We’re taking you along on our trip to Monarch Coffee Farms in Holualoa, HI (part of the famous 20-mile stretch of land home to 100% Kona coffee), where we experienced coffee farming, processing, and tasting up close.
The Coffee Farm: Why Hawaii?
Choosing Monarch Coffee Farm as our first coffee origin trip hits closer to home than you might think. The owners, Greg and Susy Stille, are hometown natives to us in Woodland, California (part of the founding family for Nugget Markets–locals, you’ll know this). Greg and Susy’s daughter, Abby, and son-in-law, Sal, now run the ins and outs of the coffee farm on a daily basis, but Greg and Susy started everything, back when the farm was a mere 2-acre lot on Maui.
Monarch Coffee Farm is now nestled on the hillside of Hualālai on the Big Island, between mountain and sea, off a sleepy two-lane road with dramatic views of the bay below.
Of course, we didn’t know any of this when we pulled up after dark, drowsy and bloodshot from a flight gone wrong (a story for another time). We could barely see the road ahead of us coming up the steep drive to the property and parking in the soft soil just behind our tiny-home for the weekend.
The plus side of traveling three hours back in time to Hawaii is an easy-breezy 4:00am internal wakeup call the following day. And, wow, was it epic.
OFF THE PAGE MOMENT: In the soft light of day, we could tell we were in for a treat. The property at Monarch Coffee Farm is immaculate, with a sprawling, lush hillside of coffee trees dotted with starbursts of ruby red cherries, the buzzing of bees echo faintly in the distance, butterflies drift lazily from bud to branch, and confetti-colored parrots sail overhead squawking with delight...I don’t know that we’ve ever seen a property brimming with so much life.
Coffee Farm Tour: Gesha Coffee Comes to Kona
The downslope of the farm is lined with Gesha (also known as ‘Geisha’) trees. Originating in Ethiopia and brought to Panama and beyond in the early 20th century because of its leaves’ rust-resistance qualities, Gesha quickly became a favorite for coffee drinkers world-wide. Known for its floral notes of jasmine and hints of black tea, Gesha has a complex and unique flavor that took home the top spot at the ‘Best of Panama’ (an international coffee event organized by the Speciality Coffee Association of Panama, or SCAP).
Monarch Coffee Farm had an unshakable feeling that Gesha would thrive in Hawaii’s volcanic terrior, but bringing it to the islands was no small feat. After a full year of quarantine on the island to ensure the new plant species would not bring any pests, disease, or otherwise disturb the local environment in Hawaii, Monarch Coffee Farm was ready to start planting their first crop in Lahaina, Maui in Spring 2011.
Though this first crop in September 2013 was fruitful, the team was harvesting seeds for planting, not processing. It would still be several years before the team would begin cupping Gesha at the farm.
With the goal of moving from Maui to a larger farm within the Kona District of the Big Island, Monarch Coffee Farm partnered with Greenwell Farms to germinate, graft, and grow out the new Gesha seedlings, giving them the best chances of thriving in their new environment. This partnership was a labor of love (and plenty of patience), while the tiny seedlings rested in the nursery for a full year.
In April 2014, the farm was officially moved to Honualoa and the nearly two-year ground preparation began, with planting starting in December 2015. Though many were skeptical of a Gesha crop in Hawaii, the seedlings were released from the Greenwell Farms nursery with great success and Monarch Coffee Farm’s first harvest came in the 2017-18 season.
To say that the Gesha planting was successful is an understatement. With its first harvest, Monarch Coffee Farm took home the Grand Champion First Place with Gesha washed Kona Coffee and third place for their Fresh Pulp Natural Kona Coffee at the State of Hawaii Cupping Competition–huge wins!
OFF THE PAGE MOMENT: Gesha plants are highly susceptible to mutation and, like human siblings, can vary in size and degrees of outward appearance, some grow tall and narrow, while others stay lower to the ground and fill out, even the color of leaves can vary from tree to tree within a healthy crop.
Coffee Farm Tour: Pacamara Coffee + a Sweet Surprise
Looking up the hillside at Monarch Coffee Farm is the Pacamara coffee lot, planted in 2018, with its first harvest in 2020.
We were lucky enough to experience the Pacamara harvest this trip, which meant shadowing Monarch Coffee Farm’s two harvest interns, Sal Ramirez (right) and James Dempsey (left), as they collected coffee cherries by hand. Each year, Monarch Coffee hires a small group of interns to work at the farm for a three-month period (?) and help with all things coffee, harvest and post-harvest coffee processing.
