Luckin Geisha Coffee Varieties Regional Characteristics Americano Flavor Description Mouthfeel Estate Specialty Coffee Introduction

Since Luckin Coffee launched its Geisha SOE series, it has become a hot topic among coffee professionals. Many people feel that using Geisha beans to make espresso and then adding water or milk to create espresso-based drinks is somewhat wasteful.

Why Do So Many People Feel It's Wasteful to Use Geisha Coffee Beans for Espresso?

Although Luckin Coffee launched a Geisha SOE, it did not use the well-known, expensive, low-yield Panamanian Geisha beans. People call it wasteful probably because Panamanian Geisha itself has delicate floral aromas and fruity acidity, which suit light to medium roasting.

As a chain, Luckin Coffee needs to minimize differences between locations, while espresso emphasizes richness, so its Geisha beans are roasted dark. The darker the roast, the more the unique floral and fruit aromas of Geisha are destroyed.

In fact, the Geisha beans Luckin Coffee used this time are not the variety everyone knows, full of floral and fruity aromas. They are native coffee beans from the Benshanguel region of Ethiopia's Gesha area.

Just as Yirgacheffe beans are named after their producing region, Luckin's Geisha beans follow the same principle.

What's the Difference Between Panamanian and Ethiopian Geisha?

According to research by FrontStreet Coffee, although Panamanian Geisha also originated from the Gesha area, the variety had already been cultivated and studied by different countries and researchers before it became famous, developing into many distinct Geisha types, and was registered as T2722 after reaching Costa Rica.

Beans from the Panama region have undergone multiple generations of cultivation, and the plants have continuously optimized their genes to adapt to the local terroir and climate, ultimately producing such delicate flavors.

Ethiopia's Geisha, however, although also from the Gesha area, has not been domesticated by humans or moved away to undergo genetic change, so it is truly native. Its flavor, therefore, is not as impressive as people imagine.

In Teacher Xu Baolin's "Bean Hunter 2," it is noted: "Native Geisha varieties are roasted past the second crack, with cupping flavors showing berries, nuts, spices, plant roots, and so on."

It is worth noting that Luckin Coffee this time also used beans roasted to near the second crack or beyond. As a commercial brand, it pursues consistency in every cup. Light roasting clearly cannot achieve that, and it is not necessarily suited to making espresso.

What is the Flavor and Taste of Geisha Americano?

FrontStreet Coffee used Chaka Geisha beans, also from the Gesha Village in Benshanguel, Ethiopia, to make Americano.

20g of beans are ground into a very fine powder, and 94°C hot water is pushed quickly through the compressed bed by a coffee machine at 10 bar pressure, extracting 40g of coffee liquid in 27 seconds.

Then hot water is added at a 1:5 ratio. The Geisha Americano shows citrus-like acidity, almonds, a tea-like sensation, and a slight root-like taste. The mouthfeel is somewhat thin, not full or rich enough.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

To taste how a truly native Ethiopian variety expresses itself, FrontStreet Coffee recommends its washed Yirgacheffe, a daily-drinking single origin that pairs white jasmine and lemon-citrus acidity with a clean tea-like body. It is water-washed and roasted medium-light, a style that preserves the bright, floral character that dark roasting tends to flatten. FrontStreet Coffee's Gedingding Cooperative lot from the Worka area is another excellent washed Ethiopian single origin to explore.