Costa Rica Brumas del Zurqui Geisha Natural

About Costa Rica Brumas del Zurqui Geisha Natural

Limited time offering. Our sister company, Willoughby's Coffee & Tea, was just awarded 94 points by Coffee Review (published 10/7/25) for this coffee in their tasting report of high end coffee from Costa Rica. A lovely Geisha Natural that we imported through Direct Trade and received by airfreight. 

Though this may seem expensive, it is hard to find a Geisha coffee at this price that exhibits the sought after traits inherent in the variety. As we are able, we offer a large number of Geisha variety coffees and no doubt that will continue into the future. Most of the top Geisha coffees have a starting price over $50 per pound and that number itself is almost becoming obsolete as the coffees with effective scores of 91 to 94 are now fetching into the hundreds of dollars per pound range. Coffees with even higher scores are routinely breaking the $1,000 per pound mark.  

What is so special about Geisha? As we have noted in connection with other Geisha coffees, the seed is originally from Ethiopia, made its way to Costa Rica about 40 years ago and continued to be virtually unknown. The coffee was "discovered" by Daniel Peterson at Hacienda Esmeralda in Panama about 20 years ago, when the Petersons planted numerous varieties in a test area of their farm, in order to see what might grow best there. The coffee went on to blow away the competition in an early Best of Panama event.  The variety, when at its best, is extremely floral and fruity. The typical floral is jasmine and the fruits are tropical (mango, papaya, pineapple, etc). Pretty soon Geisha was breaking new records, and that pattern continued.  Before long, seeing much higher income, producers started to plant Geisha in countries other than Panama. Today it is not uncommon to see examples from Colombia, Kenya, Honduras, Guatemala and Costa Rica. The flavor results can vary a lot.  Some examples lack the flavors that gave the variety its reputation and are disappointing. Others, like this one from Brumas de Zurqui in Costa Rica, have significant aspects of the variety and are just a great value for the money.

Juan Ramon named his farm after his father Don Jose.  This Geisha is grown at some of the highest elevations on the property, at 2,100 meters.

• Country: Costa Rica
• Region: Tarrazu
• Producer: Juan Ramon Alvarado
• Farm: Finca Don Jose
• Varietal: Geisha
• Elevation: 2,100 meters
• Processing: Classic Natural

Producer Juan Ramon Alvarado

Geisha flowering

Geisha is an heirloom varietal from Ethiopia that produces a blue-green elongated coffee bean that is especially aromatic and floral. Many of our customers are ardent lovers of Geisha and we try to have an extensive assortment to fulfill their requirements. 

Cup Characteristics: Significant florals including jasmine. Peach, orange blossom, sweet tobacco aroma. Very piquant and floral with excellent fruit intensity and balance. 

Roasting Notes: Geisha coffees need to be roasted on the light side in order to preserve their floral nature. Roast them too much and it will dissipate and much that you paid for will be lost. Let the coffee get fully past first crack, but if your roaster allows it, kick the heat down to nearly zero once first crack gets going and allow the coffee to slowly develop. You don't want to take this too close to second crack.