All you need to know about Gesha

The ultra-smooth, super premium Gesha coffee, with origins in Ethiopia, is winning fans in India

- Priyanko Sarkar

Among coffee connoisseurs, Gesha coffee has always been a revered coffee for more than a decade. Gesha, sometimes also written as Geisha, became popular in 2005 when it burst on the world coffee scene after Hacienda la Esmeralda, a Panama estate, won a national coffee competition and sold 1kg of its beans for a then-record price of $770 (around ₹65,000 now).

A varietal of Arabica coffee, Gesha was discovered in the Gori Gesha forests of Ethiopia in the 1930s. The coffee came into its own half a world away in Panama in the 1960s with the volcanic Boquete region boasting some of the best Gesha coffee plantations in the world. The coffee has bright acidity and lower bitterness compared to Arabica and Robusta, allowing for its floral and tea-like flavours to shine through in the cup. Produced in small batches and known for its labour-intensive cultivation and harvesting process, it has always commanded a high price.