Papua New Guinea | Baroida Estate | Gesha Washed #7904
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Papua New Guinea | Baroida Estate | Gesha Washed #7904
This coffee has run out and is no longer roasted — kept here for archival purposes. Browse current coffees
View the history of our coffee stock status here
Origin and Sourcing
Varietal:
Gesha
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Gesha (or Geisha), originally from Ethiopia, gained fame through Panamanian farms for its outstanding floral and tea-like cup profile. Often described as jasmine, bergamot, and stone fruit in the cup, it commands some of the highest prices in specialty coffee. It has low yields and is challenging to grow but highly sought after for competition and premium markets.
Processing Method:
Washed
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In the washed process, coffee cherries are depulped to remove the skin and pulp, then fermented to eliminate the mucilage before thorough washing. This method produces a clean, bright cup with pronounced acidity and clarity, highlighting the coffee’s intrinsic flavors. It’s widely used in regions with ample water resources, such as Colombia and East Africa.
Producer:
Colbran family
Farm:
Baroida Estate
Region / Area:
Eastern Highlands
Altitude:
1700–1850 MASL
Harvest Period:
May – September 2023
Sourcing Partner:
Succafina
Coffee Storage:
Standard Warehouse Storage
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This coffee is stored in standard warehousing palletised under ambient conditions. Usually these coffees are in GrainPro bags to keep out moisture and protect beans. Suited for high-volume blends and economical Single Origins, frequent rotation ensures freshness.
Roast Details
Roast Style:
Espresso
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Filter roasts are lighter with a shorter development time, designed to highlight clarity, acidity, and fruit-driven complexity — perfect for black coffee and filter methods. These roasts can also be used for espresso, especially if you enjoy brighter, more vibrant shots. Try longer brew ratios or turbo shots to tame acidity and bring out sweetness. Espresso roasts, on the other hand, are developed further to encourage deeper caramelization and Maillard reactions, producing richer, chocolatey, and nutty flavours that shine in milk and offer a fuller-bodied espresso.
We don't usually roast omni (one roast for all brew methods) — in our experience, it tends to be a compromise that's average at both. But occasionally, for larger lots or versatile blends, we may do an omni roast to suit both black and milk drinkers.
Roast Level:
Light
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This is a more accurate reflection of the actual roast level rather than internal & external colour readings and is based off roasting weight loss %. <11% is Nordic ultra-light; 11–13% is Light with balanced acidity and sweetness; 14–16% is Medium for rounded body and caramel; 16–20% is Dark for rich, chocolatey intensity; 20%+ is Starbucks/Italian for bold, smoky depth. Some would say the higher the %, the 'stronger' the coffee.
Roasting Weight Loss:
12.0%
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Coffee roasting weight loss refers to the significant reduction in the mass of green coffee beans during the roasting process, typically ranging from 9% to 25% depending on the roast level. This phenomenon primarily occurs due to the evaporation of moisture, which constitutes about 9–13% of the bean's initial weight.
Internal Agtron:
97
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This is a more accurate reflection of the actual roast colour than external as it's measured after grinding. Internal Agtron reveals how far into the bean the roast has penetrated. Our filter roasts often score over 100, preserving acidity, florals, and the unique vibrant characteristics of each origin and process. Please bear in mind that grind coarseness can affect the internal colour readings, so it is impossible to compare from roaster to roaster using this colour reading.
External Agtron:
60
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This refers to the surface colour of the whole roasted bean, but it's not always a reliable indicator of roast level. Some of our most vibrant and lightly roasted coffees, like our Ecuadorian Sidra, may appear medium-dark (Agtron 50–60) due to their surface colour, yet are in fact light roasts with minimal development time. Surface colour can be affected by the original green colour, bean type, density, and moisture — so don't judge a bean by its exterior.
Agtron Spread:
37
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The Agtron spread is the difference between the colour of whole beans and ground coffee, showing how deeply the coffee is developed. A spread of 0–10 usually indicates very dark, oily roasts typical of Italian-style, which we don't offer at our Roastery. Spreads between 11–20 and 21–30 represent the roast levels you'll find in our espresso coffees, balancing sweetness, acidity, and body. Spreads above 30 make up most of our filter coffee range, featuring very light, bright roasts that highlight fruity, floral, and complex flavours. Within this, spreads from 31–40 offer clarity and vibrancy, while spreads of 40–50 showcase ultra-light roasts with delicate acidity and nuanced character.
Roasted On Machine:
Roest L100 Plus
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The ROEST L100 is a game-changer in the world of sample roasting, designed with precision, automation, and data transparency at its core. Unlike traditional sample roasters that rely heavily on manual control and visual cues, the L100 gives you full control over temperature, airflow, and drum speed—while also logging every variable in real time. With a touch screen interface, built-in Wi-Fi, and cloud connectivity, it allows for consistent, repeatable roasts and effortless profiling. Whether you're cupping for quality control or exploring new green lots, it eliminates guesswork and brings lab-level control to your coffee bench.
