Panama Boquete Washed Geisha

This is from the famous Finca Lerida estate in the Boquete region of Panama.

Geisha is commonly processed either via washed or natural process, and we bought both.

There is a LOT of information out there on how to roast geisha coffee. The consensus seems to be that it has a soft center and doesn't need as much air flow to fully roast. That you want to roast it about to the same level as any other nice Costa Rica, and that you shouldn't drink it for at least 3 days after roasting it.

However, in my experiments, it seems like the very best roast can be obtained by treating it like a honey-process coffee (except roast it a few degrees darker than a honey coffee), which means lots of air-flow, slow steady heat, and small batch sizes. Everything about Geisha beans are delicate. I aim for just shy of a 15 minute roast in our drum roaster, and end the roast just two degrees lighter than Costa Rica La Minita or Nicaragua, but about 4 degrees darker than Costa Rica Honey coffees that we have carried in the past. However, it's pretty forgiving! The lightest roasts have the most floral, jasmine, delicate notes, while a few degrees darker is more peach and cherry, but right in the middle is a blend of floral and fruit and sweetness. And there was no need to wait three days to drink it. In fact, Geisha coffees lose their complexity of flavor more quickly than most coffees, so I wouldn't let it sit too long. 

A few degrees difference does give you very different results but all of them stood out as being special and fancy. It is a delicate bean that is susceptible to scorching, so if you have a drum roaster, don't preheat it above 350 degrees, and go lower than that if you can. Then nudge the heat up gently, evenly, give it plenty of time to get through the 1st cracks, maybe wait 40 seconds more, let it out. We give it a burst of heat and less airflow for the last 30 seconds of the roast, and keep the roast to 15 minutes or less.

USA Arrival: October 2020 in vacuum packed foil bags