What Is a Gesha Coffee From Gesha Village?

Gesha is a coffee variety whose origin lies in Ethiopia, and Gesha Village is the estate the Overtons built in the Bench-Maji region after tracing wild geisha trees. This lot is a natural-process Gesha landrace called Gori, grown at 1,900 to 2,100 meters. The washed-style clarity that made the variety famous elsewhere starts here in the forest.

The story begins in 2007, when Adam Overton and Rachel Samuel visited the Gera coffee forest while filming, then met Willem Boot in 2009 and were urged to return to Ethiopia and find geisha's birthplace. They settled in Bench-Maji, near the South Sudan border, in 2011, where the estate land was still barren and wild tree species grew in dense forest.

Geisha is now a star variety in the specialty coffee world, but few know that its place of origin is actually Ethiopia. Gesha Village, located in the Bench-Maji region, is the estate established by the Overtons after rediscovering wild Geisha in the Gori Gesha forest. This article will take you through the story of Gesha Village's creation, its strict quality control system, its natural processing method, and an analysis of the roasting and brewing of this Gesha landrace Gesha Gori recommended by Front Street Coffee. From the production region background to cupping flavors, from green bean appearance to extraction parameters, it fully presents the charm of this unique coffee.

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Ethiopia Gesha Village Gesha Gori Natural

Front Street Coffee · Ethiopia Gesha Village Gesha Landrace Natural

Region | Bench-Maji

Altitude | 1900-2100m

Variety | Gesha Landrace Gesha Gori

Processing | Natural

01 | Production Region Introduction

In recent years, the coffee world has once again turned its eyes to Ethiopia, the birthplace of Geisha. When it comes to the rapidly rising green bean brand Gesha Village, the story must begin with the founders, the Overtons. In 2007, Adam Overton, a documentary director, and his wife Rachel Samuel, a photographer, walked into the Gera coffee forest in the Bench-Maji region while filming a coffee-themed documentary for the Ethiopian government. This experience not only gave them a completely new understanding of the land of Ethiopia, but also inspired the idea of establishing their own coffee estate and brand.

In 2009, by chance, they met Willem Boot, the owner of Finca La Mula and a BOP judge. The idea proposed by Willem Boot happened to open up a new direction for the Overtons: return to Ethiopia and trace the original birthplace of Geisha.

Eventually, they settled in Bench-Maji—the area in southwestern Ethiopia bordering South Sudan. Many places there are called Gesha Village, and it is also considered the most likely location to find the original Geisha. When they first arrived in 2011, the estate site was still a barren land.

Adam followed Willem Boot on an "expedition" through the forested land around the estate and discovered multiple wild tree species in a jungle wrapped in dense forest, the most surprising of which was wild Geisha. Only later did they learn that this was the Gori Gesha forest—the very place where the Geisha variety was first discovered. So they collected seeds from the native Geisha trees, selected them, and brought them back to Gesha Village for planting. They decided to establish an estate here and named it Gesha Village Coffee Estate, located about 12 miles from the Gori Gesha forest and covering 475 hectares.

Gesha Village covers a total area of 475 hectares. Since 2011, the planting area has gradually expanded, and by 2017, the planted area was about 320 hectares.

Afterward, Willem Boot was invited to serve as a technical consultant for Gesha Village. In a primeval forest near the estate that locals call Gori Gesha, they found samples extremely similar to the Gesha landrace planted at Finca La Mula.

Both the Overtons and Willem Boot firmly believed they had found the birthplace of Geisha, and subsequent breeding and planting work gradually confirmed this judgment.

At the 2017 Japan Barista Championship, Takayuki Ishitani won the championship using beans from Gesha Village, not to mention the outstanding performance of Gesha Village green beans on major auction cupping tables.

2017 Gesha Village Coffee Estate

Independent Auction Data Overview

(Source below: Grand Cru)

The first global public auction of Gesha Village Coffee Estate began at 9 a.m. BST on May 31, 2017, and intense bidding lasted nearly 3 hours. Buyers from Hong Kong, Japan, Greece, and many other countries and regions participated in the auction, and ultimately 21 auction lots were successfully won.

-Average bidding prices for Gesha Village auction lots

The owners of Gesha Village, Adam Overton and Rachel Samuel, once took part in an expedition to collect seedlings from the forest; today they have cultivated multiple versions of Gesha from that exploration, aiming for the highest quality. Rachel said: "Gesha is renowned in the industry for its high quality, but Ethiopia has not become an important part of its story, even though Gesha originally came from here. We are delighted to help develop a specialty coffee market in the Gesha region so that this amazing coffee can finally be offered in its birthplace."

