International Jury Cupping Score
86.59
Region
Kona District,
Hawaii Island
Altitude
1,000 feet
above sea level
Estimated Lot Size
118 pounds (1 bag of 50 lbs, 1 bag of 68 lbs)
Winning Bidder
Latorre & Dutch Coffee (China)
for 珈琲光景 Cafe Lumiere /
KOLAKOLA COFFEE.
In March 2015, Doug McKanna imported Geisha seeds to Hawaii from Finca La Milagrosa in Boquete, Panama. After raising the seedlings in quarantine, as per the requirements of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, McKanna planted 2,000 Geisha trees in February 2018.
Kona Geisha Farm sits directly below Black Rock Farm — the source of four coffees in this auction.
This isn’t McKanna’s first farm. He also tends other fields planted with Kona Typica. All of McKanna’s coffees are processed as naturals, which is unique for Hawaii. He mechanically dries whole coffee cherries in dehumidifying dryers.
2020 was Kona Geisha’s first commercial-sized harvest. In Coffee Review, its coffee scored 95 points as roasted by Miguel Meza’s Paradise Coffee Roasters. (Meza also is a co-owner in Isla Custom Coffees.)
Yeast-Fermented, Anaerobic Natural Geisha
Meza started yeast-fermentation trials on Kona Geisha’s coffee cherries in July 2020. After testing a dozen different wine yeasts, Meza settled on an anaerobic natural process with several yeast strains designed to highlight tropical fruit and stone fruit aromas in the coffee.
This auction lot was harvested between late October and early December 2020. The individual harvests were inoculated with selected yeast strains and fermented in anaerobic environments. The coffee cherries were dried in a dehumidifying dryer designed and built by McKanna. All of the individual harvests were milled in December 2020, then combined to create this auction lot.