How Does the Geisha Coffee Variety Change Blue Mountain?

In 2020, Jamaica's Clifton Mount Estate planted the Geisha coffee variety and exported it for the first time, alongside a wider launch of sun-dried Blue Mountain. The beans ship in wooden barrels in very small lots. Clifton Mount sits at roughly 4,300 feet and has grown coffee since around 1750, so the estate pairs long Blue Mountain tradition with a variety known for floral aroma.

Rainforest Alliance coffee certification is held by Clifton Mount alone among Jamaica's Blue Mountain estates, and the Geisha barrels carry that mark. Traditional Blue Mountain uses Typica with washed processing for cleanliness, balance, and body. The Geisha lot trades some of that balance for jasmine and citrus notes, giving buyers a clear choice between the classic profile and the newer floral one.

In 2020, Jamaica's Clifton Mount Estate broke decades of Blue Mountain coffee tradition by not only launching sun-dried Blue Mountain on a large scale, but also cultivating and exporting the Geisha variety for the first time. This batch of Blue Mountain Geisha is packed in wooden barrels, produced in scarce quantities, and carries Rainforest Alliance certification. This article will present Front Street Coffee's exploration of this innovative batch in full, from the estate's history, the origins of the Geisha variety, washed processing techniques, roasting curves, to cupping and brewing insights. What kind of flavor will the combination of Blue Mountain and Geisha bring? How does one choose between the traditional Blue Mountain taste and Geisha's floral aroma? Let us taste and see together.

For Jamaica's Blue Mountain Clifton Mount Estate, 2020 was a highly groundbreaking year. In the past, the Blue Mountain region had always focused on the Typica variety combined with washed processing, producing coffee with excellent cleanliness, balance, and a rich body. Starting in 2019, Clifton Mount Estate tried launching small quantities of sun-dried Blue Mountain coffee beans, and the market feedback was good, so in 2020 they further expanded sun-dried Blue Mountain production, and Front Street Coffee also purchased this batch.

In the same year, Clifton Mount Estate's biggest pioneering move was to begin cultivating the Geisha variety, and this batch of beans arrived in China in late November. Front Street Coffee obtained a barrel of Blue Mountain Geisha at the first opportunity. Like the classic Blue Mountain No. 1, the export beans are sealed in wooden barrels, and this batch's production is very limited. The barrel bears the Rainforest Alliance certification mark—currently, only Clifton Mount Estate in Jamaica's Blue Mountain region has passed this certification.

First, let us get to know Clifton Mount Estate. The Blue Mountain coffees currently sold by Front Street Coffee all come from this estate. The estate's coffee cultivation history can be traced back to the mid-18th century, around 1750. Its cultivation and processing area has an average altitude of about 4,300 feet (1,310.64 meters). Sufficient altitude, gentle afternoon cloud and mist shading, abundant sunlight, and mineral-rich soil provide superior growing conditions for the coffee trees and also extend the fruit ripening period.

Clifton Mount Estate is also the only estate in the Blue Mountain growing region to obtain Rainforest certification. This certification requires traditional cultivation under native forest shade, belonging to an ecologically beneficial farming system. Part of the alliance's revenue is used for wildlife protection in tropical rainforest animal reserves and for improving laborers' living conditions.

Why has the Blue Mountain estate remained focused and unchanged for ten years, yet begun seeking innovation in recent years?

There were previously reports that Jamaica was trial-planting the Bourbon variety. After learning of this, Front Street's colleagues speculated about Jamaica's reasons for doing so. In the past, people's understanding of coffee remained at the richness of Mandheling and the extremely balanced, full flavor of Blue Mountain; traditional Blue Mountain coffee existed like the king of birds.

But in recent years, the specialty coffee market has flourished, and light roasting has become a trend. First came Yirgacheffe with its explosive fruity notes, followed by the famous Panama Geisha, setting off a global pursuit of coffee's bright acidity. Blue Mountain coffee, this rock-steady "old master," has thus been shaken, and perhaps fearing being forgotten by the times, it began gradually innovating; this year's newly added sun-dried Blue Mountain and Blue Mountain Geisha are clear evidence.

Geisha Coffee Variety

Geisha coffee beans are slender and elongated, with a fresh and pleasant flavor. From these two points, Geisha indeed does not resemble Central and South American varieties, but is closer to Ethiopian native species. When was Geisha introduced to Panama? In 1931, it was discovered in Ethiopia's Geisha forest.

