Ethiopia Gesha Village 'Surma' Gold Label

Gesha Village 'Surma', Ethiopia Bench Sheko, Gesha 1931, Gold Label, Natural Sun-dried, 2024

Rose | Lavender | Guava

The Ethiopia administrative boundaries have been changing since 2021 due to political restructuring. We are most familiar with coffees from the Oromia region of Ethiopia. Names that ring familiar include Guji, Bensa, Sidama, Kochere, Bale. When everything used to be under a big region known as Sidamo, it is now a shade of its former self with most of its former land restructured via racial lines under other regions. Where most of our favourite coffees come from, the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Regional State (SNNPR) was also further broken down in 2021 into two states/regions, namely Central Ethiopia Regional State, South West Ethiopia Regional State and South Ethiopia Regional State. 

The famous Geisha Village is in Bench Sheko (previously known as Bench Maji), a zone in the South West Ethiopia Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. At the southern edge of Ethiopia, it borders South Sudan and Kenya. Nested within ancient, pristine forests, Gesha Village Coffee Estate took more than a decade to build a sprawling 471-hectare coffee farm from the ground up. 

The story of how the village came about was unbelievable. When Ethiopia-born Rachel Samuel returned to Ethiopia in 2007 to make a documentary about Ethiopia’s amazing coffee, he renewed his love for the country and for coffee. He quickly found Willem Boot, the San Francisco Bay Area-based coffee educator well-known for his passion for the Gesha variety. They quickly returned to Ethiopia to source for a suitable piece of land to cultivate this ancient variety on an extensive scale. In West Omo, they found an untouched landscape with close proximity of a mere 20km to the Gori Gesha forest, the variety’s birthplace and site of the Panamanian Geisha discovery in the 1930s. They spared no time to harvest a seed selection of wild Gesha plants from the Gori Gesha forest. With that prized stock in hand, they then spent month after tireless month turning their remote piece of land into a working coffee farm, capable of producing some of the world’s best Gesha coffee. In the process, they created a coffee industry in Gesha’s birthplace. Western Ethiopia has historically been largely disconnected from the global specialty coffee market, but now world-class Gesha coffee is available just a stone’s throw from where the variety originated.

Today, Gesha Village has three gesha varieties - Gesha 1931, Gori Gesha and Illubabor Forest. Gesha 1931 is a selection made from the diverse forest population that closely resembles the Panamanian Geisha. This selection was made by looking at the plant morphology, bean shape and size, as well as its cup profile. The entire estate is divided into 8 blocks, with specific variety planted at each block. Surma is 45.9ha, from 1,909 to 2,063m. With such an arrangement, the coffees from this estate are totally traceable and each block has its unique characteristics for comparison.

This coffee is from Lot 2024/083, part of the non-auction lot of the Gesha Village, and it follows a rigorous cupping process at their coffee lab in Addis Ababa. Called ‘Rarities’ by Gesha Village, it represents 10% of the total farm production, standing out as the best from that harvest in times of its complex flavors. The 'Rarities' are the top coffees Gesha Village produces outside of their auction lots, and they are frequently chosen for competition by internationally competing baristas. They are also known as ‘Gold Label', given the gold label on its packaging. 

There are two spellings for this variety of coffee currently - gesha and geisha. Based on old letters sent out from the British Consulate in Ethiopia in 1931, 'geisha' was used as the name of the coffee area, probably based on transliteration of what was heard then. The name "gesha" also come from the transliteration of the Amharic name for the region, ጌሻ. There is a need for such transliteration because the local Kafa language in Gesha did not have a written form until the 1990s. It seems that the gesha spelling is used in Ethiopia while those from elsewhere use geisha, although some producers use gesha to indicate a variety grown from the original Ethiopian stock. Parchmen & Co adopts the spelling as indicated by the growers.

This is part of our Touring Series of coffee which is indicated by the line 'Savouring our world in a cup' on the right of the coffee label.


Roast Level
As per all Geshas, we have to roast this coffee lightly so as to preserve its defining characteristics - floral, sweet and clean. The coffee poses further challenges as it is high in moisture and not particularly high in density, focusing the roaster to thread the roast development carefully after first crack. As usual for a Parchmen roast, the coffee will not end on a sour note and will have a medium and not a short afternote.


Brew Flavour
We are using the Timemore Crystal Eye and Mola Abaca filter paper, at 16g @ 675 μm to 260ml of 88°C water to brew this coffee. For grind comparison, the grain size is smaller than usual. The dry fragrance is characteristic of floral notes on a creamy base. On the brew, the first impression is the intense floral notes switching between lavender and rose continuously as the coffee cools, on a base of sugarcane or candy sweetness. There is some creamy note, bringing to mind jasmine flowers to this already floral profile. Curiously, its floral aroma reminds us of Scarlet Robe Wuyi rock tea. As the coffee cools to around 45°C, fruity sweetness will be more pronounced. Guava aroma emerges. Sometimes, there is watermelon. The mouthfeel is smooth and the body is medium, constantly impressing us with its cleanliness given that it is a sun-dried coffee. It is best enjoyed from hot to just before turning room temperature, maintaining its sweetness and cleanliness throughout. 

This is our brew recipe:

0th -15th sec - Add 50g of water
45th - 75th sec - Add 85g of water to 140g
85th - 120th sec - Add 140g of water to 260g

All coffees will be in whole beans. If you require the coffees to be ground, please inform us in the order notes whether you wish it to be: espresso, moka, filter or cold brew.

Savouring our world in a cup!
Enjoy!