I often rewatch the movie ‘Cinema Heaven’. Oddly enough, every time I listen to the OST 'Love theme', I really want to see the movie. Even though I know everything, I always cry at the end. Just like a movie that brings tears to your eyes, there is a coffee that stimulates your salivary glands as soon as you smell it and makes you want to drink it. This is Panama Geisya coffee.
I vividly remember the day I first tasted Geisha. When I was studying abroad in Tokyo, it was the first time it was introduced as “precious coffee” at a tasting seminar. From the moment it was crushed, the scent was already out of this world. It was different from the coffee scent I had known until then. Shockingly, the small sip distributed was ‘pineapple juice’ itself. Moreover, the deep lingering sensation that enveloped my nose and brain was an intense stimulus that I would never forget.
The Geisha variety grown in Panama's Esmeralda plantation became a 'flash star' in the 2000s. After this coffee recorded an astronomical winning bid at an auction, production areas on various continents began to race to plant Geisha. It is impossible for all seeds to become the same geisha, but even with the name geisha, they are sold at a high price.
Recently, the owner of a newly opened roastery cafe proudly served me coffee called ‘Tanzanian Geisha.’ However, the scent was not at all like a geisha, and even the shape of the coffee beans was different from anything I had known before. However, the packaging clearly said ‘Tanzanian Geisha’. Later, when I roasted it again and tasted it, I could sense a very faint Geisha flavor.
As the specialty coffee boom began, there was a clear trend in many producing countries to plant ‘profitable’ varieties other than traditional varieties. However, I frown when I see the reality that Geisha coffee, which has even lost its varietal characteristics, or coffee that has been flavored with various aromas through anerobic (anaerobic fermentation) or artificial flavoring, is disguised as a 'high-end product' and distributed at high prices. Moreover, if it is flavored, it becomes a 'secondary processed product', and the situation in which it is traded while the legal regulations regarding this are unclear is very worrisome.
In any case, Panama is the region that produces coffee with the distinct and distinct characteristics of the Geisha variety. It is clear that it is a production site like a 'popular film production company' that is good at making products cleverly and marketing them using consumer psychology. With the average price per kilogram of green beans being 10,000 to 20,000 won, the most recent successful bid for the best product from Esmeralda Farm in Panama was 13 million won per kilogram. If you do simple calculations (800g when roasted) and consider 10g as one drink, you will end up paying 160,000 won per drink. Oh my gosh! Is Panama a paradise? It is up to each person to decide whether to buy this coffee or not.
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