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What Variety Does Geisha Coffee Belong To? Differences Between Ethiopian Native Geisha Variety from Coffee Gene Bank and Panamanian Geisha Flavor Profile

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For more professional coffee knowledge and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Native Geisha Variety. Perhaps it is the captivating aroma of Geisha that lingers in memory. On this final day of the New Spring Festival, FrontStreet Coffee selected a bean that had been purchased long ago: Bench Maji Native Geisha

Geisha coffee belongs to the Arabica family (Ethiopian lineage), originating from the African region of Ethiopia.

Although the Geisha variety originates from Ethiopia, it gained fame in Panama. When coffee enthusiasts worldwide highly praised Geisha, a group of passionate coffee dreamers returned to its origin, seeking the roots and attempting to cultivate Geisha coffee beans of the same quality here.

Although both are Geisha, Geisha coffee grown in Panama/Central and South America is actually a different variety from Geisha coffee grown in Ethiopia.

According to FrontStreet Coffee's comparison, whether from Panama or other Central and South American regions, this variety's flavor characteristics include delicate fruit acidity, floral notes, caramel sweetness, and tea-like qualities; whereas Ethiopian Geisha coffee has flavors of citrus, almond, and tea-like notes.

Overall, Ethiopian Geisha coffee varieties do not exhibit the same refined and rich flavors as Panamanian/Central and South American Geisha coffees, lacking slightly in complexity. For this comparison result, FrontStreet Coffee consulted numerous coffee books to understand the reasons behind it.

Who Discovered the Geisha Variety?

In the 1930s, after World War I ended, East African countries had been divided into colonial territories by European powers, seeking economic benefits for their home countries. Among them, Ethiopia was one of only two countries not colonized, but its surrounding areas were all under British influence, so military forces were always stationed at its borders. To find coffee varieties suitable for large-scale commercial cultivation, the British Agricultural Director in Kenya ordered a survey of wild Arabica coffee varieties in Ethiopia, instructing border-stationed Colonel Richard Whalle to lead troops deep into the Kaffa Forest in southwestern Ethiopia to collect coffee tree specimens for research.

Because a wild forest near the Kaffa Forest called Gesha was widely known for producing particularly delicious coffee, European colonial powers also took interest in this homeland of Arabica coffee. The colonel collected various coffee seeds and handed them to the British consul stationed in the Maji region, who then shipped them back to coffee research institutes in Kenya and Tanzania for classification and cultivation.

A letter mentioned that they collected approximately 10 pounds of coffee seeds from a place called Geisha. The letter noted that the original forest at Geisha was a rainforest area where coffee trees grew under dense, tall tree shade, belonging to a shaded growing environment similar to the coffee environment in the Sudan region. Since the report misspelled the collection location "Gesha" as "Geisha," Geisha has been known by this "incorrect name" for a century.

According to report documents from that time, such collection work was conducted three times in total: once in 1931 and twice in 1936. The first coffee was sent to Kitale, Kenya for trial planting, while the second selection identified seedlings numbered Geisha 1, 9, 11, 123, etc., which were sent to the Lyamungu Coffee Research Station in Tanzania for trial planting. The Lyamungu Coffee Research Station then stabilized these Geisha varieties through artificial selection, selecting a group of seedlings numbered from VC496 to VC500.

By 1953, the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica obtained this batch of Geisha coffee seedlings from Tanzania's Lyamungu Coffee Research Station. Then, not until the 1960s, CATIE sent this batch of Geisha coffee (including the variety numbered T2722 from La Esmeralda) to Boquete, Panama,交给当地农民种植以对抗叶锈病。再过了40年之久，它才被彼得森一家发掘出来，并在BOP大杀四方。

The Relationship Between Ethiopian Geisha and Panamanian Geisha

It turns out that Geisha from Panama/Central and South America and Ethiopian Geisha don't have much relationship, meaning they are two completely different varieties. In many official documents, you can notice that Geisha from Central and South America is spelled "Geisha," while Geisha from Ethiopia is spelled "Gesha." This one-letter difference is not an accidental error but a deliberate distinction made by people.

According to documented records, the source of the Geisha that gained fame in Panama was a variety marked as "Gesha" that a British colonel purchased in 1931 from an area called Gesha in Ethiopia and nearby markets, then mixed and sent to British plantations in Kenya.

At that time, people used this batch of mixed coffee plants as research varieties and continuously cultivated many Geisha (Geisha) plant lines mixed with different genes. The one that gained fame in Panama was the Geisha variety numbered T2722. After years of artificial cultivation and the plants' own natural evolution to adapt to the regional terroir environment, these refined coffee flavors emerged "by accident."

Meanwhile, Geisha in Ethiopia was discovered when people returned to the Gesha area about a decade ago to find wild varieties with the same origins as Panamanian Geisha, hoping to cultivate alternatives. To draw more attention to these later-discovered varieties, they named these wild varieties "Gesha" after the region.

Because they have only been discovered and research-cultivated in recent years, Ethiopian Geisha flavors have not yet been "tamed" by humans and different regional terroirs, so the flavors are closer to those of native Ethiopian varieties. The overall layered flavors are completely different from the Panamanian Geisha that everyone knows.

Going back to 2004, the Geisha that won the championship at the BOP competition and amazed everyone was, through sample comparison, discovered to be the "geisha T2722" variety collected from the Gesha area near the Kaffa Forest in southwestern Ethiopia in the 1930s, later cataloged by CATIE in Costa Rica as a fungal-resistant variety.

However, the variety name of the Gold Label from Geisha Village in Ethiopia has an additional year, called "Gesha 1931." The selection work at Geisha Village was led by Willem Boot. Due to the lack of genetic comparison technology at the time, farm owner Adam screened and found two Geisha varieties in the vast Gesha area by referencing the plant morphology and flavor performance of Panamanian Geisha. One of them had flavors remarkably similar to La Esmeralda's Geisha, so it was named "Gesha 1931," commemorating the year Geisha was discovered.

From this, we can confirm that the Panamanian Geisha (including La Esmeralda) that is highly sought after today comes from the coffee variety recorded as "T2722" in a small notebook back then, while Geisha Village's "Gesha 1931" was found in the vast Kaffa Forest using Panamanian Geisha as a reference template, so it cannot be proven to be of the same origin as Panamanian Geisha.

Currently, FrontStreet Coffee sells Geisha coffee beans from the original Geisha Village in the Bonga Maji region of Ethiopia, including Geisha Village's Gold Label, Red Label, and Chaka varieties.

FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha Village Gold Label uses the Gesha 1931 variety from the Oma region, with flavors of berries, chamomile, melon, and tea-like qualities. Geisha Village Red Label uses the Geri gesha variety, with flavors of citrus, plum, cream, tropical fruits, and fermented notes. Geisha Village Chaka uses Gesha 1931, Geri gesha, and IIIubabor varieties, with notes of lemon, berries, honey, cream, and oolong tea.

From Panama, there are Geisha varieties including La Esmeralda's Natural Red Label, Washed Green Label, and Geisha coffee beans from the Boquete region.

FrontStreet Coffee's La Esmeralda Natural Red Label Geisha coffee beans come from the Mario lot, with flavors of rich berry acidity and sweetness, rose aromas, tropical fruit fermentation notes, and black tea-like aftertaste; La Esmeralda Washed Green Label Geisha coffee beans exhibit white floral notes like jasmine and ginger flower, citrus-like bright acidity, Tieguanyin-like aftertaste, and honey-like finish; Washed Boquete Geisha coffee beans show citrus-like acidity, roasted sweet potato-like sweetness, white floral notes, and green tea-like aftertaste.