Yellow Caturra — 100% Kaʻū Coffee

Best of Hawaiʻi 2026 — named to the Winners List (80+).

• Final score 84.57 · Innovative Division, Unpulped
• Hawaiʻi Coffee Association

Deep and wine-like — grape, plum and brown sugar over dark chocolate.

Yellow Caturra ripens to gold rather than red, which makes picking it a matter of judgement rather than colour-spotting — one reason it stays a small-lot coffee everywhere it is grown. It is a natural dwarf mutation, compact enough to thrive on the terraced slopes above our farms.

This lot is a natural: the cherry dries whole, fruit and all, on the bean. It is the oldest way to process coffee and the least forgiving — weeks of daily turning, and a batch can be lost to a single wet spell. What it gives back is the winey, fruit-forward depth you cannot get from a washed coffee.

Grown on the south slope of Mauna Loa in deep volcanic soil at Pahala, 1,600 feet and Nāʻālehu, 2,100 feet. The cooler air in the higher blocks is what keeps the acidity structured under all that fruit. The Miranda family planted our first roots in Pahala in 2006, after arriving from El Salvador.

What the judges found

“Gets very high-toned and floral as it cools. Lovely.”
— Cupping panel, Best of Hawaiʻi 2026

Ten cuppers, double-blind protocol, zero defects. Top descriptors: winey, grape, plum, brown spice, brown sugar, chocolate, with well-structured citric acidity.

Tasting panel

• Notes: red wine, grape, plum, brown sugar, brown spice, dark chocolate
• Body: Full
• Acidity: Citric, well-structured, grape
• Sweetness: Bittersweet, burnt sugar
• Finish: Fruity, nutty
• Varietal: Yellow Caturra
• Process: Natural — dried whole in the fruit
• Origin: Kaʻū, Hawaiʻi — 100% single family farm
• Elevation: 1,600–2,100 ft (Pahala and Nāʻālehu)
• Harvest: 2025/26

Medium or dark

Medium is the roast the judges scored and the one we recommend — it is where the grape and the plum stay legible. Dark pushes the fruit toward molasses and dried fig, for a heavier cup.

How to brew it, and shipping

18 g to 300 ml. Naturals reward a slower brew — a pour-over or a French press will hold the fruit together. We harvest less Yellow Caturra than any varietal except Peaberry; when a harvest sells through, it is gone until the next one. Roasted the day we pack it, out of Hawaiʻi within 1–2 business days. Free shipping over $75, applied automatically.