What Are the Flavor Differences Between Ethiopian Geisha Village Geisha Coffee and Panamanian Geisha Coffee?

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The reputation of Gesha coffee is legendary. Besides Panama, countries like Costa Rica and Colombia also grow the Gesha variety, among which Ethiopia's Gesha Village Estate is particularly renowned. FrontStreet Coffee found through cupping that the similarity between Gesha coffee from Gesha Village and the Panamanian Gesha we're familiar with is not high. Panamanian Gesha coffee beans exhibit captivating floral aromas in both dry fragrance, wet aroma, and taste, while Gesha from Gesha Village is characterized by stone fruit flavors in dry fragrance, wet aroma, and taste, with floral notes being slightly less prominent compared to Panamanian Gesha.

Gesha Village Estate's Gesha coffee is widely loved, with many competitors selecting batches from this estate for competitions and achieving impressive rankings. Notably, Hong Kong's Chao Ka Po used Gesha Village Estate's Gesha coffee to win third place in the 2017 World Barista Championship. In the same year, Japan's Ishiya Takayuki also chose Gesha Village coffee to win his first Japan Barista Championship (JBC) title after ten years of competition. So how did Gesha Village rise to prominence?

Gesha Village Coffee Estate

In 2007, documentary director Adam Overton and his photographer wife Rachel Samuel, while filming a documentary about Ethiopian coffee for the Ethiopian government, came into contact with the Gera coffee forest in the Bench Maji region. During this process, they conceived the idea of establishing their own coffee estate and brand. In 2009, they had the fortune to meet the renowned La Esmeralda estate owner and BOP judge Willem Boot. Willem Boot's vision provided the Overton couple with an opportunity: return to Ethiopia to find the birthplace of Gesha. Eventually, they arrived in Bench Maji, an area in southwestern Ethiopia near South Sudan, where many places are called Gesha Village, making it the most likely region to find the original Gesha.

Following Willem Boot, Adam began "exploring" the forests around the estate. In a jungle magically enveloped by dense forest, they discovered multiple wild tree species, with the most exciting find being wild Gesha. They later learned that this was the Gori Gesha forest, the place where the Gesha variety was first discovered. They collected seeds from the native Gesha trees, screened them, and then planted them in Gesha Village. They decided to establish the estate here and named it Gesha Village Coffee Estate, a 475-hectare coffee farm located about 12 miles from the Gori Gesha forest.

Gesha Coffee Varieties

Gesha coffee beans are elongated in shape with refreshing and pleasant flavors. From these two perspectives, Gesha indeed doesn't resemble Central and South American coffee varieties but rather Ethiopian coffee varieties. So when was Gesha introduced to Panama? It was discovered in the Gesha forest of Ethiopia in 1931. Later, Gesha was sent to Kenya's Coffee Research Institute, introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, to Costa Rica in 1953, and approximately to Panama in 1960.

Although Gesha has strong disease resistance, its yield is low, so after being introduced as a plant for variety improvement, it disappeared from the scene until the owner of La Esmeralda estate rediscovered them in the windbreak forest. In recent years, Gesha Village has been gaining momentum in flavor profiles, not only concluding with astonishing prices in independent estate auctions for two consecutive years but also being selected by multiple competitors in top-tier competitions like WBC. This has brought Ethiopia, the coffee kingdom, back to its peak and once again refreshed people's recognition of Ethiopian coffee.

Gesha Village has three varieties, named after the expedition teams that discovered the coffee: Gesha1931, Gori Gesha, and Illubabor provided by the Ethiopian Coffee Research Center.

Gori Gesha (GG): This variety replicates the genetic diversity found within the Gori Gesha coffee forest.

Gesha 1931 (G31): Possesses a combination of different forest varieties, very similar to Panamanian Gesha, selected through observation of its plant morphology, bean appearance, screen size, and cupping flavors.

Illubabor Forest 1974 (IF): Discovered during a 1974 expedition to the Illubabor forest, later developed by the Ethiopian Research Center into a disease-resistant variety.

Gesha Village Estate Parcel Division

Gesha Village Estate provides very detailed numbering of parcels, facilitating later management and flavor traceability.

The area and planted varieties of different parcels in Gesha Village

The western side of the estate has relatively higher terrain, so the three parcels of OMA, SURMA, and SHEWA-JIBABU have slightly higher altitudes. The south side has a relatively higher shade ratio, while the north side receives longer sunlight exposure. Among the eight parcels, estate managers select the most suitable variety for each parcel based on microclimate differences such as altitude, soil conditions, and shade conditions (as shown in the figure above), ensuring each major parcel can form distinct characteristics.

Gesha Village Estate Grading

Ethiopia originally did not have estates and estate grading systems. After Willem Boot and Adam discovered the Gesha forest, they decided to apply the Panamanian coffee estate business model to this area, making Gesha Village Estate the only coffee estate in Ethiopia.

