Gods of Coffee - Surma Gesha

July 22, 2025

Dose: 20g

Ratio: 1:17

Grind: Slightly coarser than neutral

Brew Time: 3:40

TDS: 1.32%

Extraction: 19.5%

Sensory Description:

When dialed in, the Surma Gesha is an excellent example of Gesha grown in its native soil. This coffee is elegant and has clear, delicate notes of jasmine, peach, and oolong. Ethiopian Gesha coffees, particularly those grown at Gesha Village, earn their high scores for their refined clarity and complexity. The Surma expresses the floral and stone fruit notes typical of Ethiopian terroir to such a degree that identifying individual characteristics in the cup becomes easy: lavender, jasmine, and honeysuckle among the florals; peach, apricot, and nectarine among the stone fruits. The texture and sweetness are similar to drinking black tea with a spoonful of honey, and the acidity balances that sweetness, bringing a vibrant quality to the cup reminiscent of biting into a ripe peach.

Dial Notes:

In general, Gesha coffees dial to a lower extraction percentage than other coffees, often falling between 19.0% to 19.5%, and Surma is no exception, tasting best at 19.5% extraction. Being a naturally processed Ethiopian Gesha, the texture / body and clarity of flavor should be the driving characteristics while dialing. The acidity should bring a balancing vibrancy to the coffee, but be careful not to grind too coarse in search of the bright acidity you might find in a washed coffee, as that will come at the expense of texture and sweetness. I found the best grind size to be slightly coarser than neutral by a few ticks on the EK43 in our training lab.

Under-extracted brews of Surma will be bright, like a washed Gesha, but as they cool, it becomes clear they lack the body and sweetness that define this naturally processed Gesha. When under-extracted, this coffee reminds me of eating underripe apricots or peaches and doesn’t have the honey-like sweetness that should be present in well-extracted cups.

Over-extracted brews of Surma will taste flat and dissipate quickly on the palate. The clearest way to detect over-extraction in high-quality Gesha coffees is by a loss of complexity, often accompanied by a flavor reminiscent of over-steeped black tea. These characteristics indicate that extraction needs to be reduced to achieve the coffee’s optimal flavor profile.