2022-12

A friend gifted me an expensive bag of Esmeralda Geisha from the Panamanian Embassy last month. It tasted amazing, and is rightly one of the most famous coffee beans in the world, but I remembered buying a bag of Esmeralda Geisha for almost a third of the price at the beginning of the year, so I thought I’d do a comparison with what I could easily get my hands on. There was actually a fourth bag that was supposed to arrive, but it seems to be MIA. I’ll add some notes if it ever comes.

All three beans I received are fantastic, and if you ever get a chance to try the Esmeralda Geisha out, I’d highly recommend it.

Hacienda La Esmeralda became famous for re-introducing the Geisha varietal to the coffee world in 2004.
They sell three broad types. From their site:
- Esmeralda Special Auction Grand Reserve is an exclusive Geisha microlot coffee collection that is sold exclusively by direct trade through the online Esmeralda Special Auction in limited quantities
- Esmeralda Special Geisha is a collection of high elevation Geisha (1,600 – 1,800 masl) with cupping scores of over 91 points. Coming from our Jaramillo, Cañas Verdes and El Velo farms, Esmeralda Special Geisha lots are invariably the highest quality Geishas we sell.
- Esmeralda Private Collection is where to look for dependable, consistent Geisha coffee quality. Esmeralda Private Collection Geishas exhibit the classic aromatics and taste notes that have made people from all over the world fall in love with Geisha coffees…

I only had 100g of each, so I didn’t do much fine tuning, but basically used my regular Coffee Setup and process (immersion percolation with Hario Switch) at a few temperatures. I did a couple shootouts at different temps. The tasting notes that I’ve written up were at 92C.

The tasting was 3 different Panama Esmerald Geishas:

¥9000 (~$65)/100g Saza Coffee, Jamarillo Mario, Natural
¥6480 (~$46)/100g Tsujimoto Coffee, Cañas Verdes, Lino Lot# 7SN, Natural
¥3600 (~$26)/100g Unlimited Coffee Roasters, Private Collection, Fully Washed

Just as a quick reference, that ends up being just under $10, $7, and $4/cup (at 14:1 ratio w/ 14g of beans to 196g of water).

UPDATE: the fourth bag arrived, about 1 month after ordering. I’ve added notes at the bottom…

¥3888 (~$29)/100g The Coffee Club M’s Company

As a preface, this is just for fun, since I’ve been on a kick trying out a lot of fancy beans the past few years and figure I might as well start keeping better track of them. In some ways, it’s also not so useful as a reference since so much of a coffee’s taste will depend on each crop, processing for each lot, and roasting, and preparation that makes replicability quite hard. Also most roasters simply don’t publish all the relevant details (eg, only one of the beans I had included the Lot #, and the most expensive one didn’t even have a roast date, but an expiry date instead). Also, I’m not a professional, or the most serious class of hobbiest, so don’t expect my notes to match exactly to the SCA flavor wheel, I just like coffee.

Conclusions first: while all three coffees are fantastic, when comparing side by side, I did end up ranking by price on taste. I’m always a bit conflicted on that, since it’d be nice to discover a hidden gem or something like that, but it’s also worth noting that partly, they’re different, rather than strictly better. Also, value for money is somewhat meaningless, since while you can get top notch/super tasty beans for a lot less, even the priciest cup here is still not so extravagant vs most other things you could eat or drink.

To me, what was most interesting from this shoot-out was just how different these beans (from the same farms) were. They all had a very clearly unique character and flavor profiles that were almost as different between each other as the other beans I’ve been drinking atm (I’ve included a list at the end of what’s else was on my shelf while I was testing).

One other note, while it’s separated by most of a year of memory, the Esmeralda Geisha I had before (from Unlimited Coffee, which sort of got me started on this comparison), seemed to have had a stronger “bubble” taste than I experienced in this batch (I had ordered my first batch along with a fully washed Panama Mi Finquita Geisha, and I recall enjoying the Esmeralda more of between those two).

Saza Coffee, Jamarillo Mario, Natural

This had the richest smell of the three. From the bag there is a deep chocolate, candied smell (like dried Longan fruit), with just a slight hint of something herbal. When brewed, the the strongest smell is a light geisha smell (a tea-like jasmine/bergamot floral note that becomes easy to recognize) with a tropical fruit undertone.

When drinking, it has a strong “bubbly” geisha flavor, it’s very smooth and easy to drink, and overall is well balanced/rounded. It also has a lot going on when you move it around your mouth. There’s a crisp, mild citrus taste (more like a starfruit than anything stronger), and rich natural (fermented) sweetness that hangs around as a finish. There’s a very slight tannic note that isn’t very bitter, but does dry the tip of my tongue out a bit at the end. As it cools, the taste lightens a bit but actually gets sweeter, which was a nice surprise.

Details

https://saza.coffee/shopdetail/000000000908/ct42/page1/recommend/ https://saza.coffee/shopdetail/000000001021/

Roasting: City roast Refining: Natural Country of origin: Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama Farm: Esmeralda Farm Area: Jaramillo Mario district Farmer: Peterson Family

https://www.saza.co.jp/index-a-1.php https://www.saza.co.jp/index.php Ibaraki, JP

Tsujimoto Coffee, Cañas Verdes, Lino 7SN, Natural

While still rich and sweet, the beans had a much stronger floral/herbal smell (lemongrass?). The bean is a bit lighter and dryer looking than the Saza. Freshly brewed, there’s a strong geisha smell along with a sweet caramel note and a slightly green note.

