Has anyone ever heard of this Gesha? I'm not quite versed in anything about Geshas. I love Kenya beans, possibly more than ethiopias. I do not drink them as pour over or drip though. I brew a shot and add hot water to mimick a drip brew and get some fantastic cups with this method.

I see this on George Howell website and curious. Any tips on pulling Gesha as espresso for "americano" type cup? Higher temp, lower temp, short or long etc. Please no pourover tips, I've found I like the espresso hot water method much better than pourover through my Kone.

Also what is your experience with pulling Gesha as espresso/americano?

Thanks

I'm usually checking GHC every Thursday and Friday, I think it's Friday when the Limited Roast access is actually opened up. Were you able to buy some of this?

It would be a bit foolish to try to offer advice on how to pull it as espresso. I wouldn't even want to try. I have much cheaper geisha that I can pull for an americano.

Cool, what trends do you see with Gesha. Similar to pulling any "difficult" Ethiopian? Got some on the way. Sure I'm dialed in pretty close but if temp needs to drop or raise...ya know?

Counter Culture had an Esmerelda like 5 or 6 years ago that was the best coffee I've ever had. I didn't pull any shots of it, but made it as a pourover. I assume it's the same coffee. It was super floral, almost more tea-like than coffee. I might try to snag some of this George Howell. Looks like this round of bags sold out, did you get any?

Yes I ordered a bag. Interested in seeing how it works as a 1:3 Americano! I'll post my results as soon as I pull a few.

The beans were delivered today. Just smelling them through the bag they remind me of a Kenya (SL28 & 34). I squeezed everything out so I can't disect the notes now

They were roasted on Monday 9/17 so I will pull my first shot tomorrow night. Saturday morning I will adjust as needed and do a 1:2.5 Americano. I have no expectations of what Gesha will taste like so this is a great experiment that might help others wondering if the beans are worth the price, unique as praised, or what varietals they are similar to, if any. Since I love everything from light roast to dark roast I can only judge the flavor based on uniqueness and comparing to all other coffees I have had, no bias towards lights or darks. I am no coffee racist.

This coffee smells very very good. Like a bushel of plums.

First shot...

15.5g in (I do not use triple baskets or load 20+ grams)
30g out
10sec preinfusion
The shot came out in about 24sec
Add 80g hot water

All I can say is... good tasting balanced mellow but decent body and flavorful coffee.

This did not blow me away like some Kenya coffees have. At least not on first impression. I'll pull one a little longer tomorrow 30-35sec and see what that does. Great smooth coffee. Very smooth. The acidity is not sharp. Clean tasting too.

First impression:
Great smooth good tasting coffee...but not worth the price in my opinion. But let's see what happens throughout the rest of the bag.

I've been to a few cuppings at different suppliers recently. They all had a few Geishas. None of them jumped off the cupping table compared to some of the other microlot coffees.

In speaking with the other participants it was the general consensus that Geisha's are very light bodied and nuanced coffees that require yet another level of acclimation to appreciate their qualities. I'm not there yet. Certainly not as espresso.

I don't think they require acclimation though, as long as you are acclimated to other coffees and origins/varietals in general. I just think they are (based on this experience) just lighter and mellower coffees. I am able to pull espresso shots that when mixed with hot water rival any pour over or drip that I have had with the same coffees. Either poured by me or other people that are pour over veterans. I think with a little bit of skill you can mimick and also do better using espresso pulled correctly and the correct temperature water added.

This just goes to show that geishas, like all other coffees, are just another preference and could easily be someone's least favorite. BUT....and a BIG but... we know that geishas are cared for on the highest level when it comes to growing, harvesting, processing and roasting. So natuarally they will always be excellent quality...but I just might choose a coffee 1/8 the price because it tastes better, more body, more interesting etc.

This has been a great experience and I'm still only basing my thoughts on 1 cup. I'll continue to pull this and see if it perks my interest more.



GEORGE HOWELL...

PLEASE ROAST ANOTHER MAMUTO AB ESPRESSO!!!

C'mon George, it was the best!

Hi guys,

BillBurrGrinder wrote:Has anyone ever heard of this Gesha? I'm not quite versed in anything about Geshas. I love Kenya beans, possibly more than ethiopias. I do not drink them as pour over or drip though. I brew a shot and add hot water to mimick a drip brew and get some fantastic cups with this method.

"Mario" refers to the farm, being the original farm with gesha planted on it in Jaramillo, which is just near the town of Boquete. This is the OG. Hacienda Esmeralda have a good explanation of it on their webpage:

http://haciendaesmeralda.com/2016/01/12/jaramillo/

http://haciendaesmeralda.com/2016/05/29 ... ctive-map/

(It's the south east part of the Jaramillo farm on the interactive map.

