Why the Best Coffee on Earth Needs a Marketing Overhaul

Every single couple of months, I get a press release advertising the “rarest coffee on Earth.” Far more usually than not, the espresso is a Gesha, a legendary varietal recognised for its unmistakable floral accents. Regrettably, Gesha coffee—often styled as “Geisha” coffee—marks a sticking stage in the coffee industry. The coveted cherries talk for by themselves, but marketplace leaders proceed to conflate the espresso with the Japanese geisha carrying out arts tradition—even right after decades of outcry from historians and espresso people alike. My issue: Why are providers however labeling Gesha as “Geisha” when it’s both of those linguistically incorrect and culturally offensive?

Exactly where did Gesha coffee originate?

The historical past of Gesha espresso is long and hotly contested among coffee historians, but here’s what we do know: Gesha espresso is a distinct coffee assortment that was “discovered” by British colonial explorers (boo!) in southwest Ethiopia, probable someday in the mid-1930s. (For more details on that, verify out this excellent 2014 talk from Sustainable Harvest Espresso Importers agent Hanna Neuschwander.)

The explorers then hauled the beans with them to Kenya, Tanzania, Costa Rica, and, ultimately, Panama. Espresso professional and journalist At any time Meister digs into this in an exceptional 2017 piece for Day by day Coffee Information. In the piece, Meister writes that the espresso was named for a mysterious “Geisha Mountain,” which the British explorers referenced in notes in 1936. Meister clarifies that, although there is no recognised “Geisha Mountain” in Ethiopia, there is a Gesha area.

Why’d the explorers incorporate the “i” to the identify? We’re not certain. They could’ve been undesirable spellers, nevertheless it is additional very likely that the explorers wrote down the phrase applying romanized phonetics following hearing it spoken in Kafa, the nearby language. (Coffee author Michael Butterworth explains that discrepancy in a 2018 report for The Coffee Compass.) Possibly way, the explorers labeled the products as “geisha” coffee—a follow a lot of espresso suppliers continue these days.

Why is Gesha coffee so common?

A number of customers of Takeout employees have tasted Gesha, such as Marnie Shure, who wrote about her tasting back in 2020. The espresso pros in my lifetime tactic the stuff with the form of reverence I typically apply to MTN DEW improvements. In other terms, Gesha gets people enthusiastic.

The most well-known Gesha will come from Panama—specifically, the famed Hacienda La Esmeralda espresso farm in the Boquete area of Panama. In 2004, Hacienda La Esmeralda processed a Gesha espresso that experienced been thoroughly grown at a better altitude than the rest of the farm’s espresso crop. As we defined in 2020, it swept the 2004 Greatest of Panama coffee competition and cemented alone as a showstopper on the espresso scene, delighting coffee professionals with its unmistakable floral notes.

With that, Panamanian Gesha made a reputation as the world’s most elite coffee—although it wasn’t truly native to Panama, but Ethiopia, as we have discussed earlier mentioned. Now, the identify of Gesha means two issues: unmistakable taste and a incredibly significant price tag tag.

Why espresso gurus are contacting for close to “geisha” coffee

So, what’s the trouble? It will come down to the coffee industry’s function in the recurring hyper-sexualization of Japanese women of all ages through the caricature of the geisha—a caricature commonly employed in the packaging and advertising of today’s Gesha espresso. Espresso marketer and writer Jenn Chen penned a 2018 report summing up the situation wonderfully. In Sprudge, Chen writes:

“[Gesha] receives puzzled and punned with geisha, the Japanese entertainer, which qualified prospects to numerous problematic interpretations. What some may think about a delightful homophone has turn into a variety of carte blanche for inappropriate appropriation—taking illustrations or photos and motifs connected with the Japanese custom of artwork, track, and dance, and making use of it to provide significant-priced espresso.”

Indeed, Meister’s 2017 Day-to-day Espresso Information posting cites author Hanna Neuschwander, who instructed that “the first group [of roasters involved in popularizing Geisha in the early 2000s] actually did position Geisha as this like captivating, sexualized, unique matter.”

Gesha actually is a extraordinary item. I’m not disputing that. But I am asking coffee entrepreneurs to think about the cultural implications of continuing to slap an inaccurate, culturally insensitive label on their beans. I’ll echo what writers like Chen have been declaring for years: To conflate a sensitive, scarce, unique coffee varietal with a team of girls traditionally caricatured in Western media is a lousy search. It’s Gesha, not “geisha.”