This month’s producer focus is Mikava Coffee from the highlands of Risaralda, Colombia. Harvesting some of the finest beans around, their approach has focused on both heritage and modern varietals of Arabica, and experimental, extended fermentations on the coffee cherries. The results are heaven in a cup. 

Mikava was founded in 2013, and is owned and operated by Paul K. Doyle, an American who progressed from running a coffee cart, to a café and roastery in the Pacific Northwest before turning his attention to coffee production. With support from his son Kevin, they decided to buy a beautiful coffee farm and mill facility in Marsella, Risaralda, a region with perfect altitude and micro-climates for coffee production. Inspired by techniques from the US wine industry, particularly carbonic maceration, they experimented with these methods to bring out more sweetness, complexity, fruit and floral notes in the coffees.

They acquired a second farm at very high altitude (2000m) in Santuario, which was perfect for growing Gesha (Geisha) and other varietals that are suited to these conditions. And Paul, Kevin and team were soon finding success with a spectacular win in the 2019 Colombia Cup of Excellence awards, with their coffee placing 1st and scoring 92.7 points. This is one of the most prestigious achievements for any coffee grower.

Just last week in the World Brewers Cup, Shih Yuan Hsu (Sherry) of Taiwan was crowned the 2022 World Champion. Sherry works as a barista at Coffee Lover’s Planet in Taipei City, Taiwan. During the competition Sherry used one of Mikava’s Natural Gesha’s to help gain her crowning glory. Congratulations Sherry! And congratulations to Paul and the team at Mikava too! 

By coincidence we currently have a limited run of Mikava beans available in our webshop, a 100% Gesha from Santuario, which undergoes an extended, carbonic maceration process (within stainless steel tanks, flooded with carbon dioxide) on the whole coffee cherries, to bring out juicy and intense flavours. This particular micro-lot is “EF SASD” with extra slow drying on marquesinas (multilevel solar dryers). 
This coffee is very special to us; a floral and fragrant roast with a basket of citrus and berry fruits in the cup. Vibrant and silky these are available in 125g and 500g beans. 

This particular coffee won a 2 Star Great Taste Award in 2022, hot on the heels of a highly prestigious 3 Star Award in 2021. We also achieved a 2 Star for an extended fermentation Red Bourbon from Mikava Marsella in 2022