What Coffee Beans Does Taiwan Have? Characteristics of Taiwanese High Mountain Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee — Taiwan Alishan Geisha Coffee

Geisha is an Arabica variety. It was discovered in the Geisha Forest of Ethiopia in 1931 and later carried to countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, and Costa Rica. In the 1970s, Mr. Francisco Serracin of Panama obtained seeds from CATIE in Costa Rica and began cultivating Panamanian Geisha coffee.

Geisha rose to fame at the 2004 "Best of Panama" competition, when a single coffee stunned the international judges with its unusual flavor and took the championship that year.

In the 2014 documentary "Let's Talk Coffee," experts including Williem Boot of Boot Coffee, Geoff Watts of Intelligentsia Coffee, and Ric Rhinehart of the Specialty Coffee Association each described their first taste of Geisha as unforgettable. Ric put it this way: "When I was cupping, I tasted a coffee by accident and asked: 'Who mixed in Ethiopian coffee? This is definitely not Panamanian coffee, that much is obvious.'"

Taiwan Alishan Geisha Honey Process

Region: Alishan

Estate: Zhuwu Estate

Altitude: 1200 meters

Variety: Geisha

Processing Method: Honey Process

Cupping Notes: Berries, honey, cane sugar, oolong tea, floral notes, citrus

About FrontStreet Coffee

FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house built around sharing coffee knowledge. We hold nothing back, because the goal is simply to help more people fall in love with coffee. Every month we run three coffee events at meaningful discounts, so that more friends can drink the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Taiwan's Alishan Geisha shows how far the variety can travel: berries, honey, and oolong tea wrapped around soft citrus. If that honeyed, tea-like character is what you are after, FrontStreet Boquete Geisha from Panama is the natural place to start — a washed, entry-level Geisha with the classic orange-blossom honey sweetness, an oolong tea finish, and delicate fruit acidity. Because Geisha beans are dense and tend to clog the dripper, grind to a fine-sugar size (about a 78% pass-through on a #20 standard sieve) and use 91°C water. FrontStreet's pour-over setup is 15 g of coffee in a small Hario V60 at 1:16: bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, pour to 125g, then on to 225g, finishing in about 2:10-2:20.