How to brew Geisha coffee
You have bought one of the most expensive coffees in the world. It would be a shame to boil it. Here is how to get what you paid for out of the cup.
Geisha rewards gentleness. Its aromatics are volatile and its acidity is delicate, so the goal of every choice below is extraction without aggression. If you take one thing from this page: brew it as filter first, before you try anything else.
Before you brew
- Rest the coffee. Give a light-roasted Geisha seven to fourteen days after roasting. Too fresh and the CO2 disrupts extraction; the florals also need time to open.
- Grind at the last moment. Aromatics are lost within minutes of grinding. A burr grinder is not optional at this price point.
- Fix your water. This matters more than most people believe. Aim for roughly 70–100 mg/l total hardness with about 40 mg/l alkalinity. Very hard Swiss tap water flattens the florals; distilled water makes the cup hollow. Filtered or a good low-mineral bottled water is the easy fix.
- Weigh everything. Volume measures are not precise enough to be worth using here.
Pour-over: the reference recipe
- Dose
- 15 g
- Water
- 250 g
- Ratio
- 1:16.6
- Temperature
- 92–94 °C
- Grind
- Medium-fine, slightly finer than usual
- Total time
- 2:45–3:15
Rinse and preheat
Rinse the paper filter with hot water, discard it, and warm the brewer and carafe. Paper taste has nowhere to hide in a coffee this clean.
Bloom
Add 45 g of water, swirl gently so all the grounds are wetted, and wait 40 seconds.
First pour
Pour to 150 g in a slow spiral, keeping the bed level.
Second pour
Pour to 250 g. Give the brewer a gentle swirl at the end to flatten the bed evenly.
Drawdown
Let it finish by around 3:00. Faster and you will taste sourness and thin body; much slower and the cup turns dry and papery.
Taste before you adjust
Let it cool for two minutes. Geisha changes dramatically as it drops in temperature, and most of the florals arrive below 60 °C.
Espresso
Geisha as espresso is a legitimate pleasure and an expensive one, because you will waste shots dialling in. A washed lot is difficult: high acidity concentrated into 40 grams of liquid can read as sour. Honey and natural lots are more forgiving.
| Parameter | Starting point | Direction to adjust |
|---|---|---|
| Dose | 18 g in a standard basket | Reduce by 0.5 g if the shot chokes |
| Yield | 40–45 g | Longer ratios suit high-acidity washed lots |
| Time | 26–32 s | Longer than a typical modern shot |
| Temperature | 90–92 °C | Lower than for a dark roast, to control acidity |
| Pressure | 6–7 bar if adjustable | Softer pressure protects delicate aromatics |
Serve it as espresso or with a very small amount of milk at most. A cappuccino made with a 94-point Geisha is a way of paying a lot of money to taste warm milk.
Other methods
- Immersion (Clever, Hario Switch): forgiving and excellent. Four minutes at 93 °C, medium grind, then release.
- French press: works, but the fines and oils mask the clarity. Use a coarse grind and decant immediately.
- AeroPress: very good for tasting a small dose. 12 g to 200 g, 90 °C, two-minute steep, gentle press.
- Cold brew: a defensible use for a natural Geisha in summer, and a waste of a washed competition lot.
- Moka pot and espresso capsules: not recommended. Too hot, too extractive.
Storage
Roasted Geisha keeps its florals for about four to six weeks in a sealed, valved bag away from light and heat. Do not refrigerate an opened bag — condensation is the enemy. If you must hold a larger quantity, freeze unopened bags and thaw each one fully before opening it. Green coffee, vacuum packed and stored below 20 °C, holds well for a year or more.
Tell us what you are looking for
Origin, process, cup score, volume, roasted or green — send us the brief and we will come back with what is actually available this harvest, with a price for that lot.