The universe first seemed to catch onto Geisha -- a rare coffee varietal brought from the Ethiopian town of Gesha to Central America, where, the lore goes, it took on particularly tasty qualities -- when Starbucks began serving the stuff last year for a somewhat obscene $7 a cup. D.C. coffee shops including Peregrine Espresso, Qualia and Chinatown Coffee have also indulged coffee heads with the brew, from various roasters, without stirring up quite the same vitriol.

Curious to try it, price be damned? Zeke's Coffee's new D.C. lab is hosting coffee cuppings this weekend featuring two types of Geisha, plus two other storied coffees: Hawaiian Kona and Jamaican Blue Mountain.



John Kepner, owner of the D.C. location of Zeke's Coffee, demonstrated a pour-over method for brewing. (Photo by Lavanya Ramanathan/The Washington Post)

The tastings, set for Sunday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon, are $10. A ticket will buy you pretty decent helpings of the stuff: Tasters will get 6-ounce cups of each of the four coffees (and Zeke's has no problem if you share your allotted 24-ounces with a pal).

Find the lineup of coffees for the event, dubbed the Flight of Fancy, below. Each of the green coffees is being delivered to Zeke's this week, where they will be lightly roasted Friday so they're fresh for Sunday's tastings. Sign up here.

Flight of Fancy Lineup

Panama Esmeralda Geisha

Colombian Granja La Esperanza Geisha

Jamaican Blue Mountain Clydesdale Estate

Hawaiian Kona Greenwell Estate

Zeke's is at 2300 Rhode Island Ave. NE. 202-733-2646. www.zekescoffeedc.com.

Due to an editing error, a previous version of this post incorrectly referred to Geisha's Ethiopian place of origin as Geisha instead of Gesha.