Geisha/Gesha.

A look at the worlds most valued varietal.

If I was to tell you that coffee could have the aromatic floral qualities of lavender & Rose, with a flavour profile that is both savoury and sweet, with structured tropical acidity and a complex herbal, green tea-like finish, you would more than likely tell me to sling my subjective hook…

My search for the unique and rare flavours in coffee has sent me down some pretty deep rabbit holes over the course of my career but, for some reason, all roads seem to lead me back to Geisha.

Photo by Europeana on Unsplash

At first, I dismissed the unbounded admiration for this elusive varietal, due to multiple factors, which I will critique in this article, and where better to start than my first interaction with this complex and often misunderstood seed?

It was late October 2019 and considering that Geisha had made its way onto the international specialty coffee scene in 2004, I was pretty late to the game. I had been hearing about the feverish raptures of this coffee sweeping through the coffee competition world from the very start of my coffee journey and read dozens of articles on the subject but, this wasn’t a world that I operated in and being somewhat intimidated and a little inconsiderate, I dismissed the fact as just another overpriced transaction that I was not willing to buy into at that particular time. However, as with everything that has the ability to keep capturing the attention of the world's most renowned authorities in your field, the years go by, and you eventually succumb to the need to find out what all the fuss is about.

I was heading to Brighton on my yearly pilgrimage to visit suppliers and I had just recently read an article that was causing a little commotion in the mainstream media. Alain Ducasse one of the most highly decorated french chefs in culinary history had just opened a coffee shop ( Le Cafe, Alain Ducasse) in the newly renovated retail bazaar at the back of the somewhat neglected Kings cross station that is, COAL DROPS YARD. The article read, that Alain Ducasse and his brigade of chef du cuisine were now in the game of treating coffee with the same level of respect as their arsorte of 3-star Michelin ingredients (about time) and wanted a place to showcase the finest coffee on the planet. The buzz in the media was around a £15 cup of YEMENI COFFEE (that has an alternative story and is also worth sharing at a later date) and I have to admit that the mainstream buzz and the high price tag had me a little intrigued. So, I made the decision to stop in on my scheduled layover before I headed to Brighton.

Let’s just say a couple of things about this experience.

Firstly I had never, up until that point, had the pleasure of being served by immaculately dressed waiting staff in any of my coffee-sipping soirees, this was an extremely serious and somewhat pleasurable performance that I have to admit was somewhat pleasing and disconcerting at the same time. I was there for the cup of Yemeni coffee but the menu was full of the rare and exclusive and I was eager to try them all. Among the range of perfectly placed ornate glassware, I spotted a small silo that was full of Panamanian Geisha, So, I decided that the Yemeni would be my amuse-bouche and the Geisha would be the main course.

What I consumed on that dreary Albion morning confirmed to me that hype once again outweighed the experience, as I trudged back to Kings Cross with a slightly salty note on my palate, I put my resolutions to bed and decided my relationship with Geisha would be put on hold. The coffee was not bad, it was just underwhelming and a little flat, I could tell there was quality underneath the mismanaged roast but, disappointment had reared its ugly head. As I sat on the train reflecting on my encounter, I was introduced to a thoughtful, considered part of my brain that had sat dormant until this experience and I invited it in. I remember writing in my notes (Geisha - what is all the fuss about and where do I find the good stuff?), and although my first interaction had been lousy I was not going to let this interfere with my search to find the quality.

For months after, my search continued but, I kept coming across the same problems, under-roasted, over-roasted, baked, and lots of underripe seeds. I did have some small success with sourcing and sample roasting my own batches from a small selection of importers but the results were still lacking and the samples were limited, and I have to admit I eventually gave up.

The popularity and the price tag dictated for this variety have seen many producers dedicate land to growing this extremely intensive and low-yielding crop and I just had to wonder if inexperience, limited resources and the idea that this crop could secure high financial reward were having an impact on the end results. My thoughts also circulated around the many examples of this variety that were just badly roasted. I had not personally roasted Gesha at this point but I was sure it would be challenging, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the sheer lack of roasting experience and the limited access to this expensive coffee was also playing a part in the demise of its true potential. How could something that was so revered miss the point so many times?

Let’s take a look at the Origins of Gesha.

The book above has been an absolute joy to read and this next part will reference some of its research. I highly recommend that you give it a read and I will link it HERE for future reference. Plus, it is research of this kind that is so important and crucial for the future sustainability of the coffee sector and your interest and purchases will hopefully fund more projects of this kind in the future.

