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It\u2019s been 14 years since the Geisha coffee variety dropped into the specialty coffee scene on the <\/span>2004 Best of Panama auction stage<\/span><\/a>. Since then, the variety has broken records on auction prices multiple times, helped secure wins at barista competitions, and astonished palates for people around the world.<\/span><\/p>\n But here\u2019s the issue: it gets confused and punned with geisha<\/em>, the Japanese entertainer, which leads to many problematic interpretations. What some might consider a delightful homophone has become a kind of carte blanche for inappropriate appropriation\u2014taking images and motifs associated with the Japanese tradition of art, song, and dance, and using it to sell high-priced coffee. <\/span><\/p>\n The misuse of \u201cgeisha\u201d in this style is nothing new, nor is it a relic of yesteryear. In researching this article I came across multiple roasters using Japanese geisha images to market their coffee. Similarly, there are articles written in the last three years with geisha people imagery illustrated next to Geisha coffee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not only is this misuse disturbing, but it is wholly unnecessary. By the time Geisha coffee made itself known to the greater coffee community, geishas were already known to the world as something else. The region from which this coffee hails, however, and the traditions to which it is tied, are hundreds of years old, and instead go by the similar-sounding but importantly different name of \u201cGesha\u201d\u2014hold the i. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m writing this editorial to offer a bold choice to coffee drinkers, roasters, importers, and industry professionals of all stripes around the world. <\/span>What if we just stopped calling it Geisha?<\/b> I posit that the industry should choose to use Gesha instead, in perpetuity moving forward, and to abolish \u201cGeisha”\u2014and all of its unfortunate linguistic abuses\u2014to the grounds bin of coffee history. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s several potential advantages to this choice. <\/span><\/p>\n Before we get too far down the rabbit hole, let\u2019s back up to what we know about Geisha coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n The Gesha coffee variety was<\/span> \u201cdiscovered\u201d via British colonial expeditions in the 1930s in southwest Ethiopia<\/span><\/a>, brought to research stations in Kenya and Tanzania, and then subsequently to Panama for its coffee leaf rust-resistant traits. In their groundbreaking previous work on the subject, coffee professional and journalist Meister explored the variety\u2019s<\/span> historical documentation<\/span><\/a> in a piece titled \u201cIs it Geisha or Gesha.\u201d A certain \u201cGeisha Mountain\u201d was referenced in 1936 by those British colonials, but, plot twist: <\/span>there is no Geisha Mountain in Ethiopia.<\/b> Instead, there is a Gesha region of Ethiopia\u2014an entirely separate term with no connection to Japan. How exactly the \u201ci\u201d came to find its place in coffees from Gesha is a matter of some conjecture. It may have been a simple misspelling. It\u2019s also possible that because the<\/span> local language Kafa is oral<\/span><\/a>, it was romanized into \u201cGeisha.\u201d There\u2019s also a third theory that the researchers used \u201cGeisha\u201d because it was a more familiar word and exoticized it. Since we weren\u2019t there and documentation is not clear on <\/span>why<\/span><\/i> it was written as Geisha and not Gesha, we\u2019ll let these theories lie here.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2004, the Peterson family of<\/span> Hacienda La Esmeralda<\/span><\/a> submitted Geisha coffee and won the Best of Panama auction. The winning bid was $21 per pound, which seems like nothing compared to this year\u2019s<\/span> record-setting $803 per pound<\/span><\/a>. Geisha seeds were introduced to Panama from a research station in Costa Rica. The coffee was spelled as Geisha\u2014and still is by many producers\u2014because that\u2019s what they were documented as in the original expedition.<\/span><\/p>\n The Panamanian \u201cGeisha\u201d coffee has origins to Ethiopia. In a <\/span>2014 genetic research study<\/span><\/a> of Geisha coffee in Panama and Ethiopia, Dr. Sarada Krishnan, Director of Horticulture and Center for Global Initiatives at the Denver Botanic Gardens, found the two coffees to be genetically very similar. She wrote, \u201cIt is highly possible that the Panamanian Geisha could have originated from the same Ethiopian Geisha coffee forest as the samples for the present study came from.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As the variety spread around the world, other producing regions wanted to replicate the success of the Panamanian \u201cGeisha\u201d coffee. The variety grown in Central America tends to be spelled \u201cGeisha\u201d while other regions use \u201cGesha.\u201d There is no established rule. Within the industry, \u201cGeisha\u201d coffee is more widely known and holds brand power, as written about <\/span>by James Hoffmann<\/span><\/a> and many others. <\/span><\/p>\n To summarize, all of the coffee we\u2019re talking about\u2014whether you use the \u201ci\u201d or not\u2014is actually Gesha. Let\u2019s move on to why this is all problematic\u2014and please note that for the remainder of the article we\u2019ll default to using \u201cGesha\u201d when talking about the coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n Gesha coffees are rare, expensive, and often given notes like \u201cdelicate\u201d and \u201cfloral.\u201d If you were new to specialty coffee and just learned about this variety, it wouldn\u2019t be too far a jump to unfortunately associate these same characteristics with the Japanese arts tradition. In Western countries, stereotypes about Japanese women lean into exoticism. They\u2019re portrayed as submissive, delicate, and astonishingly beautiful. For geisha performers, the word came into global use in the early 18th century and it often mistakenly connotes an idea of a demure, high-priced prostitute. Books like <\/span>Memoirs of a Geisha<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Madame Butterfly<\/span><\/i> have certainly enforced stereotypes and contributed to Orientalist perceptions.