I found this to be a slightly lighter, but distinctly juicier cup than the Saza. Starfruit is again the taste that comes to mind - it has that mild crisp acidity, and a nicely balanced sweetness that’s a bit more stonefruit-like (but not so distinct that I could pin it down). There’s not as much of a natural taste as I would have expected, nor as rich a mouthfeel, but you do get more of that at the finish. There’s a slightly, pleasant nutty bottom-end in the finish that rounds it out a bit and gives it a nice balance.

Details

https://tsujimoto-coffee.com/fs/sutekinajikan/single_panama/src-pesgn-100g https://item.rakuten.co.jp/tsujimoto/src-pesgn-100g/

Product name: Esmeralda Special Internal capacity: 100g raw materials: Coffee beans Green beans country of origin: Panama area: Boquete / Palmyra Cañas Verdes plantation: Esmeralda Cañas Verdes Producer: Hacienda La Esmeralda Breed: geisha elevation: 1677m purification method: Natural (33 days in an African bed) package :Aroma keep bag expiry date: About half a year from the arrival of the product

Osaka, JP

SCAJ/CQI licensed Q grader

Unlimited Coffee Roasters, Private Collection, Fully Washed

The most “normal” smelling bean, it has a nutty, slightly bready smell that has a hint of floral sweetness. Freshly brewed, there’s a strong geisha smell with a hint of sweetness.

This is a even cleaner cup than either the of naturals and has a clear, delicate citrus taste that’s very easy to drink. As you move it around your mouth you get do get some geisha bubble, although as mentioned, I remember this being more prominent from the last batch I ordered from this roaster at the beginning of the year. Overall, it’s still sweeter and has more body than the typical bright light roasts you might find, and it finishes with a light berry note that’s a bit sweet and fruity, also with hint of pleasant nuttiness in the back of the throat. I also noticed a slight jasmine taste that lingers on the cheeks so that was neat. As it cools, the bottom end notes come out a bit more, which I enjoyed.

While I preferred the naturals in this shoot-off, I have to admit that if I went to a coffee shop and the barista served this to me, I’d be pretty over the moon about it.

Details

https://unlimitedcoffeestore.com/items/5efad2ed4adba05509e8c2b3

Region / Boquete, Chiriqui Country / country of origin: Panama / Panama Elevation / Altitude: 1,600-1.800m Varietal / Variety: 100% GEISHA / 100% Geisha Process / Production Processing: Fully Washed / Free Washed LOT / Lot: Private Collection / Private Collection

Arakawa, JP https://unlimitedcoffeestore.com/about

WBC judge

The Coffee Club M’s Company

UPDATE: This is the straggler, so is an add-on and I can’t directly compare the to the other beans.

This bag took about 1 month to arrive, and was the current expected backlog. Each email I’ve received is prefaced by an apology for how the online ordering is difficult to use and for how long it takes for roasting, which is pretty endearing.

These beans are much darker roasted than the others. I’d say medium bordering on dark roast. The beans have a rich sweet candied smell, maybe like molasses or brown sugar with a hint of mintiness. There’s a bit of a smokiness, but it’s not overpowering. When ground, there’s a strong dark chocolate smell.

While I had some trepidation about over-roasting, I’m glad to report that the actual brew tastes good. It doesn’t have as much of the floral notes, depth, or as strong of a geisha taste as the others, but it has a richness and smooth mouthfeel that puts it closest to the Saza Coffee beans. There’s a strong bottom end that has a bit of the Japanese Kissaten feel, but not so much as to be burnt and awful (which sadly IMO is the main flavor profile of most traditional Kissaten coffee). The extra bottom end helps emphasize the sweetness, and reminds me most of something like a Jamaican Blue Mountain. Still there’s fruity notes that can be tasted when moving it around the mouth, and it gets lighter as it cools.

Details

https://suzukimasami.jp/ This is a tiny shop in Chiba run by a single coffee ojiisan, Suzuki Masami. He’s apparently been running his shop blog for over 20 years (it’s almost as old as my blog!) and roasting for 30+ years and does small batch direct fire coffee roasting.

Chiba, JP https://suzukimasami.jp/shopinfo/

Well known in Japan and has acolytes? Fascinating. https://suzukimasami.jp/listing/ https://suzukimasami.jp/likethis/

Other Beans

Other beans I’ve been drinking while doing this tasting:

Azabu Kobo Peru Achamal Village Geisha $16/100g
Azabu Kobo Nepal Rishikesh Highland Organic Bourbon $10/100g
Azabu Kobo Jamaica Clydesdale Blue Mountain No. 1 $21/100g
Tim Wendelboe Honduras Caballero Geisha $12/100g
Tim Wendelboe Ethiopia Tatmara 74110 Natural $7/100g

All of these are unique and tasty in their own right. The Nepalese Bourbon was actually the big surprise for me, very tasty for a reasonable price. I also enjoyed the two Wendelboe roasts and they only cost $10 to ship 2 x 250g bags via Norwegian Post.