What Do Geisha Coffee Labels Like Red and Gold Mean?

Geisha coffee earned its Chinese name from the spelling of "geisha"; growers in Taiwan transliterated it, and in 2006 Coffee Review's Mr. Yuan introduced Panama Geisha to mainland China under the name "Geisha." That shared name is why Huakui, a Sidamo coffee from Ethiopia, was once wrongly called top-grade Geisha. Labels such as Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label and Gesha Village Gold Label reflect estate grading, not a single universal standard.

Geisha was found in an Ethiopian forest in 1931 and stayed obscure until 2004, when Hacienda La Esmeralda used seeds from Costa Rica to win the BOP competition. Huakui won the TOH in 2017 and has changed by version each year since. Huakui flavor and Geisha flavor differ, so check the origin and version rather than going by color labels when ordering.

Behind the two names, Geisha and Huakui, which are often confused with each other, what stories are actually hidden? From the perspective of Front Street, this article sorts out the origin of Geisha being called "Geisha" in China, explains the actual meaning of grading systems such as Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label and Gesha Village Gold Label, and also reviews the journey of Huakui coffee from winning the TOH in 2017 to its yearly version changes. The article will also compare the flavor differences between "Huakui flavor" and "Geisha flavor," helping coffee lovers no longer be confused by "color-clash" labels or version numbers when ordering, and truly understand the origins and development of these two popular coffees.

(On the left is Sidamo Huakui coffee, and on the right is Panama Geisha coffee.)

Front Street still remembers that during the years when Huakui was at its hottest, a claim circulated online: Huakui is top-grade Geisha. Today, Huakui's background has long been thoroughly exposed, so this claim naturally collapses on its own, but at the time, quite a few people were indeed misled. The reason this misunderstanding arose is inextricably linked to Geisha's other Chinese name—"Geisha."

"Geisha," another name for Geisha in China

In 1931, Geisha was discovered in a forest in Ethiopia, but for a long time afterward, it remained obscure. It was not until 73 years later, in 2004, that Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda used Geisha seeds introduced from Costa Rica to win the BOP competition in one stroke, and only then did Geisha truly enter the public eye. Since then, Geisha has almost become an indispensable "winning weapon" for major estates and competitors in competitions.

Geisha is spelled the same as the English word for "geisha," so friends in Taiwan directly transliterated it and called it Geisha. Later, people discovered that Geisha actually has a double meaning in Ethiopia: one refers to a specific region in the southwest of the country, and the other refers to the coffee variety produced in that region. Thus, in 2006, when Mr. Yuan of Coffee Review first introduced Panama Geisha to mainland China, he gave it a new name—"Geisha."

What are some representative top-grade Geisha coffees?

Many customers chatting at Front Street about Geisha always mention the two "labels" on the blackboard: one is Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha, and the other is Gesha Village Gold Label Geisha. Because the cost of green beans is relatively high, Front Street specifically listed these two separately and marked the corresponding pour-over prices, which are "75/cup" and "60/cup," respectively. This also attracted the attention of many friends, especially those who had long heard of Geisha but never had the chance to taste it carefully.

These labeled Geishas that baristas mention are actually named to highlight grade. Whether it is the Red Label and Gold Label mentioned earlier, or the Green Label and Blue Label further down the ranking, even if we cannot tell who is higher or lower just by looking at the prefixes, at least we can understand one thing: this Geisha from a certain estate with a certain label should be higher grade than ordinary Geisha, and of course, the price is likely higher too. However, this "label" way of naming exists only in the Chinese-language context. In other words, if switched back to their English names, you might not be able to recognize who is who, or who is more premium than whom.

The English original name of Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is "Esmeralda Special," translated into Chinese as "Emerald Special," and it is the highest-quality Geisha coffee bean produced by the estate. It not only requires a cupping score of 91 or above, but each lot also comes with detailed "origin information." The "red" in Red Label comes from the background color of the product's trademark. Hacienda La Esmeralda's Green Label and Blue Label follow the same logic, with the purpose of making it easier for domestic consumers to remember and distinguish them.

Similarly, Gesha Village Gold Label Geisha also has its own English name, "Rarities," meaning "rare treasures." Simply put, it is the highest-grade Geisha released by Gesha Village (non-auction lots). The "gold" in Gold Label also comes from the background color of the product's trademark. According to information on Gesha Village's official website, Geisha coffee of this grade accounts for only 10% of the estate's total production. Like Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label, each lot is marked with plot information for buyers' reference.

This way of replacing the original product name with a background color does make Geishas of different grades more accessible and easier to remember, but sometimes it also causes mix-ups because of "color clashes." For example, in the Geisha production and sales systems established by these two estates, both have grades with red and green as background panels, so there are actually two "Red Labels" and two "Green Labels" on the market. When ordering, remember to pay a little more attention, or simply ask the barista: which estate is this cup of Geisha actually from?

A long-running popular favorite—"Huakui"

In 2017, the Buku Abel processing station in Hambela, within the Guji sub-region of Ethiopia, won the TOH championship with a naturally processed heirloom coffee bean. This bean had an intense strawberry flavor, high sweetness, and a creamy, smooth mouthfeel. This was Huakui.