<\/span><\/p>\n Briefly, Orientalism is a concept introduced by a Edward Said\u00a0<\/span>in a book by the same name<\/span><\/a> about how the West is centered and the East is perceived as \u201cother\u201d and exotic. In the West, it creates fantasy interpretations and representations of what the East is like. It\u2019s a fascination with Eastern culture and shows up on the daily as<\/span> turmeric suddenly being \u201cdiscovered\u201d<\/span><\/a> as a superfood or<\/span> Katy Perry dressed as a geisha<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe concept of the geisha as perceived in Western society is fraught with exoticism and hyper-sexualization of Japanese women,\u201d says David Inoue, Executive Director of the<\/span> Japanese American Citizens League<\/span><\/a> (JACL). Established in 1929, the JACL is the oldest Asian American civil rights organization in the US and according to their website, works to \u201csecure and maintain the civil rights of Japanese Americans and all others who are victimized by injustice and bigotry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Inoue continues, \u201cIt is quite a stretch to use images of geisha to market a coffee that has its origins in Ethiopia, but is also symptomatic of our misogynistic society that continues to celebrate the objectification of women, particularly women of color.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The coffee industry already fetishizes Gesha coffee. We package it up nicely into tins and small doses. It\u2019s talked about in tones of reverence and introduced to customers at five times the standard cup price. Asian women are similarly fetishized (believe me\u2014I am reporting from personal experience). If we\u2019re not on parallel paths of the same word being used in similar ways, then the industry is certainly capitalizing\u2013unconsciously or not\u2013on Japanese exoticism.<\/span><\/p>\n Confusion abounds around the term. \u201cI thought it was named \u2018Geisha\u2019 because someone thought it was so exotic and sexy,\u201d a fellow specialty coffee pro told me, on condition of anonymity. This is from someone who used Gesha coffee in their United States Brewer\u2019s Cup competition routine.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not just baristas who get confused. Noboru Ueno, owner of equipment distributor<\/span> FBC International<\/span><\/a> in Japan, finds the use of the word \u201cgeisha\u201d when referring to Gesha coffee to be similarly misleading in his country. Ueno says that because geisha artists are often symbolic of Japan\u2019s culture, like Mt. Fuji and sushi, it\u2019s easy to popularize it in consuming countries, especially in Japan. He found that Japanese consumers associate \u201cgeisha\u201d coffee with Japan, and that coffee professionals typically do not try to correct the misunderstanding.<\/span><\/p>\n Ueno agrees that the correct term Gesha should be used going forward, as the coffee itself is Ethiopian, not Japanese. \u201cEvery consumption country, including Japan, must respect the original culture,\u201d Ueno tells Sprudge. \u201cWords and language are the fundamental basis for each nation\u2019s culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Respect, accuracy, and the dismantling of Orientalism and colonial primacy\u2014these sound like pretty great reasons to drop that damn unnecessary \u201ci\u201d. You can argue around this a thousand different ways, and it all comes back to the same thing: it\u2019s Gesha, not \u201cgeisha\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Gesha is a coffee producing region in Ethiopia, from whence the popular Gesha coffee variety is thought to originate, same as the Chardonnay grape is named for the <\/span>Burgundy village of Chardonnay<\/span><\/a>, or <\/span>Warsteiner beer<\/span><\/a> is named for the southern German region of <\/span>Warstein<\/span><\/a>, or the brand <\/span>Point Reyes Cheese<\/span><\/a> is named for Point Reyes, California. We name agricultural products after the places they hail from all the time. In Gesha\u2019s case, globalism conspired to move the fruit from Ethiopia to Panama and beyond, which has ended up being a good thing for coffee drinkers\u2014these coffees are delicious!\u2014and also a good thing for Gesha growers in Central and South America, whose coffees can fetch top dollar. However, these same global forces also conspired to introduce the \u201ci\u201d, making it sound more like the familiar word \u201cgeisha\u201d\u2014which is why today I have to look at exoticized, fetishized depictions of Asian women being used to sell coffee. <\/span><\/p>\n There is maybe only one scenario I can think of in which it might be genuinely appropriate to term something a \u201cGeisha\u201d coffee, and that is if the coffee was grown, roasted, or served by an actual Japanese geisha artist. In such a scenario I am all for using the term \u201cGeisha\u201d in relation to coffee\u2014and I\u2019ve created a handy Venn diagram below to illustrate this choice.<\/span><\/p>\n Words evolve. Their associations change. That\u2019s part of the glory of the English language. And for all its glory, it is not without fault\u2014<\/span>sometimes words get written down wrong or exoticized, especially when the person doing the writing has all the power<\/span>. But together we have the power back in our hands now. Using the correct term Gesha instead of the inaccurate term \u201cgeisha\u201d helps remove ambiguous relations; it respects the cultural and agricultural history of the crop; it better informs coffee drinkers about that history; and it minimizes the likelihood of some asshole using a picture of a Japanese geisha person to discuss the coffee ever again. <\/span><\/p>\n So let\u2019s call it Gesha, not \u201cgeisha\u201d\u2014it\u2019s a small change with big meaning behind it.<\/span><\/p>\n Jenn Chen<\/a>\u00a0(@TheJennChen<\/a>)\u00a0is a San Francisco\u2013based coffee marketer, writer, and photographer. Read more\u00a0Jenn Chen on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Stop Calling It \u201cGeisha\u201d Already<\/a> appeared first on Sprudge<\/a>.<\/p>\n Source: Coffee News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been 14 years since the Geisha coffee variety dropped into the specialty coffee scene on the 2004 Best of Panama auction stage. Since then, the variety has broken records…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,41],"tags":[63,45,65,47,61,49,59,55,57],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1208,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecurbkaimuki.com\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sprudge.com\/file\/2018\/09\/gesha.jpg\")
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