It’s tedious work to harvest coffee–all done by hand throughout the farm–and a little extra human-power is crucial to harvesting the cherries on time. Because not every cherry on the branch is ready to harvest at once (note the various shades of red and green in the photo below), a human touch is essential to ensure the exact ripeness is picked at the right time.
OFF THE PAGE MOMENT: What would you expect a coffee cherry to taste like…? If you’re anything like us, we expected something tart, bordering on sour…unpleasant to say the least. We braced ourselves for impact popping one of these Pacamara cherries into our mouths, but *lo and behold* it had a pleasant sweetness, like an all-natural Fruit Gusher. We’d be happy with a full bowl of these to munch on!
Coffee Farm Tour: Sustainability
Monarch Coffee Farm is special in many ways, but it’s their commitment to sustainability that really impressed us, “For us, responsible farming practices are evident when we are committed to working with the land, managing the natural resources it provides, and doing everything we can to keep this ecosystem healthy and happy.”
This means giving back and protecting the land as much as possible:
1) Cover Crops: The family has done extensive research to plant cover crops in the farm’s mountainous terrain, which help protect the hillside from erosion.
2) Biodiverse Planting: Trees like avocado, citrus, banana and strawberry guava help attract pollinators and keep the farm buzzing with life (the farm has 28 bee hives!)
3) Creative Compost: Coffee pulp (typically disposed of during the processing stage) is recycled back into compost so nothing goes to waste, pictures 5+6 below.
Coffee Farm Tour: The Processing Mill
Monarch Coffee Farm does its processing on site, just steps away from the Pacamara lot, which is a huge treat. Sal and Abby oversee everything (that’s Sal feeding buckets of cherries into the mill to strip the pulp and reveal the seeds).
The coffee farm has a greenhouse where the harvested coffee can rest and dry thoroughly. Depending on the processing method, coffee cherries or washed beans are laid in an even layer atop these raised, meshed drying beds to help circulate airflow and dry evenly.
OFF THE PAGE MOMENT: This room smells incredible, a sonata of rich, dark fruit with just the right amount of tang. And manually turning the contents on these drying beds, to ensure an even drying process, was quite satisfying! Using our bare hands, we were encouraged to scoop armsfuls of dried beans and cherries, churning the contents, then spreading them back out again in a single, uniform layer. Not only did it smell delicious, but it was like playing in a personal sandpit without the mess.
There are three main processing methods used at Monarch Coffee Farm:
1) Natural Process: the coffee cherry remains intact during the drying process, which allows the coffee seed to absorb more flavors from the drying fruit, resulting in a more fragrant and flavorful cup; because every seed will absorb slightly different flavors from its cherry, this can result in a slightly less consistent brew from cup to cup
2) Washed Process: the coffee seed is removed from the cherry and washed before laying out to dry; this stripping process is done at the peak of ripeness, resulting in a cleaner, more consistent cup
3) Honey Processed: this is done by removing the coffee seed from its cherry, but keeping the thin, sticky layer of mucilage intact around the seed, resulting in a sweeter flavor
Coffee Farm Tour: Bringing Coffee Home to Gallery
As if the farm tour wasn’t enough to convince us that we needed to bring this goodness back to Gallery, we moved to a tasting flight of coffees back at the O’hana.
Our flight consisted of the coffee processes we explored at the processing mill: Natural Process, Washed Process, and Honey Processed. This was special because we were tasting the exact same harvested cherries, but under different methods of processing, which drastically changes the flavor of each brew.
PHOTO NOTE: We were *way* too excited for our cupping and (rookie mistake) completely abandoned our camera gear to chat with Abby about pour over technique and the all-consuming sensory explosion that is cupping Monarch Coffee Farm coffees and scarfing freshly baked banana bread. In absence of our messy cupping table, please enjoy the absolute eye candy that is freshly picked cherries and their honey-processed seeds below.
The Natural Process was punchy, with notes of citrus, a jammy mouth feel, and some pleasant acidity. In the Washed Process, we got notes of tropical fruit, jasmine, and hints of stone fruit. But it was the Honey Processed that blew us away; it was less bright and fruit-forward than the Natural Process, with notes of the same delicate jasmine we got in the Washed Process, but leaving the mucilage on the seed gave it a (you guessed it!) honey-like sweetness that rounded out the flavors nicely. It was amazing.
When it was time to pack up and head home, we couldn’t stop talking about our Honey Processed cups (that we refilled a few times…) and wanted to bring this experience home to you. We’ve got green coffee on the way, ready to roast up something special: Kona coffee with a Gallery Coffee Roasters twist (available in limited quantities March 2025).
Keep following along for more great coffee tips, tricks, and pics. Catch us on Instagram @gallerycoffees or stop into our home roastery and cafe at 420 First Street, Woodland, California from 6am-6pm.