At Gesha Village, every step of planting and processing strives for uncompromising quality. In their coffee laboratory in Addis Ababa and following SCA official standards, they carefully select each batch through strict cupping processes and implement rigorous grading to ensure buyers receive the highest quality coffee beans. Finally, ranging from extremely high-end and delicious rarities to refined blended Chaka, they are divided into four grades total, provided to the global coffee market. Their approach is that each batch, with one label, can be traced back to detailed information about the beans. Gesha Village has a strict internal grading system: Auction, Gold Label, Red Label, Green Label, and Chaka batches.

Auction Batches

Accounting for only 3.7% of Gesha Village's annual production, these are the most rigorously selected top-tier batches from the estate, available only through the 2018 Gesha Village Coffee Estate Global Auction. The cupping scores for 2018 auction batches ranged from 88.15-92.67 points, further divided into Champion's Reserve and Farm Reserve.

For example, Gesha Village 2018 Auction Lot RSV.6 belongs to the auction batch.

Gold Label Batches

Gold Label accounts for only 5% of Gesha Village's annual production and can almost be considered equivalent to auction batches. Competition participants from around the world typically select these batches. For instance, in the 2018 WBC World Championship held in the Netherlands, champions from Australia and Japan chose Gold Label batches to compete. Roasters with high-quality requirements also purchase these batches. They have complete traceability, with prominent and highly complex flavors in each batch, making them the most excellent grade after auction batches.

Gesha Village Oma 059 Gesha Village Oma 059 batch

Grade: Rarities (Gold) label Gold Label

Processing Method: Natural (32 days)

Variety: Gesha 1931

Country: Ethiopia

Region: Bench Maji

Altitude: 1,931-2,040 meters

Red Label Batches

Batches with complete traceability and typical Gesha Village flavors, with slightly less flavor intensity and complexity than Gold Label batches, making them single-origin batches with excellent cost-performance ratio.

Gesha Village Coffee Estate Grower's Reserve

Gesha Village · Red Label Gesha

Region: Bench Maji

Altitude: 1909-2069m

Variety: Gori Gesha

Processing Method: Natural

Chaka Batches

This is a Gesha coffee blend produced by Gesha Village, including three varieties: Gori Gesha, Gesha 1931, and Illubabor (native Ethiopian disease-resistant variety).

Gesha Village Coffee Estate CHAKA

Gesha Village · Chaka Batch

Region: Bench Maji

Altitude: 1900-2100m

Variety: Gori Gesha, Gesha 1931, Illubabor

Processing Method: Natural

Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Natural

FrontStreet Coffee's Gesha Village coffee uses natural processing. First, floating debris and impurities are removed, then the beans are spread in thin layers on African raised beds, covered with plastic sheets for sun drying. During drying on African beds, another screening is performed to select out insect-damaged beans and greenish-colored coffee beans. Total drying time is 18-30 days. FrontStreet Coffee believes that naturally processed coffee has noticeable sweetness, gentle acidity, and produces complex fruit flavor notes.

FrontStreet Coffee's most popular Gesha Village coffee is the Red Label Gesha. Next, let's see how FrontStreet Coffee's roasters roast this Gesha Village Red Label Gesha, and how FrontStreet Coffee's baristas brew this coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee Roasting Recommendations

This Gesha Village Red Label Gesha belongs to this year's new production season coffee beans, so FrontStreet Coffee's roasters extended the dehydration time when roasting this coffee to ensure even heating between the bean surface and core. To express the acidity and floral-fruity aromas of this coffee bean, light roasting was adopted.

Yangjia 800N, 300g charge amount: Enter drum at 160℃, firepower 100, air vent open to 3; Return temperature point at 1'40", when drum temperature reaches 142℃, open air vent to 4, increase firepower to 150; At 148.1℃, bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, entering dehydration stage, reduce firepower to 120; At 7'20", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black patterns, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, can be defined as prelude to first crack, at this point listen carefully for the sound of first crack, first crack begins at 8'25", open air vent to 5, develop for 1'45" after first crack, discharge at 197.5℃.

FrontStreet Coffee Cupping Report

Through cupping, FrontStreet Coffee found that this Gesha Village Red Label Natural Gesha coffee has distinct yellow stone fruit flavors, white floral notes, slight tea sensation mixed with noticeable creamy aftertaste.

The advantage is the extremely high sweetness brought by refined natural processing, which persists throughout. Due to high sweetness in the early stage, the acidity is not fruity but rather a gentle acidity, while the creaminess in the final stage is more pronounced. However, the disadvantage is lack of body thickness, becoming somewhat bland as it cools.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Tips

Dripper: V60 #01

Dose: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Grind size: BG6H (78% pass-through rate on #20 sieve)

Water temperature: 91°C

FrontStreet Coffee brewing method: First wet the filter paper and preheat the dripper and coffee pot. Use 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, pour in small circular motions to 125g for segmentation, continue pouring to 225g when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed, stop pouring, and remove the dripper when the water level is about to expose the coffee bed (timing starts from bloom), extraction time is 1'55".

Brewing flavors: At high temperature, it shows citrus acidity without losing body thickness. As the temperature slightly decreases, the acidity becomes gentler, with flavors leaning toward yellow stone fruit, creamy sweetness, slight floral notes, and slight dark cocoa aftertaste. At low temperature, it shows maple sugar and berries.

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