For 20 years, Gesha has been one of the most sought-after coffees in the world. In Panama, the Gesha news struck like lightning, and this variety has been highly favored ever since. She receives record-breaking bids at coffee auctions and is a prize winner with great regularity. Panama was already becoming well-known in the world of quality coffee. When Geisha coffee was discovered in 2004 and successfully grown and sold at high prices by more Panamanian farmers, Panama was finally recognized as a quality coffee country. The origin of this coffee is in Ethiopia, in the Gesha region, where this particular variety still grows.

According to the International Trade Centre Coffee Guide, Gesha is an Ethiopian landrace variety. In agricultural terms, this means that it developed naturally in a specific local environment over many generations - most likely without any human intervention. In the 1930s, researchers collected seedlings and seeds from Ethiopia and sent them to Kenya and Tanzania, where the variety was first registered as "Geisha." In the 1950s, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sent some of the seedlings to the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica. Through this route, the species eventually ended up in Boquete, Panama, on several farms.

Willem Boot on his Gesha plantation.

One of these farms was Hacienda La Esmeralda - the same farm that in 2004 produced the Best of Panama-winning coffee that first sparked such great interest in Gesha. Dié Esmeralda Geisha was bought by BOOT Coffee as the first great Geisha coffee, also because Willem Boot was very closely associated with it. It was Willem Boot who scored the coffee with 96 points, and with a maximum of 100 points, that is very high. This success was the go-ahead for him to start his own Gesha plantation, under the name La Mula. Ten years later, Willem's Gesha won the Best of Panama in the Gesha category.

The success has continued unabated since 2004. Gesha has become not just a variety, but a household name. The coffee is bred to retain the desired genetic traits - mainly its fantastic flavor profile.

So what is so special about it?
The body is often tea-like and you taste complex, fruity, layered and floral flavors such as citrus and flowers. Region, climate, terroir and processing method influence the final profile. Gesha is unique in that complex profile; they often score at least 88 points on the Specialty Coffee Association's 100-point scale.

Coffee farmer Adriana Beltran now produces a beautiful, Skal-certified organic Geisha coffee on her plantation in Colombia. The Colombia La Laguna Geisha Organic - Limited Edition is now available at BOOT.

Colombia La Laguna Geisha Organic - Limited Edition