What is Red Label Gesha? Introduction to the Origin and Flavor of Panama Gesha Coffee Beans

The Magic of Red Label Geisha: FrontStreet Coffee's Complete Guide

Red Label Geisha refers to the premium Geisha variety coffee beans produced by Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda. It stands as the reigning champion among specialty coffee varieties and is a frequent contender in numerous coffee competitions, repeatedly breaking auction price records for green beans. So what magical qualities make Geisha coffee beans so captivating? Today, let's explore its story with FrontStreet Coffee!

What Grade is Red Label Geisha?

In the market, we often see three main brands from Hacienda La Esmeralda: Red Label, Green Label, and Blue Label. These are grades divided by the Peterson family based on cupping flavors from specific plots.

From highest to lowest grade, they are: ESMERALDA SPECIAL (Red Label batches, including competition lots), PRIVATE COLLECTION (Green Label batches), and Las Rocas (formerly Blue Label). The names used by domestic baristas for these grades originate from the background colors of these brand labels.

The highest-grade Red Label is harvested from Geisha coffee cherries grown at high altitudes (1600-1800 meters) with cupping scores exceeding 91 points, primarily from three major farms within the estate. Despite the challenges of planting and harvesting at high altitudes, Geisha grown in the Boquete region exhibits the most prominent floral and fruit characteristics. Hacienda La Esmeralda holds independent auction events where Red Label batches selected from designated plots for competition are called competition lots. Each competition lot has a unique number corresponding to the entire batch from a specific plot. The one we most commonly hear about is probably the Mario plot from the Jaramillo farm. The Emerald Red Label Geisha coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee sourced are from the Mario plot, processed using natural method, presenting rich aromas of honey, citrus, rose, cream, complex fruits, and black tea.

Although this domestic practice of using background colors to replace original product names indeed makes different grades of Geisha more accessible and memorable, it sometimes causes confusion due to "color collisions." For example, there's another Geisha coffee in the market that also features a red label background, thus also called "Red Label." This one comes from Gesha Village Coffee Estate in Africa, a large farm situated in the Bench Maji region of Ethiopia's dense wild jungle. Unlike Emerald Red Label Geisha, the official name of Gesha Village's Red Label is "Growers Reserve," which translates to "种植者保护区" (Grower's Reserve Area). This batch accounts for 15% of the estate's total production and must score above 88 points in SCA cupping.

However, above the Gesha Village Red Label, there's actually an even higher grade – the Gold Label. Gesha Village's Gold Label Geisha also has its own English name "Rarities," which translates to "稀世珍品" (rare treasures). Simply put, it's the highest grade Geisha (non-auction batch) offered by Gesha Village. The "gold" in Gold Label comes from the background color of the product trademark. According to Gesha Village's official website, this grade of Geisha coffee accounts for only 10% of the entire estate's total production. Like Emerald Estate's Red Label, each batch comes with plot information for buyer reference.

Why is Hacienda La Esmeralda's Geisha the Most Famous?

Like many origins, Geisha also originates from Ethiopia, the birthplace of Arabica. In 1931, Geisha was first collected in the wild Kaffa forest in southern Ethiopia, with the purpose of finding new disease-resistant varieties, named after the nearby Geisha Mountain. In the 1990s, the Peterson family increasingly focused on coffee production and acquired a new high-altitude farm, Jaramillo. Many coffee trees in the farm were affected by leaf rust, but Daniel Peterson noticed that Geisha trees were not seriously damaged, so they decided to transplant the originally mixed-planting Geisha trees to more areas of the farm while increasing their planting altitude.

In 2003, the Peterson family finally uncovered Geisha's potential. When cupping it for the first time, it displayed quite intense white floral aromas, an extremely clean taste, and presented berry, citrus, and bergamot-like aftertaste, thus forming the very typical Panama Geisha flavor profile. Amazed by this discovery, they decided to enter it in the 2004 BOP (Best of Panama) competition and named it "Geisha." It broke the auction price record of $21/pound that year, reached $804/pound in 2018, and by 2019, it surpassed $1,029/pound.

Hacienda La Esmeralda made Geisha famous and was also the first coffee estate to strictly grade Geisha. Each year's Geisha batches receive industry attention. After Geisha won championship titles, the Peterson siblings implemented more systematic management of the estate's Geisha coffee trees based on altitude, region, and cupping performance. Broadly, Geisha growing areas are divided into three major plots: Canas Verdes, Jaramillo, and El Velo. To ensure traceability of each coffee batch, the Petersons refined each major plot into smaller sub-plots, allowing buyers of Geisha coffee to access specific planting plot information through batch numbers.

The Geisha variety was first discovered in the Jaramillo plot, and it was here that the Daniel siblings decided to increase Geisha's planting altitude. As the discovery and cultivation site of Geisha, Jaramillo has become the most renowned plot of Hacienda La Esmeralda. Jaramillo's average altitude is above 1,650 meters. The cool, moist air at high altitudes allows the Geisha coffee here to be rich in natural essences and fragrant. Currently, Jaramillo is divided into five sub-plots: Mario, Noria, Reina, Bosque, and Buenos Aires. Among them, the Mario and Bosque plots have performed excellently in major competitions. The Red Label Geisha that FrontStreet Coffee sourced is produced from the Mario plot, processed using natural method.

How to Brew Delicious Geisha Coffee?

Geisha coffee is world-famous for its rich floral aromas and complex fruit tones. FrontStreet Coffee's roasters hope to preserve more of Geisha's quality acidity, therefore choosing medium-light roast (with slight adjustments for different batches). This roast level doesn't significantly change the high hardness of beans grown at high altitudes, so brewing requires a certain extraction rate increase to present fuller flavor layers. This involves using higher water temperature and slightly finer grind size to extract more aromatic compounds. Additionally, FrontStreet Coffee wants the flavor performance of Geisha coffee to be clearer, so they increase the coffee-to-water ratio slightly, using 1:16.

To increase Geisha coffee's extraction rate while avoiding over-extraction while highlighting sweet and sour flavor layers, FrontStreet Coffee's baristas use V60 drippers. The V60 dripper's body features flow ribs connecting the top and bottom and a large central hole that accelerates water flow, while the spiral-shaped air vent design extends the water flow path, increasing contact time between coffee grounds and hot water. Each water stream converges along the grooves to the filter's center point, concentrating pressure on the coffee grounds, resulting in richer layered extracted coffee.

Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate the brewing steps for Emerald Red Label Natural Geisha served in their store. Everyone can reference and compare this with their own brewing approach.

The pour-over parameters for Red Label Geisha coffee are: Dripper: V60, Water Temperature: 92°C, Coffee Amount: 15g, Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:16, Grind Size: Fine sugar size (20-mesh screen to 80% pass-through)

Fold the filter paper to fit the dripper, moisten it with a small amount of water to ensure better adhesion, and pour out the water from the lower pot. Next, pour in the coffee grounds and tap gently to distribute the powder evenly. For the first pour, gently inject 30g of water for blooming, with a bloom time of 30 seconds. For the second pour, inject water to about 125g, pouring evenly and steadily in outward circles. Then wait for the coffee liquid to drop, and when it reaches halfway, inject the final water to 240g. Wait for all the coffee to finish dripping. The total extraction time is typically around 2 minutes.

Hand-poured Emerald Red Label Geisha coffee offers fresh jasmine, citrus, and tropical fruit acidity, with flavor layers that vary with temperature changes. The overall texture is smooth, and the tea-like aftertaste is pleasant.

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