Gesha

Gesha is the most valuable name in coffee and one of the least precise.

Where it came from

The material was collected from forest populations near the town of Gesha in western Ethiopia. British collections in the 1930s moved it to Kenya, then to Uganda and Tanzania, and it reached Central America in 1953 as accession T2722. The spelling “Geisha” entered circulation through an import manifest and stuck, which is why both spellings describe the same thing.

In 2004 a Panamanian entry at Best of Panama produced a cup that judges had not met in that form, and the price of the name has not come back down since.

A population, not a plant

Because it is landrace material rather than a bred cultivar, Gesha is not one genotype. The Panamanian T2722 line is a specific, traceable thing. Coffee sold as Gesha elsewhere is often a different Ethiopian population that shares the name, and the two can cup very differently.

Two practical consequences. A Gesha that does not taste like the profile above may be perfectly genuine material of a different population. And the price attaches to the name, which means the name is worth testing and almost never tested.

It needs altitude

Grown low, Gesha loses most of what makes it worth the money, and the plant itself is tall, low-yielding and rust-susceptible. It is an expensive variety to grow badly.

Qualifications on the record

Parentage

Collected from forest populations near Gesha, western Ethiopia. The Panamanian material traces to accession T2722.

Typical cup

Jasmine, bergamot, citrus, a tea-like body and a long floral finish. Distinctive enough that it is identifiable blind - when it is actually Gesha and grown high enough.

What “Declared only” means here

Nobody has tested it. This is the normal state of almost every coffee sold.

Origins where it is recorded