Geisha Origin and Historical Story: Geisha Coffee from Gesha Mountain, Western Ethiopia Coffee Region

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Driven by the third wave of specialty coffee, many refined and elegant coffees have emerged in people's视野. Among them, Geisha coffee is a highly discussed variety in the coffee circle. Geisha is cultivated in many regions worldwide and has become the new king of specialty coffee, with particularly high quality and prices from South American countries like Panama, Guatemala, and Colombia. For example, Panama's Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is priced at 350 yuan/100g at FrontStreet Coffee, while Ethiopia's Gesha Village Red Label is 98 yuan/100g. The reason why Geisha coffee beans are so popular is mainly due to their rich floral aromas and tropical fruit notes, intense sweetness, and light tea-like body, giving people the feeling of sipping the fragrance of a fresh bouquet of flowers.

According to FrontStreet Coffee, there are many types of Geisha coffee, including Panamanian Geisha, Ethiopian Geisha, Costa Rican Geisha, Jamaican Blue Mountain Geisha, and Guatemalan Geisha, among others. With so many Geisha coffees, where exactly is their origin? Perhaps you don't yet know the story of Geisha - it was originally an ancient native variety from Ethiopia, brought as a coffee sample to Costa Rica's coffee experimental garden and distributed to several small farms for small-scale trial planting. For a long time, not many people paid attention to Geisha, until one day when Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda separated it from other varieties and it won the national coffee competition championship.

Origin of Geisha Coffee

Geisha coffee beans are also known as "Geisha" (same as Japanese geisha), but not originating from Japan. Instead, they are named because the place where they grow - Gesha mountain in Ethiopia - happens to have the same pronunciation as the traditional Japanese "Geisha." However, in recent years, the Chinese transliteration has mostly been "Geisha coffee" (瑰夏咖啡). Although the original homeland of this coffee bean is Gesha mountain in southwestern Africa, it was later introduced to Panama but because of low yield, coffee farmers actually didn't really like growing this variety.

It wasn't until Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda made a splash with this coffee bean at the 2004 Panama cupping competition that Geisha's fame began to spread far and wide! Another reason is that Geisha coffee production is relatively scarce, so when people equate price with quality, our Geisha coffee instantly became a legend. At the 2019 Best of Panama (BOP) competition, Panamanian Geisha coffee continued to maintain the throne of most expensive coffee at a high price of $1029 per pound!

Gesha Village Coffee Estate on Gesha Mountain

Since Geisha coffee originates from Gesha mountain in Ethiopia, what Geisha varieties exist on Gesha mountain? This is where we need to talk about the Geisha coffee from 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 not only rediscovered this great land of Ethiopia but also conceived the idea of establishing their own coffee estate and brand.

In 2009, they had the good fortune to meet the renowned骡子庄园主 (donkey estate owner) and BOP judge Willem Boot, and Willem Boot's ideas provided an opportunity for the Overton couple: return to Ethiopia to find Geisha's birthplace. Finally, they arrived in Bench-Maji, the region in southwestern Ethiopia near South Sudan, where many places are called Geisha village and it's the most likely area to find original Geisha. When they went there in 2011, there was nothing on the estate.

Adam followed Willem Boot on "adventures" in the forests around the estate, discovering multiple wild tree species in a jungle magically wrapped in dense forest. What surprised them most was wild Geisha. Later they learned that this was the Gori Geisha forest, the place where Geisha variety was first discovered. So they collected seeds from the native Geisha trees, screened them, and then planted them in Geisha Village. They decided to establish the estate here and named it Geisha Village Coffee Estate, a 475-hectare coffee farm located about 12 miles from the Gori Gesha forest.

Geisha Village Coffee Estate is completely different from most Ethiopian farms - it's not a small farm but a large 500-hectare farm with its own washing station and laboratory, located in the southwest near the Sudan border. The most special feature is that the entire farm only grows Geisha varieties, rather than the typical Ethiopian native varieties where the specific variety cannot be determined. Geisha Village divides the farm into 8 zones, with 3 main Geisha varieties. Geisha seeds are all collected from nearby forests, not from Panama.

