I believe everyone who loves coffee has heard of the famous Geisha. Geisha coffee shone brilliantly in Panama, which both made Panama Geisha famous and drove up the value of Panamanian coffee. In fact, the Geisha variety did not originate in Panama, but came from the birthplace of coffee—Ethiopia.
As the birthplace of coffee, Ethiopia is home to many wild coffee tree species. There are so many unknown coffee trees that even locals cannot distinguish them all, so Ethiopians refer to local coffee beans as Ethiopian heirloom varieties. The Panama Geisha coffee we know was discovered in a forest called "gesha," then sent to Kenya for research, and later spread to Uganda, Tanzania, and Costa Rica. Panama's Geisha variety was introduced from Costa Rica.
Documentary director Adam Overton and his photographer wife Rachel Samuel established their own estate in Gesha Village, near the Gori Gesha forest.
Adam followedthe owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda and BOP judgeWillem Boot into the forests around the estate to begin an "adventure." In a jungle magically enveloped by dense forest, they discovered multiple wild tree species, and what delighted them most was finding wild Geisha. Only later did they learn that this was the Gori Gesha forest, the place where the Geisha variety was first discovered. So they collected seeds from the original Geisha trees, selected from among them, and planted them in Gesha Village. They decided to establish the estate here and named it Gesha Village Coffee Estate, a 475-hectare coffee farm located about 12 miles from the Gori Gesha forest.
In Ethiopia, there are almost no large estates or estate grading systems. After Willem Boot and Adam discovered the Gesha forest, they decided to bring the management model of Hacienda La Esmeralda here, and thus Gesha Village became Ethiopia's first coffee estate. Their approach is that each lot, each label, can be traced back to detailed information about the beans, and they follow a strict grading system: Auction, Gold, Red, Green, and Chaka lots.
Because Gesha Village, like Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda, has a strict grading system, and after arriving in China both are named according to the colors of their brand labels, many consumers confuse the products of the two estates. The most frequently confused are the Red Label and Green Label Geisha from both estates.
Take the Green Label as an example. The Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label that Front Street Coffee purchased is a washed-process lot. Currently, Hacienda La Esmeralda defines "Green Label" as Geisha coffee grown at altitudes between 1,600 and 1,800 meters, mainly from different lots across three farms within the estate: Jaramillo, Cañas Verdes, and El Velo, carrying the classic Panama Geisha character.
The Green Label lots from Gesha Village refer to single-plot, single-variety lots from Gesha Village Coffee Estate. Many Ethiopian coffee beans cannot provide detailed variety information, but this Green Label can be traced to its growing plot, coffee variety, and processing method. As for the Gesha Village Green Label, Front Street Coffee also once purchased a natural-process lot and used a medium-light roast to highlight its floral and fruity notes.
Gesha Village Natural
Front Street Coffee's Gesha Village coffee uses natural processing. First, floating debris is removed, then it is sun-dried on African raised beds in thin layers covered with plastic sheeting. During drying on the beds, it is sorted again to remove insect-damaged beans and greenish beans. The total drying time is 18-30 days. Front Street believes that naturally processed coffee has pronounced sweetness, soft acidity, and complex fruity flavor notes.
Those familiar with the Geisha story should know that Hacienda La Esmeralda grows only one Geisha variety, which was once recorded as "geisha T2722," afungus-resistant variety. Gesha Village, however, has two Geisha varieties. One is the Gori Gesha variety. Front Street's Gesha Village Green Label is the Gori Gesha variety, named after the Gori Gesha forest where it was discovered. The other is Gesha 1931 (Gesha 1931), symbolizing the year Geisha was discovered—1931—and Front Street's Gold Label Geisha is this variety.
To more clearly identify the differences between the two,Front Street conducted a cupping comparison between Panama Green Label Geisha coffee and Gesha Village Green Label Geisha. First, 11.3 grams of each Green Label coffee bean was ground separately, then hot water at 94°C was poured over them. Within four minutes, the wet aroma of the coffee grounds could be smelled. After four minutes, the crust could be broken, the grounds skimmed off, and tasting could begin.
Through comparison, Front Street found thatGesha Village Green Label and Hacienda La Esmeralda Green Label are not very similar, and even present completely different style profiles.Hacienda La Esmeralda's washed Green Label Geisha has excellent cleanliness, with no off-flavors, a very smooth mouthfeel, and flavors that are more about white florals, blueberry, lemon, tea-like notes, as well as honey andbrown sugarsweetness that stands out especially.
While Gesha Village Green Label Geisha coffee leans more toward candied fruit and raspberry flavors,In addition to rich berry aromas, it also has bright acidity of cherry and citrus, with a finish of light florals and black tea in the mouth.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
