Good morning and welcome to today’s review! I have a special coffee from Pair Cupworks this morning, their Geisha, which is a natural Colombian gesha and I can’t wait to share it with you!
PAIR GEISHA
I am excited to share this coffee with you this morning, partly because of what it is and partly because I haven’t had any Pair coffees since the summer of 2018. I stalk their Instagram because Pair have some of the best branding I’ve seen. I absolutely love their whimsical labels of coffee beans being silly, dressed up in costumes, etc. So much of specialty coffee is so serious and almost funereal that I love Pair’s bright colors and sense of fun. Make no mistake, though, as cute as their branding is, the coffee inside is taken dead-seriously and they do it justice. Pair Cupworks are Kimhak and Eugenia. Kimhak is a barista and he handle the roasting of Pair coffees, which are roasted on-order in tiny batches.
This morning’s coffee from Kimhak is Pair”s Geisha, which is not the same coffee listed on their site currently as “Shady Gesha.” Kimhak just sent me this coffee last week and I’ve seen no mention of it on Pair’s socials, so I am guessing this is a preview and has not sold out, so keep your eyes peeled on Pair’s website for this one. The Shady Gesha is a washed Colombian gesha that is probably great, too! This coffee is a natural process gesha from Hacienda el Obraje in Nariño, Colombia, and it is grown at an astonishing 2200masl and processed on-site there. This farm was established in 1999, when agriculture was taking a big hit in this area of Nariño, and the Coffee Federation of Colombia didn’t even think coffee could grow that high in that area. The microclimate and altitude create low temperatures, but with experimentation with shade and controlling other factors, Pablo Andres Guerrero was able to make it work and now Hacienda el Obraje coffees are sought out for reasons we’ll see below! Geshas generally are highly sought-after coffees, so in order to not bury the lead, I’ll explain that after my thoughts on this coffee below…
I’m using my standard pourover method of a 1:16 ratio of 22g of coffee to 352g of Third Wave Water in a Trinity Origin dripper with Kalita 155 filter. I pulse pour through a Melodrip to limit agitation of the brew bed during brewing and, with a 30-second bloom, this coffee brewed in 3:25.
The fragrance of this coffee (the smell from the dry beans or grinds) is amazing! In the bag I’m getting tons of overripe strawberry and some sort of boozy liquer from the beans. As it was brewing I was getting more strawberry and tons of florals. As a side not, I’m not great with identifying a lot of floral notes, once in a while I definitely get rose or jasmine because I know those flowers, but otherwise, “floral” is as good as you’re going to get from me! In the cup, the floral aromas seem to dissipate quickly, but I covered my Origin dripper this morning and when I uncover it I get florals and fresh cut flower stems all day from the aroma. Taking my first sip at a temp that is a bit warmer than my recommended 110-112F start-tasting temp, I am hit with strawberry and a TON of banana. Yes, banana! I think tasting banana in coffee is a first for me, but it’s here in spades right now, for me. This coffee has a silky, syrupy medium body and a lot of sweetness right up front. That honey-like sweetness is quickly bombarded by florals, super-ripe strawberry with some beautiful ferment, that strawberry-banana flavor that seemed to hit its apex in late-1980’s candy and chewing gum, and a tartness that reminds me of cranberry. There is also a pleasant, balancing bitterness that I love in the second half of the sip and it is adding a lot of complexity and structure to this cup. As this cup cools that strawberry-banana note is still in play and I wonder if I’m really getting “banana” or if I’m reading the ferment from the natural processing as “banana” in my mind. Either way, there is a good amount of ferment to this coffee, which I personally love, but if you are one of those unfortunate people who don’t like ferment notes in coffee, this one isn’t for you. As the cup cools that cranberry-like brightness and tartness is accentuated. It’s not bracing or abrasive, but it’s like a magnifying glass that seems to make everything in this coffee appear bigger, in terms of flavors. If I hold the coffee in my mouth and agitate it and puff it through my nose (retronasal tasting, for you fancy folks), I get some of those fresh-cut flower stems along with the other flavors I’ve been raving about. This coffee finishes sweet and bright and leaves a long aftertaste of super-ripe strawberry, a little funk, and that pleasant bitterness I’m really digging. I’m definitely digging this coffee. It’s a complex cup that has some similarities to wine in a way, for me. This isn’t a gulper and I think its complexity takes away a little from this cup’s drinkability, but then again if you’re spending $23 on 8oz of beans, you probably aren’t going to toss this in an insulated cup to sip on during work, and I’m hoping you’ll treat this coffee a lot like you would a nice glass of wine to explore and enjoy in the moment and with intention. Geshas are always interesting to me because they tend to be complex, but in a very strict way, as opposed to other complex varietals that change and morph and develop as they cool. What this coffee was in fragrance, brew aroma, and in the cup at all temperatures remained very consistent, which is notable for me. I love it! This is a very “adult” coffee for my palate, contrasted by the very fun throwback to strawberry-banana flavoring that I remember as a kid, and that’s a cool contrast for me.
So, what is geisha/gesha?
Gesha (often spelled “geisha”) is a variety of coffee that originated in the area around Gesha, Ethiopia. Ethiopian geshas are pretty common and, as far as I know, not that special compared to other Ethiopian coffees, so no one paid much attention to this variety until the early 2000’s. As the story goes, gesha was brought to Central America in the 1950’s or so to see if would combat some of the problems coffee growers were having with leaf rust and other issues and was more or less forgotten about. The Peterson family, owners of Hacienda La Esmerelda in Panama, recognized that they had a stand of gesha trees on a section of their plantation and they started separating those cherries out and working specifically with lots of gesha instead of mixing it in with other coffees they were growing. They won the Best of Panama with their gesha coffee in 2004 and, apparently, this coffee was like nothing anyone had tasted. Ethiopian gesha is nothing to write home about, but the plant takes on different characteristics in other regions and growing conditions. As such, the demand for Panamanian gesha went through the roof and these coffees were commanding prices as high as $600/lb for a time! As more farms plant gesha, the price is coming down and getting more reasonable, and we’re seeing gesha from places like Colombia, which it isn’t traditionally grown. The fact that this is a natural coffee, too, in the land of washed coffees that is Colombia, makes it double-cool!