Tasting Notes

Ripe beerries, pineapple and whisps of flowers in the aroma. A lively white wine-like acidity in the cup, with notes of milk chocolate and caramel as the cup cools.  

Ka‘ū Region

Ka‘ū is a region on the south side of the Big Island of Hawaii that has steadily become the second largest growing region after Kona just on the other side of the slopes of Mauna Loa. Modern production started in 1996 After  the C Brewer Sugar Mill closed. 

Workers for the mill were offered land leases on the former sugar cane lands and encouraged to plant coffee. And handful of people decided to stay and try their hands at coffee farming. 25 years later some of these original Ka‘ū coffee pioneers like Leo Norberte of JN Farms are still at it and the region has expanded from around 200 acres to more than 700 acres of coffee. The region is blessed with ideal conditions for growing coffee. deep soils, plentiful rainfall, and afternoon cloud cover that helps keep the average temperatures around 70F (20C) at elevations of 1500-2400ft  

We first became aware of this region in 2007 when Miguel helped judge the Asia/Pacific entries to the SCAA coffee of the year cupping competition. 2 coffees from Ka‘ū went on to place in the top 10 amongst coffees from around the world that  year and coffees from the region continued to place in the top 10 annually through 2013, the last year the competition was held.  

Inspired by this new region our founder, Miguel moved to Hawaii in 2008 to begin working with growers in the region to better understand the variables involved in producing top quality coffees from the farm level.

Since purchasing our first Ka‘ū coffees 15 years ago we have come to appreciate the sweetness and balance of the regions coffees. At lighter roasts they can display a range or citrus, berry, floral, and tea-like characteristics. The coffees also have the density and acidity to maintain a lot of character even at darker roasts. Developing notes of dried fruit and dark chocolate. 

Champagne Natural Process

Champagne Natural is a method we began developing in 2019 based off of research in Brazil that showed the potential of using selected yeast strains to improve to quality of coffee. We have continued to refine and evolve this process every season through continuous experimentation and cupping.

The process starts with sanitation of the cherries and removing any floating low density fruit. The cherries are then placed in a Bioreactor, covered with water and inoculated with selected wine yeast strains. After several days of fermentation the sugars in the fruit have been consumed and converted to alcohols, acids, and CO2, and also aromatic Esters which can give aromas reminiscent of fruits and flowers. At the end of fermentation the cherries are no longer sweet, but crisp and tart and effervescent from the CO2, tasting like champagne.

The Cherries are then laid to dry on trays in a specially built dehumidified drying building that rapidly removes the moisture from the fruit at low temperatures. After the coffee beans have dried to below 11% moisture they are rested for a few weeks in the dried cherries before milling.