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 vivid expression of Kaʻū terroir, shaped by anaerobic natural fermentation and crowned 1st Place at the 2026 Best of Hawaiʻi Cupping Competition. Tropical, floral, and deeply layered, this is one of the most celebrated Hawaiian coffees of the year.
Origin: Kaʻū, Hawaiʻi Island
Farm: Miranda Farms
Harvest: January 2026
Variety: Geisha
Process: Anaerobic Natural
Roast: Light
Flavor: Starfruit, berries, lemon-lime candy
Body: Silky, syrupy
Acidity: Bright, vibrant
The Kaʻū district has rapidly established itself as one of Hawaiʻi's most exciting coffee-growing regions. High on the southern slopes of Mauna Loa, cool nights, volcanic soils, and steady Pacific trade winds produce coffees with exceptional sweetness, clarity, and complexity.
This remarkable Geisha comes from Miranda Farms, one of Kaʻū's most respected producers. Harvested in January 2026, this lot represents the culmination of years of refinement in both cultivation and processing.
Its quality was recognized with 1st Place in the 2026 Best of Hawaiʻi Cupping Competition, establishing it as the highest-ranked coffee in the state this harvest.
This is a Geisha that combines expressive fruit with remarkable balance.
Bright aromas lead into vibrant flavors of starfruit, mixed berries, and lemon-lime candy, carried by a silky body and lively acidity. Despite the anaerobic fermentation, the cup remains remarkably clean, allowing the Geisha variety and Kaʻū terroir to remain at center stage.
The finish is long, floral, and refreshing—layering tropical sweetness over refined citrus and delicate aromatics.
Awarded the highest honor at Hawaiʻi's premier coffee quality competition, recognizing this lot as one of the finest coffees produced anywhere in the islands during the 2026 harvest.
Following in the footsteps of Miranda Farms' previous award-winning Geishas, this anaerobic natural also earned an outstanding 96-point rating from Coffee Review, placing it among the world's highest-rated coffees.
For this lot, perfectly ripe cherries were sealed in oxygen-free fermentation tanks, allowing fermentation to proceed slowly under carefully controlled conditions before drying as a natural.
The anaerobic process amplifies sweetness and fruit complexity while preserving the elegance of the Geisha variety. Rather than dominating the cup, the fermentation contributes additional layers of tropical fruit and vibrant aromatics while maintaining exceptional clarity.
The result is a coffee that is expressive, dynamic, and unmistakably Geisha.
Miranda Farms has become one of the defining producers of modern Hawaiian specialty coffee. Their meticulous approach to farming and willingness to explore innovative processing techniques have helped place Kaʻū among the world's emerging premium coffee origins.
Over the years, Paradise Coffee Roasters has worked closely with Miranda Farms to showcase some of Hawaiʻi's most exceptional coffees, including multiple Coffee Review award winners and competition-winning Geisha lots. This 2026 Best of Hawaiʻi champion continues that tradition.
Best brewed as a pour-over or delicate immersion to highlight its layered aromatics and crystalline fruit character. Allow the coffee to cool as the tropical fruit and floral notes continue to unfold.
This is a coffee to linger over—an expression of what Kaʻū Geisha can achieve at its highest level.
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.