"Carnaval" refers to when they were harvested; carnaval was harvested in February - see:

http://haciendaesmeralda.com/2016/02/29/faqs/

IMHO, if you are interested in aromatic washed coffees and don't mind low body and high acidity, you should try a Mario Esmeralda washed coffee at least once, even if just to find out what the fuss is about.

Almico wrote:In speaking with the other participants it was the general consensus that Geisha's are very light bodied and nuanced coffees that require yet another level of acclimation to appreciate their qualities. I'm not there yet. Certainly not as espresso.

Certainly true that they are light bodied and aromatic. Personally, I think that anything that aims to make them heavier bodied or more acidic misses the point, since there are other coffees that will fill those roles better and at a cheaper price.

BillBurrGrinder wrote:I see this on George Howell website and curious. Any tips on pulling Gesha as espresso for "americano" type cup? Higher temp, lower temp, short or long etc. Please no pourover tips, I've found I like the espresso hot water method much better than pourover through my Kone.

Also what is your experience with pulling Gesha as espresso/americano?

BillBurrGrinder wrote:Cool, what trends do you see with Gesha. Similar to pulling any "difficult" Ethiopian? Got some on the way. Sure I'm dialed in pretty close but if temp needs to drop or raise...ya know?

Agree; you can sort of treat it like a light roast washed yirgacheffe type coffee (not like a natural processed harrar type coffee). I drink a lot of filter roasts through espresso and diluted to americno. It is a bit of a high wire act, but very rewarding when it is good. I find that low dose, fine grind, highish brew temperature (depends on roast level, but maybe 95C or 96C for a good filter roast) and a fast extraction tend to be good. Make sure that the machine has been backflushed recently and that the group is clean.

BillBurrGrinder wrote:First shot...

15.5g in (I do not use triple baskets or load 20+ grams)
30g out
10sec preinfusion
The shot came out in about 24sec
Add 80g hot water


All I can say is... good tasting balanced mellow but decent body and flavorful coffee.

This did not blow me away like some Kenya coffees have. At least not on first impression. I'll pull one a little longer tomorrow 30-35sec and see what that does. Great smooth coffee. Very smooth. The acidity is not sharp. Clean tasting too.

First impression:
Great smooth good tasting coffee...but not worth the price in my opinion. But let's see what happens throughout the rest of the bag.

This sounds fairly good to me. If you can't adjust the brew temp on your machine and it is colder than the 95/96C above, assuming Mr Howell has roasted the coffee how I assume he has, then you might need to compensate for the brew temperature by slowing down the flow rate. Your "smooth" and "mellow" comments make it sound like you haven't extracted that much aroma and flavour into the cup and you are pretty far from overextracting, so you can probably tighten up the grind a bit more.

Personally, I think that adding a lot more water to your americano opens up the flavour a lot more. When I learned about espresso 15 years ago or whatever, an americano was a 7oz drink made with 2 oz of espresso. Now, near me at least, an americano is a double espresso on about 2 oz of water. And it tastes horrible.

BillBurrGrinder wrote:I don't think they require acclimation though, as long as you are acclimated to other coffees and origins/varietals in general. I just think they are (based on this experience) just lighter and mellower coffees. I am able to pull espresso shots that when mixed with hot water rival any pour over or drip that I have had with the same coffees. Either poured by me or other people that are pour over veterans. I think with a little bit of skill you can mimick and also do better using espresso pulled correctly and the correct temperature water added.

This just goes to show that geishas, like all other coffees, are just another preference and could easily be someone's least favorite.

Agree on all counts.

BillBurrGrinder wrote:BUT....and a BIG but... we know that geishas are cared for on the highest level when it comes to growing, harvesting, processing and roasting. So natuarally they will always be excellent quality

Very strongly disagree with the last sentence and am going to start a separate thread on this (nothing to do with this thread; had always been intending to). Roasting geshas well is not easy, nor do I think is processing. I think buying geshas is a bit of a crapshoot, but washed Esmeralda from the wonderful George Howell is probably as close to a sure bet as you get in the coffee world!

BillBurrGrinder wrote:GEORGE HOWELL...

PLEASE ROAST ANOTHER MAMUTO AB ESPRESSO!!!

C'mon George, it was the best!

Although it's probably not the coffee that I have tasted that I would point the highest if I were scoring it, Mamuto is probably what I would call my favourite coffee ever if I had a gun to my head.