How to Brew Geisha Coffee Beans? What is Geisha? Key Considerations for Roasting Geisha and Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Essentials!

What is Geisha Coffee?

Consumer goods with unique, scarce, and rare characteristics are internationally defined as "luxury goods," and the prices of such items are typically linked to their quality, making them generally quite expensive. In the world of coffee, there exists a coffee bean similar to "luxury goods": Geisha.

As we all know, Geisha has always been priced higher than regular coffee varieties due to its excellent flavor, low yield, and challenging cultivation requirements. These factors contribute to its high-quality and scarce characteristics, naturally driving up its price. (FrontStreet Coffee here refers to the standard Geisha price, not the severely overpriced Geisha that doesn't match its flavor quality.) Therefore, most people tend to be quite conservative when brewing, worried about ruining this expensive delicacy. However, it may be precisely this hesitation that results in a mediocre flavor. So, don't be afraid~ FrontStreet Coffee is here today to share how to brew a perfect cup—Geisha coffee!

What is Geisha?

The name "Geisha" is actually a transliteration of "Geisha." Like Typica and Bourbon, it belongs to a variety under the Arabica coffee category. The reason Geisha became so famous is all thanks to 2004, when Hacienda La Esmeralda used it to participate in the BOP competition, and Geisha bloomed with exceptionally excellent floral aroma, winning the championship. Since then, the Geisha variety has reached its peak, captivating countless people. Many have tried to knock Geisha off its pedestal with other bean varieties, but to this day, the Geisha dynasty still stands strong.

Characteristics of Geisha Beans

Let's take a look at Geisha beans. Compared to other common varieties, Geisha beans are larger and longer, with slightly pointed ends, presenting an overall elliptical shape.

(Hacienda La Esmeralda · Green Label Geisha)

Because of its distinctive appearance, in some Geisha blend single-origin beans (Geisha blend refers to beans mixed with other varieties, planted, harvested, processed, and sold together), we can easily identify the presence of Geisha beans.

(This is a Geisha blend from Panama: Mariposa, which contains 70% Geisha. Everyone can try to distinguish it~)

As mentioned at the beginning, Geisha has more demanding requirements for cultivation. It needs a higher quality growing environment to grow healthily. And precisely because of these requirements, Geisha has more time to absorb nutrients, resulting in greater bean density and hardness.

Roasting Geisha

When roasting, if we still use a fast-paced approach to roast such beans, it will easily result in an underdeveloped state where the exterior is cooked but the core remains uncooked. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee typically extends the roasting time when roasting Geisha to allow heat to fully penetrate the bean core, avoiding underdevelopment. For Geisha, medium-light roasting is more suitable because this level can appropriately reduce its acidity while highlighting Geisha's unique floral aroma! Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee will develop it for about 1 minute and 20 seconds after the first crack begins (depending on the beans).

(Image for reference only)

How to Brew Geisha Coffee?

So, how should Geisha be brewed to taste good?

We often hear this saying: as long as the bean quality is good, it will taste good no matter how you brew it. While this is true, Geisha is so expensive that it shouldn't just taste good—it should also allow us to experience its unique characteristics~ Therefore, brewing Geisha to highlight its characteristics is also very important. The Geisha we're brewing this time is Green Label Geisha, using 15g of coffee grounds~

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned, Geisha beans are large and dense. Therefore, to extract it properly, we need to use higher water temperature. FrontStreet Coffee here uses 92°C. As for grinding, FrontStreet Coffee uses a slightly coarser setting than usual, with a 78% passing rate through a #20 sieve. Due to its high density, Geisha tends to sink more easily, and fine particles can more easily cause blockages, so we need to use a slightly coarser grind to reduce the occurrence of blockages.

Correspondingly, after grinding coarser, we need to increase other parameter values to compensate for the missing extraction rate, and the coffee-to-water ratio is the ideal choice. FrontStreet Coffee uses 1:16. On one hand, the increased water amount can extend the extraction time, allowing the extraction rate to be corrected. On the other hand, Geisha has fewer bitter compounds, so we can greedily extract more flavor compounds. This makes it what FrontStreet Coffee often refers to as the type of coffee that tastes great even when the extraction rate is outside the golden cup range.

Brewing Process

When brewing, we need to know that Geisha has high density, so its water absorption speed is slower. If we still use 30ml of hot water for blooming, it will easily cause excessive channeling. Therefore, we can appropriately reduce the amount of water during blooming to minimize channeling. Similarly, the blooming time is 30 seconds, just pour water from the center outward to wet the coffee grounds!

After blooming, you can start pouring the second segment of hot water! FrontStreet Coffee allocates 120ml for this segment, aiming to appropriately extend the extraction time for more comprehensive flavor development. The pouring method is the same: start from the center and spiral outward, then continue spiraling at a uniform speed until reaching the target water amount. At this point, the time should be around 1 minute.

Next, we need to wait until the water level drops to reveal the bottom coffee bed! If your pouring technique is correct, the slowly descending water level will gradually reveal a "bowl-shaped" depression in the coffee bed. At approximately 1 minute 15 seconds to 20 seconds, the water level will drop to reveal the coffee bed, and at this moment, we can pour the third segment of hot water.

The final segment of hot water is 95ml. Since the entire coffee bed has formed a bowl shape, with coffee grounds originally on the surface now evenly distributed on the cup walls, we can now extract the coffee grounds at the bottom that weren't fully extracted in the first two segments! Therefore, the pouring method we adopt is: uniform small circles.

And this small circle should be about the size of a coin. At around 1 minute 35 seconds, the water injection will be complete. At this point, all we need to do is wait for the coffee to finish dripping!

After the coffee has finished dripping, we can swirl it around and start tasting!

Brewed this way, Geisha coffee has an intoxicating floral aroma, gentle acidity, and we can clearly perceive the flavors of white flowers, citrus, and honeydew melon. The silky smoothness of honey and the long green tea aftertaste are all outstanding characteristics of this cup of coffee. Go ahead and give it a try~

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