-Gesha Village workers sorting coffee cherries

Three major stages of strict quality control:

Creating super specialty

(Source below: Grand Cru)

>Quality control stage one, Variety selection

In order to fulfill the mission of growing the world's best coffee, Gesha Village exercises strict control starting from seed selection. They sent coffee seeds collected from the Gori Gesha forest more than 20 kilometers away from Gesha Village to professional institutions for genetic testing, confirming that this was the original collection site of the Panama Geisha variety; subsequently, by studying the morphology of the coffee trees, the appearance and size of the coffee beans, and cupping results, they selected the Geisha types closest to today's Panama Geisha and began raising seedlings. The coffee varieties currently planted at Gesha Village are shown in the figure below:

-Current coffee varieties at Gesha Village

Because the estate is very large, in order to manage it better and distinguish products, the owner divided Gesha Village into 8 major blocks and then numbered each lot internally again to facilitate lot identification. It is worth mentioning that some Geisha estates, because their scale is not large, may not show very prominent differences between lots, but for a large estate like Gesha Village, the differences between different plots are equivalent to the differences between estates in Panama and must be taken seriously.

-Processing duration of beans from different plots at Gesha Village in 2017

02 | Processing Methods

Harvesting and processing.

With the support and cooperation of local residents, they successfully trained a group of high-level pickers and processing station workers. "Pick only the ripest coffee cherries" and "anything that falls on the ground or is damaged cannot be used" were requirements every worker was instructed in, while picking instructors would tell the workers what kind of coffee was the ripest and what kind of cherry was damaged. When the coffee was placed on raised beds for drying under the natural process, it was screened again to remove insect-damaged beans and greenish coffee beans. In addition, all drying environments first dried the coffee in the shade to avoid rapid drying in direct sunlight, which could make the parchment too brittle and cause it to crack.

-Gesha Village raised drying beds

There are mainly two processing methods used for the mass production of Gesha Village green coffee, as shown in the table below:

At the same time, Gesha Village is also testing multiple processing methods, including dry fermentation and wet fermentation, various honey processes, and more.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

The green beans are smaller than Panama's. Front Street's washed Geisha green beans have a very beautiful blue-green color, while Front Street's natural Geisha green beans have a beautiful greenish hue with a slight yellow tint, a warm jade-like texture, and smell of fresh grass, peach, berry notes, and the unique milky sweet aroma of oolong tea that most coffee beans do not possess. It seems that aroma and flavor are things that greatly require association, but the faint tea note is something we can clearly perceive.

| Unique floral and fruity aroma

Among many coffees, floral aroma and the intense sweetness of tropical fruit are the consistent characteristics of Geisha.

04 | Roasting Analysis

This Front Street natural Gesha Village coffee has relatively small beans and high density. During roasting, it also absorbs a relatively large amount of heat, and the Maillard reaction proceeds relatively quickly. In the first roast batch, I charged at a relatively high temperature of 210°C, and kept applying heat continuously before the coffee beans dehydrated and turned yellow, in order to ensure there was enough heat to sustain through the end of roasting.

The charge temperature was 200°C, and the power was also turned down relatively. During roasting, the power was gradually increased as needed. Under this method, the dehydration time of the coffee was relatively longer than in the first batch, with a temperature rise rate of 6-8°C every thirty seconds.

|

Geisha, roasting

In order to highlight the characteristics and aroma of this Front Street natural Gesha bean, a light roast is used, as this roast level can better bring out the bean's own characteristics, while too dark a roast will diminish the floral aroma and fruit acidity. Of course, this also needs to be adjusted according to the characteristics of the coffee beans and the roaster's understanding of the beans themselves.

During the roasting stage, a relatively small starting power of 140°C and a slower roasting rhythm were used to express the multi-layered flavors of this coffee.

Roaster: Yangjia 600g semi-direct fire

Charged when the drum temperature reached 200°C, with the damper set at 3.5. After 30 seconds, adjusted the power to 140°C, with the damper unchanged. The turning point was 1'35''. At a drum temperature of 152°C, adjusted the power once. At this point the bean surface turned yellow, the grassy smell completely disappeared, and dehydration was complete. Adjusted the power to 120°C and the damper to 4.

At 8'45'', ugly wrinkles and dark patches appeared on the bean surface, and the toast aroma clearly turned into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, it was necessary to listen clearly for the sound of first crack. First crack began at 7'43''. Reduced the power to 80°C and opened the damper fully to 5 (power adjustment must be very careful, not so small that there is no cracking sound), developed for 1'20" after first crack , and dropped at 193°C.

Cupping:

The dry fragrance is vinous, apricot. The wet aroma has a sweet orange juice quality, jasmine floral notes, sweet peach, vinous notes, pineapple, bright and rich. Slurping gives citrus, tropical fruit aroma, ripe fruit, berry notes, citrus, light fermented vinous notes, with a clear and bright acidity, smooth texture, grape, maple syrup, wild ginger flower, delicate fruit acidity, a clean and balanced mouthfeel, and a lingering, lively fruity sweetness in the finish.

05 | Brewing Analysis

Front Street recommended brewing methods: siphon, pour-over

Grind size: 3.5 (Japan Fuji R440)

Water temperature: 89°C

V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 91-92°C, grind 3.5, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15

Bloom with 35g water, bloom time 30s

Stages: pour to 100ml and pause, then slowly pour to 225ml,

That is 30-100-95

Other drip extraction suggestions:

French press, recommended grind size 3.5-4 / water temperature 92°C

AeroPress, recommended grind size 2.5, water temperature 88°C

Pour-over: grind size 3.5, water temperature 89°C

3.5 grind - 90°C water temperature

Sweetness: ☆☆☆ ☆

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.