Construction of the farm began in October 2011, with the first harvest in 2015. Due to enthusiastic responses from all parties, with the assistance of Panama coffee estate owner Willem Boot, they provided 21 micro-lots at their first international auction held on May 31, 2017, of which 19 lots were 120 kilograms each, with a few smaller lots. Bidders from Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia responded with unexpected enthusiasm, and the final winning bid price was $85 per pound, breaking all previous African bean auction prices!

The western terrain of Gesha Village Estate is relatively higher, with the SHEWA-JIBABU plot having slightly higher altitude, while the southern area has a relatively higher shade ratio, and the northern area receives longer sunlight exposure. Among the estate's eight plots, the estate manager selects the most suitable variety for each plot based on microclimate differences such as altitude, soil conditions, and shade conditions, ensuring each major plot can form distinct characteristics.

Coffee Varieties at Geisha Village

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

Gesha1931 was confirmed by observing plant morphology, bean shape and size, and its cupping profile - it's the closest to the mother plant of Panamanian Geisha. The Gori Gesha variety was collected by the Geisha Village Estate owner through their own expedition in 2011 from the Gori Gesha wild coffee forest, 20 kilometers from the current Geisha Village farm, and no duplicate samples have been found elsewhere.

Red Label Geisha Coffee

Geisha Village Estate uses a product line configuration similar to Hacienda La Esmeralda, divided into RARITIES (Gold Label), GROWERS RESERVE (Red Label), SINGLE-TERROIR (Green Label), and CHAKA. This Geisha Village Estate Red Label Geisha from FrontStreet Coffee comes from an estate located in Bench Maji, Ethiopia. This red label batch comes from the estate's Shewa-Jibabu plot, located in the northwest of the estate, where coffee trees are planted at altitudes between 1973 and 2069 meters.

Natural Process

FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha Village coffee uses natural processing. First, floating impurities are removed, then it's sun-dried in thin layers on African raised beds covered with plastic sheets. During drying on African beds, additional screening is performed to select out insect-damaged beans and green-colored coffee beans. Total drying time is 18-30 days. FrontStreet Coffee believes that naturally processed coffee has obvious sweetness, soft acidity, and produces complex fruit notes in flavor.

FrontStreet Coffee: Ethiopia Gesha Village Estate Red Label Geisha

Region: Bench Maji, Ethiopia
Estate: Gesha Village Estate
Altitude: 1909-2069 meters
Variety: Gori Gesha
Processing: Natural Process

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Parameters

Dose: 15 grams
Ratio: 1:15
Grind: Fine pour-over grind (78% pass-through rate on #20 standard sieve)
Temperature: 91°C
Dripper: V60

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Method:

Every bag of specialty coffee from FrontStreet Coffee comes with detailed information and brewing parameter suggestions. FrontStreet Coffee's brewing recommendation is to brew the coffee grounds into a bowl shape under the reference parameters, allowing the coffee to be fully extracted. If the water level is higher than the coffee bed, some water will flow directly down the side of the dripper. If the water level is too low, some coffee grounds won't participate in extraction, resulting in a weak taste.

FrontStreet Coffee follows this brewing method: first wet the filter paper and preheat the dripper and coffee pot. Use 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds, then pour with a small water stream in circles to 125g for segmentation. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring in circles to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from the bloom). Total extraction time is exactly 2 minutes.

This Geisha Village Red Label Geisha brewed by this method shows citrus acidity at high temperatures without losing body. As the temperature slightly decreases, the acidity becomes softer, with flavors leaning toward yellow stone fruit notes, creamy sweetness, light floral aromas, and slight dark cocoa aftertaste. At low temperatures, it reveals maple and berry notes.

Important Notice :

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