founded in 2014 and run by Mr. Israel Degefa, sits at the border of the Kochere and Gedeb regions amid 700 hectares of mostly uncultivated, fertile, shade-covered land. Fully ripe cherries are hand-picked and sun-dried on raised beds for 14-20 days depending on the weather. Roasted light-medium, it shows bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger-flower aromatics, the full sweetness of mature fruit, and a silky-smooth body with Gesha's signature refined finish.