Gesha vs Yirgacheffe: How Do These Coffees Differ in the Cup?

Yirgacheffe and Gesha Village come from Ethiopia but point in different flavor directions. Yirgacheffe takes its name from a small town, where "yirga" means to settle down and "cheffe" refers to wetland, and it is one of the country's most recognized origins. Gesha Village is an estate founded by Adam Overton, Rachel Samuel and Willem Boot.

The geisha coffee variety rose to fame in Panama, yet its roots trace back to Ethiopia, which is why the estate set out to restore the variety's original character. Comparing the two in pour-over comes down to origin background, variety story, processing and cup profile, and each responds differently to grind, water temperature and pouring technique.

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee, and Yirgacheffe and Gesha Village represent two distinctly different yet equally fascinating flavor directions. Yirgacheffe, named after a small town, carries the meaning of "a wetland where we settle down," while Gesha Village is an estate established by documentary director Adam Overton, his photographer wife Rachel Samuel, and Dutch coffee expert Willem Boot, aiming to restore the original appearance of the Geisha variety. This article will systematically examine the differences between these two coffees in pour-over performance, from origin background, variety stories, and processing methods to cup flavor profiles. It will also introduce the unique characteristics of Pink Bourbon from Finca Cerro Azul, and include Front Street Coffee's recommendations and product information to help coffee enthusiasts more clearly understand their respective flavor profiles.

Gesha Village

African coffee always carries a uniquely captivating charm that sparks the imagination.

Yirgacheffe is one of its most renowned representatives. Yirgacheffe itself is the name of a small town. In the local Ethiopian language, "yirga" means to settle down, and "cheffe" refers to wetland. Together, "yirgacheffe" carries the meaning of "the wetland where we settle down." Just a name alone seems to hold endless stories.

Coffee cherries sun-dried processing

Today we're going to talk about Ethiopia's Gesha Village Coffee Estate.

Geisha truly rose to fame in Panama, but tracing back to its roots, the original Geisha actually came from Ethiopia in Africa.

Gesha Village Coffee Estate is the name of a coffee estate, and its origin is equally story-worthy.

The estate owner, Adam Overton, was originally a documentary director, and his wife Rachel Samuel is an Ethiopian photographer. While filming a coffee documentary in Ethiopia, the couple gained deep insights into the local culture and the long history of coffee development, which planted the seed of building a coffee estate there.

Running a coffee estate requires solid professional knowledge, and before long, they met Willem Boot.

Willem Boot is Dutch; his family ran a café. He later moved to the United States and went to work for the roasting machine company Probat. In 2004, he served as a judge at BOP (Best of Panama), which was also the first time the Geisha variety appeared in competition. One sip was all it took for him to be utterly amazed.

The unique flavor of Geisha lingered in Willem Boot's mind, so not long after, he purchased La Mula estate and quietly planted and cultivated thousands of Geisha trees.

Surprisingly, in the 2014 BOP competition, La Mula estate won first place in the sun-dried Geisha category and eleventh place on its first attempt. Renowned estates like Hacienda La Esmeralda, Kotowa, and Elida were all defeated by this estate that had been established for only eight years.

But what Willem Boot wanted to do most was return to Ethiopia and find the land where Geisha was originally born.

In 1931, the Geisha coffee variety was discovered in a forest in Ethiopia called Geisha Mountain.

Later, it was brought back to Costa Rica by Don Pachi for cultivation and passed on to other estates.

At first, this variety had extremely low yields, but it was highly resistant to mold and had a tall tree structure, so it was often planted at the edges of many estates as a windbreak.

It wasn't until 2004 that Hacienda La Esmeralda separated it out and entered it into competition, and from then on it became famous overnight.

After meeting Willem Boot, Adam and his wife became even more determined to establish a Geisha estate in Ethiopia.

So they flew to Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. At first, they hoped to build the estate closer to the capital.

But considering the microclimates, soil, and other natural conditions they had observed in Panama, they ultimately chose Bench-Maji as their location—situated in southwestern Ethiopia, near South Sudan. Many places in that area are called Geisha Village, and it is also the most likely place to find original Geisha.

So they decided to establish the estate there and named it "Gesha Village Coffee Estate."

In 2011, Willem Boot came to the estate's groundbreaking ceremony and served as a consultant for the estate.

Amazingly, not far from the estate, there is a primeval forest that locals call Gori Geisha, where native coffee varieties very similar to those at La Mula estate were found.

The entire forest was filled with the fragrance of coffee flowers. They firmly believed that this was the place where Geisha was originally found, and that this variety was the original native species. Subsequent variety identification also confirmed this judgment.

Today, Geisha has taken root all over the world and won numerous awards in major competitions. Ultimately, it has returned to its homeland, carefully cultivated in the place where it originally grew.

In an era when we seek to restore the true taste of a region, the establishment of Gesha Village is undoubtedly an excellent choice for letting people taste Geisha as it originally was.

Pink Bourbon

It is said that Pink Bourbon was first cultivated by a coffee farmer named Gabriel Castaño in the Huila region. At first, it was mixed-planted with other Bourbon and Caturra varieties, and only later was it harvested and processed separately. Its cup performance is also quite special—unlike the relatively flat flavor typical of regular Bourbon, Pink Bourbon presents more complex citrus and berry notes in acidity and flavor.

Bourbon is a variety of Arabica, named for its pink-colored cherries. Pink Bourbon is a cross between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon. The cross-breeding success rate is low, so yields are extremely unstable, and careful isolation is required during cultivation to produce it.

Pink Bourbon shows high cleanliness in flavor, with its most appealing aspect being its acidity, which has a bright citrus-berry complex expression.

Our Pink Bourbon from Finca Cerro Azul uses the anaerobic processing method, which is quite popular in competitions today, greatly ensuring cleanliness while highlighting the bright acidity of Pink Bourbon.

EIHIOPIA BENCH MAJI

GASHA VILAHE LOT 12

Ethiopia Gesha Village Sun-Dried Geisha

Cup flavor: Peach, Apricot, Starfruit, Jasmine

COLOMBIA

HUILA LA PELOTA

PINK BOURBON

Colombia Finca Cerro Azul Pink Bourbon

Cup flavor: Tomato sweet-tartness, Sugarcane, Cherry, Grapefruit

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