Afterward, Geisha was sent to the Kenya Coffee Research Institute, introduced to Uganda and Tanzania in 1936, entered Costa Rica in 1953, and was introduced to Panama around 1960. Although Geisha has strong disease resistance, its yield is low, so at the time people used it as stock for variety improvement and it then faded into obscurity, until it was rediscovered in 2004 in Hacienda La Esmeralda's windbreak forest and brought Geisha coffee beans into the public eye through competitions. Clifton Mount Estate's batch of 2020 Blue Mountain Geisha was most likely introduced and planted from the Panama production region four years earlier.

Geisha coffee beans need to be grown at high altitudes to develop rich, captivating floral aromas. For example, Front Street's Hacienda La Esmeralda Geisha has an average altitude above 1,500 meters, while the Blue Mountain region is only 1,310 meters. Through cupping Blue Mountain Geisha, Front Street found that its floral aroma is not prominent; only by tasting carefully can one detect a faint hint of jasmine.

Blue Mountain Geisha Coffee Bean Processing Method

This batch of Blue Mountain Geisha obtained by Front Street Coffee still uses the washed processing that Jamaica excels at. During processing, the skin and pulp are first removed, and the beans are fermented for 12–18 hours. Then the fermented beans are placed in a pool and moved back and forth, using friction between the beans and the force of flowing water to wash the coffee beans until they are smooth and clean.

After washing, the coffee beans are still wrapped in mucilage, with a moisture content of about 50%, and must be dried to reduce the moisture content to 12-14%, otherwise they will continue fermenting and become moldy and spoiled. After that, the coffee beans are sorted and then stored in a dedicated warehouse.

Front Street Coffee Blue Mountain Geisha Roasting

For this batch of Blue Mountain Geisha, Front Street Coffee's roaster faced a difficult question: should it highlight the Blue Mountain taste or the Geisha taste? If it produced a Blue Mountain taste, what would be the point of the Geisha variety? If it highlighted the Geisha taste, would the name Blue Mountain still fit? To showcase the characteristics of Geisha coffee, Front Street's roaster ultimately chose a medium-light roast to highlight the floral and fruity aromas.

Charged at a drum temperature of 180°C, heat 130, airflow opened to 3; turning point at 1'32", when the drum temperature was 97°C the heat remained unchanged; at 3 minutes the airflow was adjusted to 4, at 4 minutes the heat was increased to 140. When the drum temperature reached 153.5°C, the bean surface turned yellow, the grassy smell completely disappeared, and it entered the dehydration stage; at 8'36" the bean surface showed ugly wrinkles and dark blotches, and the toast aroma clearly turned into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack, and at this point one must listen clearly for the sound of first crack; at 9'31" first crack began, after first crack it developed for 1'28", and the beans were dropped at 192°C.

Front Street Coffee Blue Mountain Geisha Cupping Report

Front Street Coffee conducts cupping within 8-24 hours after roasting sample coffee beans. Front Street's baristas generally use 200ml ceramic cupping bowls, with a water temperature of 94 degrees. The grind size is controlled so that a No. 20 standard sieve (0.85 mm) has a pass-through rate of 70%-75%. The ratio is 11 grams of coffee grounds plus 200 milliliters of hot water, i.e. 1:18.18, so that the extraction concentration falls exactly within the golden cup range of 1.15%-1.35%, with a steeping time of 4 minutes.

Dry aroma: caramel

Wet aroma: floral

Flavor: citrus, berry, pomelo, caramel, honey

Front Street Coffee Blue Mountain Geisha Brewing Insights

Dose: 15g

Grind size: medium-fine grind (No. 20 standard sieve pass-through rate 78%)

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Water temperature: 91°C

Dripper: V60#01

Front Street Coffee segmented brewing: 1. First pour 30 grams of water and bloom for 30 seconds. 2. After blooming ends, pour the second stage of water, pouring 100 grams in a circle from the center outward. This stage can be poured slowly; Geisha coffee is very resistant to extraction and needs a certain pouring time to bring out the aroma. After pouring, wait for the water level to drop to halfway. 3. When the coffee bed is about to be exposed, pour the third stage of water, 95 grams, for a total poured water amount of 225 grams. Wait for the coffee to finish filtering, then remove the dripper. Total brewing time is 1 minute 50 seconds.

Brewed flavor: citrus acidity on entry, sweet-and-tart pomelo, jasmine floral notes in the middle, and a finish of honey and caramel sweetness and acidity.

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