Kona Coffee FAQs-Roasting, Sourcing, and Shipping
Find answers to common questions about our 100% Kona coffees, roasting schedule, shipping times, and sourcing practices.
A competition-winning washed Geisha from southern Ecuador with floral aromatics, citrus brightness, and remarkable elegance.
Origin: Saraguro, Loja, Ecuador
Farm: Finca Llavecocha
Producer: Carlos Jaramillo
Roast: Light
Variety: Geisha
Process: Washed
Flavor: Mandarin, jasmine, peach
Body: Silky, tea-like
Acidity: Bright, refined
Altitude: 2,220 masl
Award: 3rd Place — Taza Dorada 2025
This exceptional washed Geisha earned 3rd Place in Ecuador's 2025 Taza Dorada competition, scoring an impressive 89.25 points.
Produced by Carlos Jaramillo at Finca Llavecocha in the high mountains of Loja, the coffee showcases the qualities that have made Geisha one of the world's most celebrated coffee varieties: floral aromatics, vibrant citrus character, and remarkable cup clarity.
The result is an elegant and expressive coffee with notes of mandarin, jasmine, peach, and delicate floral sweetness.
Finca Llavecocha is located in the Saraguro canton of Loja Province in southern Ecuador, one of the country's most promising high-elevation coffee regions.
At approximately 2,220 meters above sea level, cool temperatures slow cherry maturation, allowing sugars and aromatic compounds to develop gradually before harvest.
These conditions contribute to the coffee's refined acidity, floral complexity, and exceptional cup structure.
Carlos Jaramillo has built a reputation for meticulous cultivation and quality-focused production at Finca Llavecocha.
His dedication was recognized in the 2025 Taza Dorada competition, where this washed Geisha achieved 3rd Place among Ecuador's top coffees.
The award reflects both the farm's high-elevation terroir and careful attention to quality throughout cultivation and processing.
Geisha is one of the world's most sought-after coffee varieties, known for producing coffees with exceptional floral aromatics, citrus character, and tea-like elegance.
Originally collected in Ethiopia and later popularized in Panama, the variety has become synonymous with some of the highest-scoring coffees produced worldwide.
In Ecuador's high-elevation growing environments, Geisha often develops a distinctive balance of floral complexity, stone fruit sweetness, and vibrant acidity.
This coffee was processed using the traditional washed method.
After harvest, cherries were depulped and fermented before being thoroughly washed and dried. The washed process emphasizes clarity, transparency, and varietal expression, allowing the unique characteristics of the Geisha variety and the farm's terroir to shine through.
This light roast was developed to preserve the coffee's floral aromatics, vibrant acidity, and delicate structure.
We roast conservatively to maximize clarity and sweetness while highlighting the elegant characteristics that earned this coffee recognition on the competition stage.
Expect fragrant aromas of jasmine and sweet florals followed by notes of mandarin, peach, and subtle chocolate sweetness.
The cup is silky and tea-like with bright acidity and a long, elegant finish.
This is a refined and transparent expression of washed Geisha, emphasizing balance and complexity rather than intensity.
3rd Place — Taza Dorada 2025
Score: 89.25 Points
The competition judges described the coffee with notes including:
Excellent for:
Use filtered water and brew temperatures around 198–201°F for best results.
If you enjoy Panama Geisha but want to explore a different expression of the variety, this Ecuadorian Geisha offers a distinctive combination of floral complexity and mountain-grown sweetness.
Competition-Winning Coffee
3rd Place in Ecuador's 2025 Taza Dorada competition.
Exceptional Elevation
Grown at 2,220 meters above sea level in Loja.
Classic Washed Geisha Profile
Floral, citrus-driven, and highly transparent.
Produced by Carlos Jaramillo
One of Ecuador's most respected quality-focused producers.
Roasted for Expression
Lightly roasted to preserve nuance, aromatics, and acidity.
Kona Coffee FAQs-Roasting, Sourcing, and Shipping
Find answers to common questions about our 100% Kona coffees, roasting schedule, shipping times, and sourcing practices.
Kona coffee grows on the volcanic slopes of Hawai‘i Island, where mineral-rich soil, afternoon cloud cover, and slow cherry maturation create a naturally sweet and balanced cup. Our Kona Classic Medium is sourced from high-elevation farms and hand-harvested for clarity, smoothness, and elegant sweetness.
Yes — this roast is Authentic Kona coffee made exclusively from North Kona district-grown coffees, never blended. Our Kona coffees comes from small farms at the highest altitudes in the region.
Medium roasts highlight Kona’s signature profile: gentle sweetness, soft citrus, toasted almond, and milk chocolate. The result is a balanced, approachable cup ideal for everyday brewing.
This coffee shines in pour-over, drip, and French press. Use filtered water just off the boil and a medium grind for maximum clarity and sweetness. If you are looking for a Hawaiian coffee for espresso use we recommend our Hawai‘i Island Blend
Kona is the highest labor cost coffee region in the world. Wages for farm workers here are 15-20x higher than almost all other coffee producing countries. Limited and expensive land, hand-picking, and high production costs create a naturally small supply each year — especially from high-elevation farms like those we partner with.
We roast and fulfill all of our coffee orders in Hilo, Hawai'i.
We roast in small batches using a Diedrich IR12 roasting machine.
We source an array of the top specialty coffees worldwide that appeal to an array of different palates.
If at any point you have difficulty brewing, or just appreciating one of our roasted coffees, no problem. Shoot us an email within 5 days of receiving your coffee and we'll help you find the correct brew settings for your coffee, or give you a credit (minus actual shipping costs) on your next purchase. Yep, we're a Satisfaction Guarantee coffee company!
Please note, our Satisfaction Guarantee only applies to U.S. orders of roasted coffees, and you must contact us within 5 days of receiving the coffees. Credits do not include actual shipping fees, which may be different from posted shipping fees.
We roast and ship on Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
Our commitment to you is to serve exceptional, fresh-roasted coffees. And part of being exceptional means roasting before the flavors inherent in the green bean begin to fade, which happens over time.
Like apples and pumpkins, coffee is a seasonal agricultural product and each country has a different harvesting cycle in which coffees are at their peak. If we were to insist on serving a single origin all year long, the flavors in that coffee would be noticeably better one half of the year over the other. So the reason you no longer see that coffee you loved is because the optimal season has passed. For more on seasonality in coffees, see this blog post here.
Hopefully so. If it was a popular product or we receive customer requests, we will make every attempt to bring it back. However, please note that coffees from a certain producer may not taste the same year after year.
If you loved a coffee and no longer see it listed, shoot us an email and ask us what is similar. We’d be happy to provide a personal recommendation.
We aim for balance and completeness along with differentiation and distinction. You shouldn't need to be a professional coffee taster to tell the coffees a part, so, when we’re selecting coffees, we want them to be distinct from each other.
We avoid ”one-trick pony” type coffees, such as Ethiopians with great aroma but no body or acidity, or coffees with good aroma and acidity but lacking sweetness. These elements, which are often reflections of the growing conditions, are harmonized through good roasting.
And, obviously, defects — even subtle defects — influence our selection. Since we live and work at origin, we’re sensitive to coffee defects like “past crop”, pulpy, and naturals that border on over-ferment. With naturals, we’ll only carry these when great examples are available.
Our perspective on roasting is similar: we seek balance and distinction. To expect that a coffee is “best” when roasted to some pre-determined degree (i.e. only light roasting or only dark roasting) is analogous to thinking that each person would look best in the same outfit, or each coffee should be grown in the same way. We believe it’s our job to discover the roast degree which best highlights outstanding qualities in each coffee.