Description
Honey processing adds a cool depth of flavor to the more floral tea like attributes of the Geisha strain. Not over the top like many full naturals but does add some cool red-fruit contrast to the cup.
Geisha coffees are lighter roasting new wave coffees. These cups are about the more floral acidic and fruity notes of coffee and a unique and tasty treat for those who like jazzier lighter toned coffees.
A very cool, super clean, high rated lot of Costa Rican washed processed Geisha. Geisha coffee is a unique single strain that has been dominating the coffee competitions and top cups as of late. One just took the place of the worlds most expensive coffee from the recent Best of Panama competition going for over $1000/lb! Common for top grades out of Panama (not that competition winner) usually sell in the $40-$80/lb range. Although tasty, that is too expensive for our list.
Do not worry, this great cup comes at a much smaller price. With the success of Panamanian Geisha, every other country is readily adopting the strain. Costa Rica is having some lovely success and at a way better price. This is the first Costa Geisha to make the cut of quality versus price, a wonderful and exotic cup.
Tasting Notes: Very sweet and super clean with a little fuller body for this type of bean. First notes to hit are the winy, fruity, and floral aspects of the cup – very strong at the lighter roasts and show what a Geisha strain can bring to the table. There is a hint of balance with a little chocolaty note at the lighter roast points but if you roast it light, make sure you like the more acidic fruity tones coffee can bring. Medium roasts brought great balance with that wonderful classic Costa chocolaty factor, a bit less acidic, medium roasts will be a cup anyone would love to drink but retains the honey processed fruit forward note. Darker roasts were also surprising pleasant but much harder to tell the Geisha roots. The fruity tones still pop out of a more bakers chocolate undertone right at second crack, a little smokiness in the finish is just what some will be looking for.
Roasting Notes: Luckily with this bean we couldn’t find a roast we didn’t like. The lighter roasts really bring the more unique Geisha tones to the table which is what you are partially paying for in these beans but the medium and dark roast cups were just as tasty. If roasting pretty light, good to slow down the roast a bit to get more complexity out of the acidic notes.
The Aguilera Brothers are a set of Cup of Excellence–winning siblings who carry on their longtime family tradition by working together to plant, pick, and process coffees from their combined 60 hectares of farmland: Their father was one of the first to plant coffee in this area in the 1940s. The 12 Aguilera brothers and sisters divide the work among themselves, with two of the brothers, Felipe and Erasmo, overseeing most of the mill operation as well as the drying areas. There are about 20 varieties sprinkled throughout the family’s primary crop of Villa Sarchi, including Gesha and various different strains of the highly productive and disease-resistant hybrid family of Catimors. (Caturra x Timor Hybrid.)
The family typically hires around 40–100 pickers from the same families every year, depending on the size of the harvest, and Erasmo describes a unique approach to paying the pickers: The Aguileras pay higher prices for green cherry than they do for buckets of red, as a way of incentivizing the pickers to do an exquisite sort when they bring their cherry to be weighed. Because there are areas of the farms that are remote enough that they can’t be accessed as easily or repeatedly, Erasmo and his brothers know they would have fewer chances to do immediate selective picking for the ripest fruit. This way, the pickers make a better wage, and the sorting is done with care and attention so only the best cherry makes it to the mill.
The Aguileras do some of their drying on tarps that are laid out along one side of a large field below their micromill, where the coffee shares space with a soccer field that the family has built for use by the pickers as well as the local community and school groups. They are very active in the community and their family spirit extends beyond the farms and the mill.
dtrevino15 (verified owner) –
I love Panama Geisha, and purchase as often as I can, but very expensive. This Costa Rican Geisha is so amazing, Absolutely love the taste. It is very fruity like Panama, without the price. The bean is very unique in flavor. I hope to be purchasing for a long time. Thanks for the experience.
dtrevino15 (verified owner) –
I’ve had some problems with these beans. The taste is amazing, but found that I am having problems grinding them. The bean is a bit softer, so they keep getting jammed. I even purchased a new Espresso Machine with a built in grinder, DeLonghi La Specialista, and it too is having problems grinding these beans.