Luckin Coffee Launches Gesha SOE Coffee! Is Gesha/Geisha Coffee Delicious?

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Yesterday, Luckin Coffee's Chief Welfare Officer released a preview announcement.

Before even having time to read the text, the word "GESHA" in the center of the image immediately caught the writer's eye!

Finally! Luckin is going to start featuring Gesha coffee beans! Although the company hasn't officially released relevant information yet, based on the word "GESHA" in the text, these Gesha coffee beans might come from Ethiopia.

The Gesha vs. Geisha Controversy

Currently, there's still controversy over whether the original name of this coffee is "Gesha" or "Geisha." According to Teacher Huaizong Han's book "The Fourth Wave of Specialty Coffee Studies": the "i" in Geisha is actually an erroneous extension.

In 1929, to crack down on some illicit activities, Britain established a consulate in Maji, Ethiopia, and appointed Colonel Richard Whalley as ambassador. Coincidentally, the area under Whalley's jurisdiction on old maps was a region called Gesha, where he began collecting local coffee samples.

In 1931, the Maji Consulate sent the first batch of coffee samples collected from the Gesha region, along with some cultivars purchased from local markets, to British plantations in Kenya. However, Whalley did not distinguish between the samples collected from the Gesha region and those bought from the market, instead mixing them together and uniformly labeling them as "Gesha."

But after completing his mission in 1936, Whalley used the term "Geisha" in his letter to the British minister, rather than the "Gesha" that was originally labeled. This led to all subsequent breeding literature outside Ethiopia using "Geisha" to record these samples collected from the Gesha region.

Understanding the Gesha/Geisha Lineage

In reality, whether it's Gesha or Geisha, it's just a matter of phonetic translation, and this name doesn't specifically refer to the Gesha variety we know today, but rather a general term for a lineage. The widely recognized Gesha variety today is actually a member of these Gesha lineages, with the designation Geisha T2722.

Currently, Latin American regions use the term Geisha for their Gesha coffee, while official Ethiopian documents and records of Gesha lineage coffee use Gesha.

The Ethiopian government has also designated the area where Gesha samples were originally collected as Gesha Woreda (Gesha County). Currently, there are still many coffee varieties belonging to the Gesha lineage in the Ethiopian region.

Luckin's Potential Gesha Source

Besides the fact that the term Gesha is more commonly used in Ethiopian regions, another speculated reason is that Luckin signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Ethiopian Embassy last year, committing to purchase 1,000-2,000 tons of specialty coffee beans from Ethiopia annually over the next few years. In reality, Luckin's annual coffee bean purchases from Ethiopia far exceed the amount committed in the agreement.

As Luckin stores continue to expand, Luckin also predicted that its total green bean purchases would further increase in 2022, with expected total annual purchases approaching 20,000 tons, of which Ethiopian coffee beans would exceed 6,000 tons.

In recent years, many coffee growing areas in Latin America have suffered from natural disasters of varying degrees. Judging from local Gesha production and Luckin's current sales volume, this might be somewhat challenging.

The Mystery of Luckin's Gesha

Of course, these are just speculations. In the released image caption, Luckin did not reveal specific origin information. Therefore, it's temporarily impossible to determine whether this Gesha SOE that Luckin is launching is the commonly known Panamanian Geisha, South American production area Geisha derived from Panamanian Geisha varieties, Ethiopian production area Geisha, or something else.

- This is what we commonly know as Gesha ↑

However, from this image itself, this bean doesn't appear to be the narrow, elongated type of the famous Panamanian Geisha variety we usually see. So, is this a graphic designer's mistake, or does Luckin's Gesha refer to something else? After all, some bloggers have suggested that花魁 (Flower Queen) is actually Gesha.

The answer will only be revealed after Luckin's product is launched. Let's wait and see.

Image source: Internet

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