Is Geisha Worth It — Continued

Voca Coffee Notes - Geisha - 2

Sipping another cup of Esmeralda, let’s continue the journey of Geisha.

Is Geisha So Good?

The answer is: YES absolutely.

Geisha is labeled with astonishing floral fragrance of star jasmine, rose, and some with bergamot oil essences and orange peel.

Geisha coffee can carry a wide range of zesty fruitiness of berry, peach, mango, guava, citrus, lime, tangerine, pineapple … you name it.

Moreover, Geisha is usually intensely sweet, complex, and clean. It can leave a long pleasant aftertaste of moist sweetness even after an hour of drinking Geisha.

“This cup not only had flavors that matched the aroma in intensity and complexity, but added in a perfectly attenuated acidity, solid body and an overall sweetness that made for what may be the most complete cup of coffee I have ever had the pleasure of tasting.” — by Ric Rhinehart, the head of the SCAA (Specially Coffee Association of America) at judging the Esmeralda Special at the 2006 Best of Panama

Cupping Scores Don't Lie

While tastes and flavors can be subjective, the cupping scores are comparably more objective.

Cupping is a set of standardized procedures providing a consistent methodology for evaluating a coffee's quality. The mostly followed standard cupping procedures are defined by SCAA. The specially certified coffee grader, named Q grader, evaluates various aspects of roasted coffee, including, fragrance, aroma, flavor, acidity, sweetness, body, cleanness, complexity, aftertaste and faults, give grading scores to each evaluating aspect and then calculate the overall cupping score. The cupping scores can be from 0~100. Anything below 80 won’t be considered as Specialty Coffee.

(Cupping Score and Coffee Quality Grade)

In Best of Panama 2004, the first place Geisha from Hacienda Les Esmeralda scored at 95.6. Most of BOP first place coffee averagely scored between 94~95.x, with the highest judge score of 98; 2019 and 2020 BOP top ten coffee scored from 91 to 95.25. They all positioned at the highest coffee grade range. 

Numbers don't lie. These scores show that Geisha coffee, in particular Panama Geisha, is the best of the best.

Geisha, a Coffee for Special Celebration

Okay, Geisha is the best of the best. But Is it really worth it?

You can find almost all the great traits of Geisha in Ethiopian coffee, no matter the exquisite fragrance of jasmine, rose and even more floral essences, or the citrus brightness, zesty fruitiness of wide range of flavors, and they are clean too. For cupping score, it’s not uncommon to find Ethiopian coffee scored at 92, even 93. A finely roasted Ethiopian coffee can offer the equal, at least almost equal, drinking pleasure as some of those top Geisha, but at a fractional cost. So why pay more for Geisha?

I like the following two quotes which I really find resonance.

“ Geisha isn’t an everyday coffee. Taste and price-wise that wouldn’t make sense. However, for a caffeinated celebration, a special occasion, it’s okay to be a big-spender.” — by Asser Christensen on COFFE CHRONICLER

“ Approaching coffee as an art as well as an everyday pleasure. We want to celebrate the efforts of those who devote their lives to extending the possibilities of coffee as an aesthetic achievement, including those who crafted this coffee. And art, as anyone knows who reads the results of art auctions in New York or London, is not rationally priced.” — by Kenneth Davids on Coffee Review

(Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, (c. 1444/5 – 1510) auctioned at Sotheby's New York on January 28, 2021. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.)

While Ethiopian coffee can be an everyday pleasure, Geisha is for special celebration and indulgence for the art of the coffee.

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Not all Geisha taste equally. Almost all coffee regions started to plant Geisha. Even Panama Geisha are sold at dramatically different prices ranging from $20 to thousands of dollars a pound. How to choose the right one? I will continue to write about it the week after.

References:
https://coffeechronicler.com/best-coffee-beans/pan...
http://coffeegeek.com/resources/pressreleases/scaa...
https://panamalifeinsider.com/panama-geisha-full-g...
https://www.panamavarietals.com/geisha2
https://perfectdailygrind.com/2015/12/geisha-coffe...
https://www.coffeereview.com/at-long-last-a-98-poi...