Bench Maji (Gesha)

Bench Maji is the far south-western corner of Ethiopia’s coffee country, close to the border with South Sudan, and a home of Gesha, the Ethiopian variety that Panama made famous. Its best-known farm, Gesha Village, grows Gesha from seed collected in the nearby Gori Gesha forest, and its coffees have scored up to 96 with Coffee Review.

The short version

• Far south-west Ethiopia, near South Sudan.
• The Gori Gesha forest, source of Gesha Village’s seed.
• Gesha Village: 341 hectares of coffee at about 1,950 metres.
• Up to 96 points with Coffee Review.
• 10,097 tonnes from the zone in 2005; coffee is its main cash crop.

What does Bench Maji coffee taste like?

Perfumed, floral and fruity. Coffee Review’s blind assessments of Gesha from the zone:

Year	Coffee	Score	Notes
2024	Gesha Village Oma, Gesha 1931, natural	96	Wisteria, pink peppercorn, dried mango, bergamot, cocoa nib; syrupy
2025	Gesha Village Lot 108	94	Narcissus, agave syrup, dried apricot, marjoram, salted almond
2026	Bench-Maji Geisha, washed	94	Orange blossom, pear, pink grapefruit zest, chamomile, baking chocolate
2026	Bench-Maji Fair Trade Station G1 Geisha, washed	95	White peach, gardenia, bergamot, lemon verbena, strawberry honey

Source: Coffee Review. All four were produced by Adam and Rachel Overton; the 2024 natural was No. 29 on Coffee Review’s top 30 of 2024, and the 2026 washed station lot was a finalist in the first Kenneth Davids Cup. Beyond Gesha, Wikipedia describes the zone’s Genika and Guraferda coffees as spicy, with wine or chocolate tones and a floral aroma. In the 2021 Cup of Excellence, an anaerobic Gesha from a plantation in Gura Ferda placed 20th with 87.97.

Where and how is it grown?

Gesha Village Coffee Estate lies in the forests of far western Ethiopia, a few kilometres from South Sudan. Its founders, Adam Overton and Ethiopian-born Rachel Samuel, first came in 2007 to make a documentary about Ethiopian coffee, then collected seed from wild Gesha plants in the Gori Gesha forest and built the farm from scratch, the estate says.

Measure	Figure	Source
Estate area	471 ha	Gesha Village
Planted with coffee	341 ha	Gesha Village
Trees	730,000	Gesha Village
Altitude, Gesha 1931 lot	1,931–2,049 m	Bean Bros
Altitude, another lot	1,963–1,977 m	Geshary Coffee
Harvest	December–January	Geshary Coffee
Varieties	Gesha 1931, Gori Gesha, Illubabor Forest	Gesha Village

The names shift: Wikipedia now redirects Bench Maji to Bench Sheko, and Gesha Village describes its land as part of West Omo zone, while Coffee Review and importers still label these coffees Bench Maji.

How much coffee does it grow?

Coffee is the primary cash crop of Bench Sheko, Wikipedia says. The Central Statistical Agency reported 10,097 tonnes in the year to 2005, from the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority’s inspection records; no newer zone figure was found. In 2025/26 the west and south-west, including Benchmaji, had stable to above-average production, USDA reports.

Bench Maji and other Ethiopian origins

• Coffee in Ethiopia: the whole country, its harvest and its trade.
• Kaffa: the wild forest coffee of the south-west.
• Jimma and Limu: the big south-western coffee zone.