Panama Geisha Blend Mariposa: How Big is the Difference Between Natural and Washed Processing?

When it comes to FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly coffee, many enthusiasts know it's a "Geisha blend" composed of several varieties. Its excellent cost-performance ratio makes FrontStreet Coffee's Butterfly a worthy Geisha alternative.

What we call "Geisha blend" is, as the name suggests, a coffee that includes Geisha along with other varieties. Taking FrontStreet Coffee's bean list as an example, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Butterfly and FrontStreet Coffee's Costa Rica Mirasu Strawberry Sugar are well-known representatives of Geisha blends. Additionally, as one of the few large estates in Ethiopia, the mixed batch produced by Gesha Village—FrontStreet Coffee's CHAKA—includes two Ethiopian Geisha varieties: Gesha 1931 and Gori Gesha, making it another type of Geisha blend.

The Composition of FrontStreet Coffee's Butterfly

Among these, FrontStreet Coffee's Butterfly from Panama's Boquete region—the place where Geisha rose to fame—is composed of three varieties: Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai. The largest proportion, about 70%, is the most renowned and high-quality washed Geisha. The excellent growing environment and 70% Geisha content give this coffee not only the rich aroma of high-altitude Panama coffee but also outstanding citrus-honey notes in body, acidity, and floral qualities during cupping.

In growing regions, this kind of variety mixing is a very common phenomenon. Take Ethiopia, which everyone is familiar with—whether it's plants in farmers' backyards or coffee trees in the wild forests, they generally don't specifically identify and categorize them, making almost no distinction. Various coffee trees are interplanted with other economic crops on the land, harvested only when ripe, processed, and then exported as "Heirloom." Coffee harvested this way combines the同期 harvests of multiple small farmers, with a single batch potentially covering dozens or even hundreds of undifferentiated varieties, yet it's still defined as single-origin coffee.

Similarly, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly, marketed as a "Geisha blend," does contain three different varieties, but they all come from Boquete town in Chiriquí Province, Panama, all underwent washed processing, giving the coffee the fresh character of washed Panama Geisha, so it naturally should be considered a single-origin bean.

Introducing FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Butterfly

Recently, FrontStreet Coffee received the Natural Butterfly from the factory, so let's prepare to evaluate it and see what differences exist between the natural version and FrontStreet Coffee's washed Butterfly!

(Left: Washed Butterfly, Right: Natural Butterfly)

FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Boquete Butterfly uses 70% Geisha combined with 30% Caturra and Catuai! This kind of mixed variety harvesting is common in every region. For example, Ethiopia, with its countless native varieties, farmers simply cannot distinguish between them, so during harvest they can only strip them all down together and send them to processing plants. This belongs to natural variety mixing caused by natural reasons! However, the protagonist of our article today, FrontStreet Coffee's Butterfly, is variety mixing caused by human intervention.

The Origin of FrontStreet Coffee's Butterfly

Early farmers, in order to obtain huge yields, mixed Geisha varieties with other varieties to reduce land waste. But during harvest, they discovered that harvesting single varieties separately would result in significant losses in manpower, resources, and time. So, they simply stripped everything down together like in Ethiopia! And thus was born the Geisha blend—FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly.

Although not pure Geisha, it's grown in the renowned Panama Boquete region and possesses most of Geisha's characteristics. Most importantly, the price is very reasonable—regular Panama Geisha costs at least twice as much as FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Butterfly. Therefore, people often refer to it as an affordable alternative to Geisha! So, let's now see what different flavor presentations these two differently processed versions of the same bean will offer!

Natural vs. Washed Processing Methods

Natural processing, called "Natural" in English, refers to a non-technological processing method. Since humans discovered coffee in Ethiopia in the 6th century AD, natural processing has been the only processing technology for coffee circulation in the Arab world. Traditional natural processing requires no water at all, and the seed extraction process is very simple—first dry the entire coffee fruit thoroughly, then use machines to crush and remove the hull to obtain the inner bean. All that's needed is a place with sun. However, the disadvantages of natural coffee are also significant—it has strong dependence on weather, requires up to a month of drying time, and if there's wind or rain during this month, all previous efforts are likely wasted. Therefore, this ancient processing method is often concentrated in tropical countries with distinct dry and wet seasons.

Washed processing, translated from Washed Process, also called washing technology, is a traditional processing method that uses water resources to treat coffee fruits. Typically, washed processing steps include flotation, pulp removal, soaking and fermentation to remove mucilage, washing or continued soaking, and hulling after drying to obtain the coffee beans we need.

Compared to natural processing, farmers using washed processing must equip themselves with depulpers and build washing pools, and have a continuous supply of fresh water, so it's not suitable for every location. It's most common in places like Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Kenya. However, washed processing does have multiple advantages—on one hand, it reduces the defect rate of green beans, thereby stabilizing quality, and on the other hand, it significantly shortens drying time, making production more efficient. Of course, there's also what we're discussing today—retaining the "washed flavor" of coffee.

Brewing Experiment and Tasting Notes

Brewing experiment used bean varieties: FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Natural Butterfly, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Butterfly

Bean amount used: 15g

Water ratio: 1:15

Brewing water temperature: 92°C

Grind setting: Ek43's 10 setting (80% pass-through rate on #20 sieve)

Brewing method: Three-stage pouring

Brewing dripper: V60

Use twice the amount of water as the coffee grounds (30ml) for blooming. After 30 seconds, slowly pour in 120ml of hot water in large circles. When the water level is about to expose the bed, pour in the remaining 75ml of hot water in small, slow circles! Wait for the drip filtration to finish.

FrontStreet Coffee's Washed Butterfly took 2 minutes and 10 seconds, with tasting notes revealing white floral aromas, black tea, and soft, rounded citrus acidity that tastes very much like juice! The cleanliness is quite high.

FrontStreet Coffee's Natural Butterfly took exactly 2 minutes, with tasting experiences leaning more toward it being a red wine made from tropical fruits like citrus and pineapple, carrying delicate white floral aromas! However, it's not as clean as the washed version comparatively.

Conclusion: Processing Method Differences

Although it's the same bean, the differences caused by natural and washed processing are quite significant. Washed processing removes the coffee fruit's skin and pulp before fermentation, leaving only a small amount of residual pulp and mucilage to participate in fermentation with the green bean. This action allows the washed Butterfly to present cleaner, fresher flavors!

Natural processing, on the other hand, allows the entire coffee fruit to participate in fermentation. The large amount of pulp and mucilage from the fruit increases the fermentation degree of the green bean, so the natural Butterfly can present flavors full of tropical character!

Important Notice :

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