Questions

Because at $30 the arithmetic does not work. A genuine Geisha lot costs more than that as unroasted green coffee, before anyone has roasted, packed, imported or shipped it. A bag at that price is usually a blend carrying the Geisha name, or a lot old enough to have lost the thing you were paying for.

Named Boquete estates from established importers sell in the $60 to $69 range for the same 227 g. We sit just under that because we buy from one farm directly rather than through a roaster in the middle.

The same trees, picked the same week, processed two different ways.

Luna Nueva is washed. The fruit is stripped off before drying, giving a clean, transparent cup. Jasmine, bergamot, white peach, tea-like body.

Luna Llena is a natural, dried whole in the cherry so the fruit sugars work on the bean. Heavier and sweeter, closer to berry and ripe stone fruit.

If you have never had Geisha, the Fases flight gives you both side by side for less than either full bag.

Yes. One estate in Boquete, Chiriquí, named on every bag. The coffee is grown, processed, roasted and packed there before it is flown out.

We buy a single lot a year. There is no step in that chain where a cheaper coffee could enter the bag. The checks it goes through are listed on the quality standards page.

Every bag carries its actual roast date, not a best-before. Coffee is roasted at origin and dispatched within 48 hours, so in normal conditions it reaches a US address within about a week of roasting.

It is at its best from roughly five days after roast through the following six weeks. The reason that window exists is explained on the science page.

The aromatic compounds that make this coffee worth its price start leaving within minutes of grinding. Pre-ground Geisha is a way of paying for something and then discarding most of it before you brew.

If you own one piece of equipment, make it a burr grinder. It will change your cup more than a new dripper will.

Filter. A V60, Kalita, Chemex or any pour-over cone.

Our starting recipe is 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water at 94 degrees Celsius, medium-fine grind, finished around 2:45. Bloom with 45 g for 45 seconds, pour to 150 g by 1:15, then to 250 g by 1:45.

You can, but we would not. Dialling in espresso costs several doses of a coffee this expensive before you get a good shot, and milk covers exactly the floral, tea-like character you are paying for.

If you drink espresso, buy the tasting flight and brew it as filter before you commit a full bag to the machine.

Almost always water that was too cool or a grind that was too coarse. The brew ran through before it extracted. Grind one step finer and get the water to 94 degrees.

Flat and bitter is the opposite problem, too fine or too hot. Change one variable at a time.

In the bag it came in, rolled down and resealed, at room temperature, away from light and heat. The one-way valve does a better job than any jar.

Not the fridge and not the freezer. Condensation on cold beans does real damage.

Free within the United States on orders over $50, otherwise a flat $5.95. Dispatched within 48 hours of roast, then three to five business days by USPS Ground Advantage.

Not yet, the United States only. We import in small air-freight consignments and onward international shipping would currently cost more than the coffee. When that changes it will be announced here first.

Email us within 30 days of your first order and we refund it, however much of the bag is left. Keep the coffee.

We ask one thing in return, which is that you tell us what it actually tasted like. It is a request, not a condition.

Not at the moment. We are not willing to promise a monthly shipment of a coffee that comes off one farm once a year and sells out.

Join the harvest list at the bottom of any page and we will email you when a new lot lands. That is the only email we send.

In small volumes, yes. Write to us with what you are looking for and how much, and we will tell you honestly whether the lot can support it.

Because we have not been selling long enough to have real ones, and we would rather show you an empty page than invented ones.

The reviews page says the same thing at slightly greater length.