What sets the L100 apart from other roasters its size isn’t just the tech—it’s the consistency, repeatability, and scalability. Other small sample roasters often struggle to replicate curves or to match the flavor development seen in production roasting. The L100 bridges that gap with unmatched thermal stability and accurate replication, meaning your sample roasts can translate more faithfully to your larger batches. Plus, features like automatic preheating, auto-drop, exhaust sensors, and compatibility with Cropster or Artisan make it not just a roaster—but a full-on data-driven coffee lab in a shoebox-sized footprint.
Taste Profile
Tasting Notes:
ROASTED ALMOND | NECTARINE | JASMINE
Cupping Score:
86.0
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Our coffees are scored using the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) protocol by Q Grader–certified cuppers. A score of 80+ qualifies as specialty grade — clean, well-processed, and high quality. 80–84 coffees are more common and often used in blends. 85–87 are brighter, more complex, and better suited for high-quality filter brews. 88–90 are exceptional, and 90+ coffees are ultra-rare, often Cup of Excellence (COE) winners — the best in the world.
Suitable with Milk?
Yes
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Some of our light roasted filter coffees are bursting with bright, fruity acidity — think citrus, berries, or tropical notes. While these flavours shine on their own, they don't always play well with milk. The acidity can clash with milk's natural sweetness and creaminess, sometimes creating sour or chalky flavours.
Decaffeinated?
No
Import into Beanconqueror
Import into xBloom (18g)
Papua New Guinea | Baroida Estate | Gesha Washed #7904 - When is peak flavour?
Light Roast - Roasted on Roest L100 Plus
This single-variety Gesha lot from Baroida Estate blends the classic PNG washed profile of black tea and mandarin orange with the complex florals and stone fruit of high-altitude Gesha.
Baroida Estate is located in the Kainantu District, Eastern Highlands Province. The estate was founded by Ben Colbran in the 1960s, when the Government encouraged foreign agriculturalists to begin cultivating land throughout the highlands. Ben first purchased the land from a native man named Taro and was among the first farmers to cultivate coffee in these valleys. Today, Ben's son Nichol runs the plantation.
As part of his never-ending efforts to expand and improve quality at Baroida Estate, Nichol planted 22,200 Gesha coffee plants in 2017. The first lot of fully washed Gesha was produced in 2021. Given the excellent cup profile, Nichol has already moved forward with expanding his Gesha production, growing an additional 800 Gesha seedlings in the nursery and 6,000 in the seedbeds.
The name Baroida comes from the Baroida spirit, believed by locals to reside in a large river rock sitting in one of the main rivers flowing through the estate. This particular rock has stubbornly remained in the middle of the river for as long as anybody can remember, refusing to budge through the most severe floods, even when other rocks have been washed away.
The Baroida plantation sits at the apex of the Lamari river valley and the Mount Jabarra range, at about 1,700 to 1,850 metres above sea level, flanked by mountains filled with smallholder coffee producers who cultivate close to a million trees.
Cultivation
One of the biggest challenges the Colbrans faced when they first started out was soil water-logging. The system widely used for planting coffee seedlings in Papua New Guinea was adapted from Kenya: dig a hole approximately one metre wide by one metre deep, fill it with topsoil, and plant the seedling in it.
This method was completely unsuitable for the wet highlands of PNG, where average annual rainfall is 90 inches (against Kenya's under 60). The issue was solved by digging drainage ditches between each row of coffee. Over time Ben became very good at reading the coffee to see what it needed, and that knowledge was passed on to Nichol, who still implements it today.
More shade trees have since been planted to reduce fertilizer requirements and keep weeds under control. Of course, with more shade comes lower yields, so Colbran Coffeelands has established renovation and planting programs to meet future demand. According to Nichol, the high quality of coffee from Colbran Coffeelands is in part due to the old-fashioned systems that have been in place since the late 60s.
Harvest & Post Harvest
Meticulous separation for quality control helps maintain the high quality of the estate's coffee. After careful sorting, cherry is pulped on disk pulpers, then dry-ferments in vats for approximately 36 hours. Water is pumped into the vats in a circular motion to naturally agitate the coffee and remove any remaining mucilage. Parchment is sun-dried on tarps, turned regularly to ensure even drying.
We source the best quality lots, which are separated and allocated specifically for us before being hulled, graded and prepared for export.
About the Gesha Variety
Gesha (also spelled Geisha) is known for its exceptional cup quality, especially when grown at high altitudes. The variety comes from Ethiopian landrace coffees collected from Ethiopian coffee forests in the 1930s, and the name derives from Ethiopia's Gori Gesha forest.
There is some confusion with several genetically distinct varieties that have all been called Gesha, but the most famous is the Panama one. The variety was brought to Lyamungu research station in Tanzania and from there to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in 1953, where it was logged as T2722. CATIE distributed T2722 across Panama in the 1960s for its Coffee Leaf Rust resistance, but its brittle branches meant it was not widely planted.
Panama Gesha reached its modern fame in 2005 when a Gesha lot won the Best of Panama competition and broke records at over $20 per pound. Today, Gesha is known for its delicate florals, jasmine and stone fruit.
Coffee in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is a relative newcomer to the specialty coffee scene. The remote locations of the nation's smallholders - who produce 85% of the country's total coffee - combined with historically poor infrastructure has made the transition to specialty difficult. Nonetheless, the country is working towards innovative solutions that will hopefully lead to better quality coffee and improved livelihoods for its smallholder coffee producers.