Flavor and taste characteristics of Boquete Gesha coffee beans & hand-brewed Gesha coffee: roasting level and grind size

For coffee beginners who are still new to brewing, how can you make a delicious cup of Gesha coffee? The reputation of Gesha coffee is proportional to its price—if it doesn’t taste good, it’s not only a waste but also a shame.~

.Because Geisha has high commercial value, besides the Geisha from the Finca Elida Estate in Boquete, Panama, which made Geisha famous, there are many Geisha options available on the market today.Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, Bolivia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, and even Yunnan in China grow Gesha coffee beans.Of course, even though they are all Gesha, their flavors still differ.Team members at Front Street Coffee have noted that Gesha beans from other producing countries simply don’t match the vibrancy of Panamanian Gesha.Therefore, if you are coming to try Geisha coffee, HowToTrip Coffee recommends starting with Panama, especially the Boquete Geisha from the same producing region as the Hacienda La Esmeralda.

The reason for not choosing Hacienda Esmeralda Gesha is simple—it’s self-brewed Gesha, and the trial-and-error cost of brewing is high.Of course, if money is no object, you can go for it — Front Street Coffee recommends first trying the Gesha brewed by baristas in a café, so you at least know what professionally brewed Gesha tastes like.For cupping or tasting, you can directly brew beans from the Emerald Estate, or even go for the top-tier Red Label directly. A cup isn’t expensive — for example, at Qianjie Coffee, a Red Label cup costs just 75 RMB, Green Label 60 RMB, and Blue Label is even cheaper at around 30 RMB.

To get back to the point, Qianjie Coffee shares the hand-brewing parameters for Gesha.

Filter: V60#01
Water temperature: 91°C
Coffee amount: 15g
Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15
Grind size: Medium-fine grind (78% passing rate through a 20-mesh sieve according to Chinese standards)

Front Street considered that this Geisha coffee bean is lightly roasted. Light-roasted beans have a lower coffee solubility rate compared to dark-roasted beans. Therefore, to ensure sufficient extraction of Geisha flavors, a higher water temperature was used for brewing, along with a finer grind size.Some fans have noticed that Front Street has always recommended a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, while Emerald Estate Gesha uses 1:16. That’s because slightly increasing the water ratio helps better experience the layered flavors and aroma of Gesha.