On first glance, these two Gesha Village coffees look similar. Shouldn’t they be? They are only 3 to 4 lots apart, right?
Well, let’s see. Both are from the Gesha 1931 varietal. Both were made using the natural process. Both are farmed in the 1900-2100 MASL range (that’s Meters Above Sea Level, for the less geeky) Both were from the December 2018 to January 2019 harvest. However, while Lot 82 was picked over the course of two months, the Lot 86 coffee was harvested on a more precise schedule: December 28th to January 3rd — literally harvested from a single week!
It should be said that Gesha Village’s harvest actually spans several regions across 471 hectares of Ethiopia, which means that the farm is quite massive and has many micro-climates inside of it, leading to vastly different terrior across lots. So in this case, you have Lot 86 coming from an area called Oma, and Lot 82 coming from the original Bench Maji region farm, where you’ll find Gesha Village’s Surma Block.
This seemingly minor change in location makes for wildly different flavor profiles in the coffee. Here are our tasting notes between the two so that you can see just how different they really were, as brewed and roasted by Hong Kong’s The Cupping Room.
Lot 86 Tasting Notes: Floral perfume similar to rose, peach, honey, melon, and Darjeeling
Lot 82 Tasting Notes: strawberry and watermelon, accompanied by a dry tannin-esqe flavor like black tea or red grape skins.
Isn’t that interesting?
PS. We mentioned both black tea and Darjeeling as tasting notes. Though they are both teas, they also have wildly different flavor profiles. And Darjeeling is a particularly interesting tasting note, isn’t it? Considered to be the creme-dela-creme of all teas, its Moscato-like tangy quality is actually a great flavor to get acquainted with, especially since it’s so easy to find. This goes double if you find yourself working in professional specialty coffee!
