A recent conference, Let's Talk Coffee held in 2014 stunned the distinguished panel of professionals. Ric Rhinehart of the Specialty Coffee Association described the experience as unforgettable. Gesha varieties from Ethiopia and Panama were on the table for cupping. The Panamanian Gesha holds a distinct jasmine scent.
Gesha coffee is now a worldwide phenomenon. The variety is showing up on tables in final rounds at the World Barista Championship and the World Brewer's Cup. The original Gesha Variety was discovered in Ethiopia's Gori Gesha Forest. Collected seeds found their way from the British Council in the 1930s to the Tropical Agricultural Research Center in Costa Rica.
Panamanian Officials returned to their country after a hunt for new coffee varieties to plant and cultivate. Wonderfully, the officials gave a handful of seedlings to the estate of Hacienda La Esmeralda in the 1960s. The overwhelming quality of the Gesha was discovered later after several migrations. The Panamanian Gesha variety is now grown on farms in Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Hacienda La Esmeralda is the primary producer of these coffee varietals. Rudolph Peterson bought the land in 1967 as a retirement venture. Coffee was a generational product in and around the Hacienda La Esmeralda. Peterson tapped this vast knowledge of farming and repurposed the land for specialty coffees.
Gesha in 2004, began its march to the most sought after coffee in the world. One of the Gesha blends produced by Peterson received first place in the Best of Panama competition. At the time of the competition, Peterson's Gesha broke all records for the highest price paid for green coffee.
In the 1990s the world started to develop a taste for specialty coffees. Peterson and the Hacienda La Esmeralda purchased additional high altitude lands to take advantage of the specialty coffee explosion. In 2004, the now-famous Gesha coffee was planted, and Peterson added infrastructure to handle burgeoning demand.
Panamanian Gesha, the coffee considered by many professional cuppers to be the best in the world. This coffee varietals possesses a sparkling flavor with bold clarity and sweetness. The high altitude regions of Panama produce the most dramatic flavors in the world like mango, berry, guava, and papaya among others.
Gesha trees grow best in higher elevation, such as the Bouquet region of Panama at 1450 to 1700 meters. The plant itself is a mutation of the Arabica and the Gesha tree, known for its elongated leaves and fruit. Beans from the Latin American region are known for chocolate and nut aromas. The coffee has delicate acidity, which makes it extremely easy to drink.
Luccari Coffee, a specialty roaster, delivers single-origin coffees from seeds tucked inside the Arabica Tree of Colombia. The country's high altitude, volcanic soil creates the sweetest most dynamic coffees in the world. Small "cherries" are handpicked in the picturesque rolling hills of Colombia. Luccari Coffee has captured the essence of the magical coffee bean.
Gesha Village of Ethiopia produces several varieties of the specialty coffee. Farms in the region produce competing blends for sale to baristas around the world. The village is divided into three separate sub-farms. Each sub-farm tracks the production and experiments with variety and fermentation. Cherries from each farm are tagged and tracked from the mill to the time of export.
GORGI GESHA
ILLUBABOR FOREST
GESHA 1931
Environmentally friendly farms throughout the Ethiopian region have made firm commitments to the future of their product. The Agroforestry Farming approach integrates native trees and shrubs back into the Ethiopian environment, promoting sustainability for the future of the country.
Intense fruit flavoring makes Gesha hard to pair with other drinks and food. Many combine either Gesha with berry deserts or other fruit-based cuisines. However, try these specialty foods when you want something unique with Gesha.
Gesha coffees are a prized addition to any collection. One of the reasons for the exclusivity is the Gesha only thrives in microclimates in higher regions. Since 2004, Gesha coffee has continued to win world championships with no sign of slowing down. Growers are taking great pains to bring different varieties to the market while keeping current blends exclusive.
Panamanian Gesha, considered the most expensive brand of coffee in the world with single bags fetching more than $100. Price is dependent on what region the coffee comes from and where the beans rank in professional cupping. Coffee aficionados will pay the price for a quality cup with a good background. For the casual coffee drinker, Gesha may be too expensive for an everyday cup.
Casual coffee drinkers may find Gesha a pleasant splurge at their favorite roaster. The sweet, bright taste of Gesha is a surprise. For the first time Gesha drinkers it tastes like a sweet tea rather than a specialty coffee.
The most significant aspect of Gesha is each grower, no matter the region of the world has committed to sustainability. Gesha Village and Hacienda La Esmeralda seek out new ways to cultivate and process.
Every grower is dedicated to producing the best coffee in the world.
With these tips in mind, you can shop for specialty beans knowing you’ll enjoy rich, robust coffee every day. Investing in coffee with traceable origins, superior grading and high SCAA ratings takes your java experience to the next level and guarantees every cup is a delight.
Don’t waste a single specialty bean! Be a smart home barista, and adopt practices designed to avoid a coffee disaster:
With these tips in mind, you can shop for specialty beans knowing you’ll enjoy rich, robust coffee every day. Investing in coffee with traceable origins, superior grading and high SCAA ratings takes your java experience to the next level and guarantees every cup is a delight.
]]>
Water at 195 to 205 degrees Fahrenheit is recommended for pour-over and French press coffee. All brewing vessels should be cleaned thoroughly after use to ensure consistent flavor.
]]>
Seeking out the ripest coffee cherries requires skill and patience. For specialty varieties, coffee is picked selectively before being dried and sorted. Sun drying, or natural drying, is the traditional method for removing moisture from coffee cherries, but a wet processing method may also be used. In this method, cherries are put in a water bath, and under ripe fruits floating to the top are separated. The remaining cherries are put through a machine or a fermentation process to remove the flesh and pulp before being washed again.
Regardless of the drying process, all beans must be hulled afterward to be ready for roasting. The green coffee beans are sorted again at this stage to ensure only the best beans are handed over to the roaster.
]]>
Grade is calculated based on a 350-gram sample of beans sorted and sized using screens.
Once coffee has been graded and the first sample roasted, it undergoes the cupping process. Ratings for this stage look at characteristics like aroma, flavor, aftertaste, acidity, body, balance, sweetness, flavor defects and the quality of flavor through the whole cup. Based on these characteristics, coffee is rated on an SCAA scale of 80 to 100. Anything below 80 can’t qualify as specialty, and only the most outstanding coffees receive a rating of 100.
]]>
The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) defines specialty coffee as “the highest quality green coffee beans roasted to their greatest flavor potential by true craftspeople and then properly brewed to well-established SCAA developed standards.” These rigorous standards include:
To meet these standards, meticulous procedures are followed during the harvesting, processing and roasting of specialty beans. Each batch can be traced back to its origins in countries like Colombia, Kenya and Ethiopia.
By contrast, commodity coffee is harvested and processed with mass distribution in mind. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to discover the true country of origin even if the company puts one on the label, and the level of attention given to preparing the beans is much lower than with specialty varieties.
]]>
To achieve this superiority, coffee is harvested at peak ripeness and sorted with a discerning eye. Only the best beans move on to skilled roasters with the knowledge necessary to ensure a high-quality finished product. Followed along the chain from harvester to seller, each batch of specialty beans has characteristics putting it a cut above commodity brands.
You can be sure you’ll get a delicious cup from specialty beans because of the “cupping” step in the production process. Before all beans in a batch are roasted, coffee is brewed to another set of standards set by the SCAA. These include rules for:
By the time the coffee reaches your kitchen, someone else has already ensured it meets the standards required to earn the “specialty” designation.
]]>