After winning the championship, the green beans from this champion lot were imported by a green bean trader in Beijing. In the same year's World Brewers Cup, China runner-up Li Jianfei used this bean to fight through the rounds, defeating many Geisha competitors, and ultimately won runner-up.

This bean therefore gained extremely high exposure, and with its outstanding value for money, it quickly won over a broad group of coffee lovers. Since then, every year we can see the new-season Huakui charging onto the popularity charts with a brand-new numerical number.

What does Huakui 8.0 mean?

Generally speaking, the naming of coffee beans follows patterns, and once determined, it is not easily changed. For example, Geisha is a variety, Blue Mountain is a origin, and Gutingting is a processing station. But Huakui is an exception. It is like Apple's iPhone, needing a new "version name" every year before it can go on the market. Why is that?

In fact, before this bean was called "Huakui," it had only one English name, "Hambella," translated as "Hambela." To put it plainly, what we call "Huakui coffee" is a traditional naturally processed G1 coffee bean from the Hambela producing area. "Buku Abel" processing station is its more detailed traceability information, located in Dimtu town.

After Huakui became famous overnight, in order to meet surging market demand, DW Company added up to 5 independent green coffee drying and processing stations in Hambella Wamena Wereda, all located within the core producing area of Dimtu town. In addition to the original Buku Abel, four other small villages—Buku Saysay, Haro Soresa, Tirtiro Goye, and Seke Bokosa—also joined the production of naturally processed coffee beans. It is reported that at this point, the annual production of "Huakui" under DW Company had already reached tens of millions of tons.

Since the 2018 production season, Huakui (naturally processed G1 coffee beans) from the same growing origin and the same processing station has already shown some changes in taste. Through cupping at the time, Front Street found that although the 2018 and 2019 Huakui also had flavors similar to the 2017 Huakui, they were inferior to the "first-generation Huakui" in aspects such as body and finish.

Therefore, in order to continue selling this naturally processed coffee from Hambela while distinguishing it from the original version, domestic green bean trading companies calculated forward from 2017 and created an X.0 suffix for each subsequent year's lot. For example, the 2018 lot was called "Huakui 2.0," the 2019 production was called "Huakui 3.0 and 3.1"... Last year's release was "Huakui 7.0," and so on. In this way, we can identify which year's lot the Huakui we bought belongs to through the suffix.

So why do people think Huakui is top-grade Geisha?

At this point, everyone probably has some answer in mind. The reason lies in the name "Huakui." Geisha's earliest name in China was "Geisha," and geisha in Japanese culture is a title for performing artists. At first, they were just workers performing in entertainment venues, but people often mistakenly regarded them as workers in another profession in those venues. In order to distinguish them from that other profession, the title "geisha" came into being. And the top performers among geisha would be given the title "Huakui."

The reason this naturally processed heirloom bean was named Huakui was to imply that it could defeat Geisha and become the top existence among beans. Then, this statement spread online and changed from "Huakui wants to defeat Geisha and become top-tier" to "Huakui, this coffee bean, is top-grade Geisha," which is truly both amusing and exasperating. To avoid making a joke again in the future, Front Street believes it is necessary to first understand what "Huakui flavor" and "Geisha flavor" are, as well as the difference between the two.

"Huakui flavor" and "Geisha flavor"

Huakui, if judged only by its literal meaning, might make one think it is a coffee "overflowing with floral fragrance." Actually, it is not. Huakui's floral notes are not especially intense; instead, its fruit aromas are particularly prominent, such as creamy strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus, blueberry, and so on. It possesses the ripe tropical fruit flavor unique to Sidamo natural beans, often leaving a deep impression. What won "Huakui" first place in the TOH green bean competition back then was exactly this rich berry aroma.

In the dry fragrance of Front Street's new-season Huakui 8.0, it shows a more intense fruity profile than 7.0, with dense aromas like guava, jackfruit, apricot, dried fruit, citrus, and pink florals. On the palate, one can feel the interwoven sweetness and acidity of multiple fruits such as dried mango, jackfruit, orange, and passion fruit. The juice-like quality is clear, and the mouthfeel is round. As the temperature drops slightly, the delicate sweetness of peach and the bright acidity of berries begin to emerge. After swallowing, one can feel a sweet aftertaste similar to drinking black tea, with very rich layers.

The reason Geisha has won the affection of countless coffee people is that, unlike the traditionally imagined strong black coffee, it is more like a fresh floral and fruity tea. With rich fragrance and complex fruit flavors, it reminds people of a series of unusual aromas. At different temperatures, one can feel a delicate texture and sweet-and-sour fruitiness filling the entire mouth. Geisha's extraordinary flavor characteristics are enough to make it the "ceiling" in the mouths of many coffee people.

Nowadays, besides Panama, we can also drink Geisha coffee from many coffee shops from countries such as Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Colombia, and Guatemala, each with its own unique flavor profile. If you are tasting Geisha coffee for the first time, Front Street suggests starting with Panama, the place where Geisha became famous. Coffee estates in Panama have richer cultivation experience with the Geisha variety, and their distinctive Geisha flavors are also more representative.

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