I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a kilo of this Geisha coffee from La Candelilla in Costa Rica as soon as it arrived at Ministry Grounds. I've roasted this one for espresso, but didn't want to lose any of the florality, sweetness or fruit flavours the geisha is known for. Quite a challenge, when 1kg is only two roasts for me.

I decided on a three minute drying phase ramp up to 100 degrees, then increase in heat output up to 195 degrees first crack at 10:00.  First crack was actually at 196 degrees, and then the slow ramp up to just shortly after the end of first crack at 205 degrees at 13:00 was when i dumped the beans.

I'd definitely rather go too light than too dark on this one, but i'm actually really happy with how this first roast has turned out. You can see there is the slight mottling still present which only disappears well beyond first crack. The ground coffee reveals a nice light espresso colour, and smells like geisha! Clean, sweet and floral.

Some people may think this is too light for espresso but in my opinion if you want to impart more roast flavour than this there are better (and less expensive) coffees you could choose. Plenty of kenyans would take a darker roast and retain the sweetness, for example. There's just not much point buying a geisha at this stage of the game and then roasting the florals into submission. Geisha is still quite rare and the most expensive coffee varietal, so it deserves even more care and attention to detail.

I'll post an update with tasting notes both here and on Ministry Grounds as soon as it's had 5 days to de-gas. I'm also going to attempt my first ever coffee scoring here on BrewMethod, and i have a little something special planned for that.

The Esmeralda coffee farm in Panama has consistently been one of the most sought-after coffees of recent years. Esmeralda coffee is sold at auction and can reach some pretty lofty prices, but only in coffe terms! Panama Esmeralda is without doubt one of the best coffees in the world, and I still think it's amazing that we can buy a 250g bag for less than half the price of a cheap French champagne.

To my taste, Esmeralda offers a more complex, even more intense sweetness than a good Kenyan but without the acidic Kenyan bite. Even finding Esmerelda coffee in Australian cafes, especially the floral Geisha variety, is quite a challenge! I've had aeropresses of the Geisha variety at One Drop, but never had the chance to try an espresso roast! That's something I had always wanted to try.

Campos Coffee recently won some at auction, so you can now buy esmeralda geisha in their web store and in their cafes as roasted beans for espresso. I love the fact that Campos unashamedly roasts such high quality beans for espresso - while i agree that such quality coffees can also be enjoyed using pour-over or syphon brew methods, i see no reason the best coffee in the world shouldn't be enjoyed as an espresso beverage! But only if roasted well, and if the espresso recipe is right.

So here we have a photo of the Panama Esmerelda roast from Campos.

Reportedly, Campos went through 7 different roast profiles before settling on the final roast profile. Seven test roasts would really allow for a good amount of fine-tuning, and i'm pleased to report that the sweetness and florality of the Geisha roasted for espresso is all that it should be!

There's an incredible array of tasting descriptors one could use for the sweetness in this coffee - honey, orange peel, ripe citrus fruits, brown sugar... so many unique flavours fill the mouth it's almost impossible to pinpoint even a subset of the usual sweet flavours tasting notes. 

It's not the high-acidic bitey sweetness of a Kenyan coffee, and it's not the jasmine-like florality of an ethiopian yirgacheffe either. It's got a balanced body similar to a great costa rican, but with boat loads of sweetness that the Geisha is renowned for.  The sweetness has great length, too - half an hour after your drink, it still lingers. I love that in a coffee.

Instead of listening to me waffling on, i'd recommend snapping some up. Chances are the opportunity to try this special coffee roasted for espresso won't come up too often! The lot size is relatively small, too. Head to campos or order via their web store linked below:

Esmerelda Geisha roasted for espresso