Kopi Luwak, once one of the top coffees and nearly impossible to find, is now surpassed by the new king of coffee,Geisha coffee,which is equally hard to come by. The reason Geisha coffee is so hard to find is its high price. If you actually get your hands on a bag of Geisha coffee beans, you would naturally treasure and appreciate it. However, as a coffee novice still in the beginner stage of coffee brewing, how would you know so many extraction principles? If it doesn't taste good when brewed, wouldn't that be wasting something precious?
Since the Front Street Panama Geisha coffee beans on the Front Street Coffee menu are a light roast, Front Street generally uses a Hario V60 dripper, a finer grind size, and a higher water temperature when brewing PanamaFront Street Geishacoffee.
Dripper: Hario V60
Water temperature: 92°C
Dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:16
Grind size: fine granulated sugar (80% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve)
First pour 30 grams of hot water in a "の" shape for a 30-second bloom, then pour from the center in a thin stream and slowly circle outward until reaching 140 grams, stop, wait for the water level in the dripper to drop until the coffee bed is about to be exposed, then continue circling and pouring until 240 grams. The total extraction time is about 2 minutes.
Some friends have noticed that Front Street uses a 1:16 coffee-to-water ratio when brewing Front Street Panama Geisha. This is because Front Street Geisha coffee is resistant to extraction, and with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, the resulting coffee liquid instead has flavors that are too concentrated. When Front Street slightly widened the coffee-to-water ratio to 1:16, it found that the flavors of the Geisha coffee were able to unfold, the white floral aroma became more clearly expressed, the acidity became softer, and the sweetness became more pronounced.
Because Geisha coffee has a unique flavor, many people, after tasting this coffee flavor that "only belongs in heaven," have set their sights on the Geisha coffee variety and try Geisha coffee from every coffee-producing region. Costa Rica, Honduras, Bolivia, El Salvador, Ethiopia—they have even tasted Geisha coffee beans from Yunnan, China, one by one. Some friends have even tasted Front Street's hidden offering, Front Street Blue Mountain Geisha. However, many friends have found that although it is the same variety, the taste can be worlds apart. Geisha coffee beans from other producing countries are still not as impressive as Front Street Panama Geisha.
As everyone knows, coffee is an agricultural crop, and when it comes to the flavor of any agricultural crop, the terroir of the growing place is extremely important. Unlike other growing regions, most places in Panama where Geisha coffee is grown are distributed in some primeval forest areas and are very close to Barú Volcano. These are conditions that other producing regions cannot replicate.
It is easy to imagine that those places have mineral-rich volcanic soil. With the protection of primeval forests, the temperature and humidity of the growing areas are very favorable for coffee cultivation. Many growing areas even have the added advantage of microclimates, with a humid and mild climate year-round. Because of the high growing altitude, the low nighttime temperatures slow the ripening speed of the coffee fruit, allowing it to accumulate more fructose and also giving the fruit more time to absorb nutrients from the soil. Need one ask: in a place with good mountains and good water, plus such abundant nutrition, can the quality of the coffee fruit be anything but high? Can the coffee be anything but delicious?
On the Panama section of the Front Street Coffee menu, there are many Geisha coffee beans: Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label, Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label, Front Street Volcanic Rock New Blue Label, Front Street Deborah Savich Series Geisha, Front Street Aurora Estate Natural Geisha, Front Street Nugu Estate Geisha, and more. They all have the white floral aroma, citrus notes, honey sweetness, and clean mouthfeel unique to Front Street Panama Geisha, but different growing locations and different processing methods also create different flavors. If you want to taste the most classic Panama Geisha, then Hacienda La Esmeralda is second to none.
When Hacienda La Esmeralda was originally trying to improve coffee quality, it compared and recorded the flavors and characteristics of multiple coffee varieties, and unexpectedly discovered that Geisha coffee had a unique white floral aroma, citrus notes, and honey sweetness, completely different from the typical "nutty notes and caramel sweetness" of Central American coffee beans.
In 2004, Daniel carefully selected a batch of Geisha coffee beans to enter that year's BOP competition. As soon as Geisha coffee appeared on the scene, it astonished the whole world, won that year's BOP championship, and also broke the auction price for green coffee beans. In the many years since, the auction prices for Geisha coffee beans have risen even higher, becoming more expensive year after year. Because Geisha's flavor is so special, in order to prevent the Geisha variety from stealing all the spotlight from other varieties, the BOP competition even specially established a Geisha group and a non-Geisha group.
It was because of Hacienda La Esmeralda that the unique flavor of Geisha coffee became known to the world, and for many years Hacienda La Esmeralda has been doing everything it can to produce batch after batch of high-quality Geisha coffee beans. Hacienda La Esmeralda is both the discoverer of Geisha coffee's flavor and its promoter. Front Street Coffee's menu, which lists nearly fifty kinds of coffee beans, certainly had to include it as well.
If you want to taste the most classic Panama Geisha coffee flavor, then Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is second to none.
Front Street Coffee Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha Coffee Beans
Region: Boquete, Panama
Estate: Hacienda La Esmeralda
Plot: Mario
Altitude: 1700+ meters
Variety: Geisha
Processing method: Slow natural
Hacienda La Esmeralda's classification of Red Label is extremely strict. Red Label uses Geisha coffee beans from above 1700 meters, and additionally requires a cupping score above 90. Front Street Emerald Red Label Geisha coffee beans are selected from the Mario plot, the very place where Geisha coffee's flavor was discovered that year, in order to catch a glimpse of its former glory.
In addition, this Front Street Red Label Geisha coffee bean uses a slow natural processing method. During processing, the complete pulp and mucilage layer is retained, allowing the sugars and flavor substances of the entire coffee fruit to slowly penetrate into the green coffee beans. Therefore, naturally processed coffee has a richer aroma and more pronounced sweetness.
As one of the representatives of top-tier coffee, many coffee lovers are extremely cautious when brewing Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha coffee beans. In fact, the finest ingredients often only need the simplest cooking methods, and the same is true for coffee.
When a coffee shop decides whether to put a coffee bean on the menu, it will conduct a cupping. The principle of cupping is very simple: just grind the coffee beans into powder and then soak them in hot water. In this way, you can taste the remarkable points and shortcomings of the coffee bean.
The French press, which also uses the soaking principle, is very friendly to many coffee novices. It requires no extraction technique and is extremely simple to operate. Next, Front Street will share how to brew Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha with a French press.
Since brewing coffee with a French press is a method that takes a longer time, the coffee beans should be ground coarser. Front Street recommends a grind size with 75% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve. The coffee-to-water ratio can be adjusted according to your preference: if you like it richer, choose 1:13; if you like it lighter, choose 1:16.
Brewing vessel: French press
Water temperature: 91°C
Dose: 15 grams
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:13–1:16
Grind size: 75% passing through China standard No. 20 sieve
Time: 4 minutes
1. Pour hot water into the French press to preheat the body and discard the hot water, then add the ground coffee, and in about 3 seconds pour in the measured hot water.
2. Pull up the filter mesh and cover with the lid, then wait four minutes.
3. After four minutes, gently press down the plunger to one quarter of the way down the French press body.
4. Pour out the coffee liquid and enjoy.
Compared with coffee brewed through a dripper and filter paper, because the metal filter mesh of the French press has larger holes, it can retain more coffee oils, so coffee brewed with a French press has a fuller mouthfeel and richer flavor. The Front Street Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha brewed with a French press offers an intense white floral aroma throughout the entire drinking process. After entering the mouth, a berry juice sensation wraps around the palate, the honey sweetness is obvious, and the overall layering is rich with a solid mouthfeel.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
