Kona Coffee FAQs-Roasting, Sourcing, and Shipping
Find answers to common questions about our 100% Kona coffees, roasting schedule, shipping times, and sourcing practices.
Taiwan Alishan SL34 Natural
A vibrant SL34 from Taiwan’s famed Alishan Mountains, combining juicy tropical fruit, citrus-toned sweetness, and a refined tea-like finish through a carefully executed natural process.
Origin: Alishan, Taiwan
Farm: JinYunSin Tea Coffee Farm
Roast: Light
Variety: SL34
Process: Natural
Flavor: Mango, cherry, pomelo
Body: Silky, tea-like
Acidity: Bright, sweet
Taiwan has quietly emerged as one of the world’s most compelling origins for specialty coffee, particularly in the high mountain landscapes of Alishan, where cool temperatures, cloud cover, and slow cherry maturation support remarkable aromatic complexity. This SL34 from JinYunSin Tea Coffee Farm offers a vivid expression of that potential, bringing together lush fruit character, polished sweetness, and the elegant structure that has made Alishan coffees increasingly respected among top specialty buyers.tonya.co+3
With notes of mango, cherry, and pomelo, the cup is bright and expressive yet remarkably composed. It carries the layered fruit intensity of a natural process while preserving the refinement and tea-like finish that make Taiwan’s best coffees so distinctive.instagram+2
JinYunSin Tea Coffee Farm is located in Taiwan’s celebrated Alishan Mountain region at approximately 1,200 meters above sea level, an area long prized for its high-mountain teas and increasingly recognized for exceptional coffee. Cool temperatures, frequent mist, and strong day-to-night temperature swings slow ripening and promote the development of sweetness, acidity, and aromatic depth.
While Taiwan’s coffee production remains small, Alishan has become one of Asia’s most promising coffee-growing regions, producing coffees that often show floral, fruit-driven, and tea-like qualities unlike those of more established origins.
Paradise Coffee Roasters has worked alongside Taiwan’s coffee industry for more than fifteen years. From 2010 through 2013, Paradise founder and Roastmaster Miguel Meza consulted with coffee producers throughout Taiwan, sharing post-harvest processing techniques while learning from Taiwan’s uniquely meticulous approach to specialty coffee production.
Since then, Paradise has continued to support Taiwanese coffee growers through direct farm relationships and by sourcing exceptional coffees through Taiwan’s Cup of Excellence auction. This coffee represents the continuation of that long-standing relationship and reflects Taiwan’s commitment to precision agriculture, careful processing, and continual quality improvement.
This lot was produced as a natural process, allowing the fruit character of the SL34 variety to develop fully while preserving clarity and balance in the cup. Our light roast profile is designed to emphasize the coffee’s vivid fruit notes, sweet acidity, and tea-like elegance without pushing the cup into heaviness.
The result is a coffee that feels bright and expressive, with tropical fruit and citrus energy balanced by refined structure and a clean finish. Rather than overwhelming the palate, the natural process enhances the variety’s sweetness and aromatic lift.
Expect notes of ripe mango, cherry, and pomelo, supported by bright, sweet acidity and a silky body. The finish is long, clean, and lightly tea-like, giving the coffee a composed and elegant feel despite its vivid fruit profile.
This is a natural coffee with energy and complexity, but also with the precision and polish that define the best coffees from Alishan.
Taiwan has become one of the world’s most innovative coffee-producing countries, bringing together generations of agricultural expertise with a highly detail-oriented approach to cultivation and processing. Paradise Coffee Roasters roasts every batch to order in Hilo, Hawai‘i, ensuring each coffee is delivered at peak freshness
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.