Everything Arabica coffee can be historically mapped back to Ethiopia, the historical significance of this country from genetics to cultivation is the reason that we have incredible diversity in the coffee we consume today. The birthplace of wild arabica and the world’s main storehouse for genetic diversity means that Ethiopia is a crucial landscape when looking at the protection of genetic resources, and is key to the sustainability of the coffee sector. (Davis, et al, 2018) So, it was no surprise to find out that Geisha has its genetics firmly stamped in the wild coffee forests of Ethiopia.

Ethiopian coffee is world-renowned for its unique and diverse flavour profiles, the level of genetic diversity in the country is manifest in the chemicals that produce the flavour compounds that give specialty coffee its most sought-after flavour attributes. Ethiopia also has an extremely complex climate resulting in local and regional differences across its vast coffee-growing landscape. The word ORIGIN is said to have originated as a similar term to Terroir in the wine industry to describe the large array of geographical areas that produce these distinct flavour profiles.(Davis, et al, 2018) You might have seen the names of these regions on your bag of Ethiopian coffee, and I can confidently say that some of the best coffees I have had the pleasure of tasting are from these regions. They are: Yirgacheffe, Sidamo, and Limu to name but a few. Ethiopia has long been a hotbed of research activity and many of the prized cultivars we consume today will have undoubtedly first appeared in some of these geographical locations and wild coffee forests before they set sail for distant lands.

The Geisha variety was first “discovered” on a British colonial expedition in the 1930s, growing wild in the Ethiopian rainforest, this specific expedition saw the variety taken, first to Tanzania and then subsequently to COSTA RICA for further research because of its known resistance to leaf rust, there is also a brief but fleeting mention of the coffee’s connection with quality in historical RECORD KEEPING, however, quality and flavour were not the initial reason that Geisha found it’s way to PANAMA and the resulting 70 years of further cultivation would see this varietal go onto secure the accolade of the worlds most expensive coffee in 2004, grown on the renowned Peterson family farm HACIENDA LA ESMERALDA the coffee was awarded first place in the Best of Panama auction and sold for the hefty sum of $20 per pound, a remarkable feat at the time considering the most expensive coffee up until that point was $8 per pound. This became the catalyst for Geisha to spread throughout the plantations of Panama and the resulting price development is as follows:

• 2017: $601 per pound – Hacienda la Esmeralda

• 2018: $803 per pound – Lamastus Family Estates

• 2019:  $1029 per pound – Lamastus Family Estates

• 2020: $1300 per pound –  Finca Sophia

• 2021: $2568 per pound – Finca Nuguo 

  (THE COFFEE CHRONICLER, Asser Christensen, 2018)

Over the years after 2004 and the rise in notoriety, there has been an influx countries (mainly in Central/South America) taking a keen interest in expanding the seed bank of this coveted crop, and I have had the fortunate pleasure of experiencing some remarkable examples of just how refined this varietal can be, with the two best examples coming from Colombia and Costa Rica and quality is definitely out there and worth searching for.

There is also some heavy debate around the etymology of the variety and it is heavily debated whether the name Geisha or Gesha should be used when marketing this coffee. My thoughts on this conversation are somewhat indifferent however, I can see the need for cultural relevance to be adopted when we are trying to sell things. This is a good little ARTICLE if you are interested in exploring this debate further.

I will also link to the world coffee research page on this Variety, just because I think the work they are doing is worth a visit and a possible donation if you have the capacity to do so. (FOR THE FUTURE OF COFFEE)

The search is still ongoing.

The unfortunate conclusion on all of this is somewhat perpetual, and although I am slightly more experienced in my exposure and in a fortunate position to have tasted the rare elegance, I feel the inevitable disappointment will always exist. When something is regarded so highly there will always be a certain level of value attatched to the name alone, and this will not always translate to exceptional quality. As mentioned, I have had the pleasure of trying some remarkable examples of Geisha but these tend to be rare occasions. I often debate whether my own inability to see beyond the hype could somehow be having an influence on the way I perceive and interact with this coffee. There is something very human about wanting your expectations to be lifted to the highest levels when you are paying high prices and you tend to forget that there are multiple factors at play in creating value.

Maybe I just need to be reminded of the complex history, expert crop husbandry, high altitudes and skilled processing needed to produce exceptional quality and in the end, live in hope that whoever takes on the challenge to roast these rare seeds will do everything in their power to do them justice.

My search will continue but my approach will be more thoughtful and considered because, after all, the devil is in detail…

Burts.