This Geisha variety was originally collected from coffee forests in Ethiopia in the 1930s. It was sent to the Lyamungu research station in Tanzania and brought to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in 1953 and logged as accession T2722. It was distributed throughout Panama via CATIE in the 1960s after being recognized for tolerance to coffee leaf rust. However, the plant's branches were brittle, so farmers did not favour or widely plant it. The coffee came to prominence in 2005 when the Peterson family of Boquete, Panama, entered it into the "Best of Panama" competition and auction. It received exceptionally high marks and broke the then-record for green coffee auction prices. There is significant confusion about Geisha because there are multiple genetically distinct plant types referred to as Geisha, many of which share similar geographic origins in Ethiopia. Recent genetic diversity analysis conducted by World Coffee Research confirms that Panamanian Geisha descendent from T2722 is distinct and uniform. It is associated with extremely high cup quality when the plants are managed well at high altitudes.