This coffee is available in limited quantities on our greens page as part of the Colombia Varietal Series.
The History
In the 1930s, this variety was discovered in the Gesha forest of Ethiopia before starting its journey across the globe. A research station in Tanzania analyzed this subspecies before it was brought to the Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Costa Rica, where it was distributed throughout the region. By the 1960s, the varietal made its way to Panama due to Gesha’s resistance to coffee leaf rust, but the branches were too brittle, and farmers didn’t favor them.
At that time, it was common to mix Gesha coffees in with the larger crop yield.
Gesha coffee, image courtesy of World Coffee Research
We see this varietal spelled two ways: Geisha and Gesha. The Geisha spelling was recorded by English buyers because there was no direct translation from the dialects of Ethiopia, a common theme with colonization. Today, the industry is reclaiming the spelling as Gesha, after the original forest in Ethiopia.
In 2005, the varietal rose to prominence when the Peterson family in Boquete, Panama entered into the Best of Panama auction. The coffee earned high marks and set a historic auction price at $20/pound. At the time, it was one of the most expensive green coffees ever sold at auction. This marked a turning point for the varietal, which we now see grown in many coffee-producing countries.
The Producer
Natalia Lezama Ramirez produces coffee on her 1.5-hectare farm in Acevado, Huila. She is president of Flor de Café Women’s Association, a group that highlights the work of women producers of specialty coffee. The association lives by the motto, “Like coffee’s bloom, women too deserve to truly thrive.”
Natalia preparing to brew the Gesha produced on her farm
During our trip to Colombia, Natalia and her husband Lisandro facilitated cuppings at Genesis Coffee Sourcing’s lab and hosted our group at their home for a coffee break where they brewed us their coffee. We sat bordering the Amazon Rainforest at the top of a valley while their kids ran around playing and partaking in sips of leftover coffee. It was short and sweet, but hospitality in the purest form.
Our Experience
Gesha is one of those varieties in the world of coffee that make ears perk up. Immediately, I think of a tea-like cup with intense floral characteristics, like a bouquet of flowers. The plant itself offers low yield and grows at high elevation, leading to very limited quantities
Natalia sharing coffee with the Cafe Imports group
I love this coffee because it has a flavor profile that goes against how I initially view the Gesha cup profile. It’s dense and heavy in body, with notes of stone fruit, melon, and florals. If you asked me to choose one word to describe this offering, it would be decadent.
Sources
https://varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org/varieties/geisha-panama
Cafe Imports Producer Information
