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Love in Every Origin: A 20-Year Journey with Mahina Mele Farm
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Love in Every Origin: A 20-Year Journey with Mahina Mele Farm
At Mahina Mele Farm, coffee cherries ripen while Jason plays bass music and Kollette creates healing skincare from their macadamia nuts. For twenty years, we've watched this 60-acre Hawaiian farm grow into something truly special – not just a place that grows coffee, but a living example of creative, earth-friendly farming.
Since 2006, Thanksgiving Coffee Company and Mahina Mele Farm have built a partnership as rich as the coffee they grow. When the Stiths arrived on Hawaii's Big Island in 2005, they weren't just buying land – they were starting a new way of living that respects nature.
Kolletee Stith with Ripe Kona Coffee Trees
Creative Spirits in Farming
Their approach blends creativity with farming in beautiful ways. Jason, who plays bass in local bands like Lip Service, brings that same creative energy to growing coffee. Kollette takes their organic macadamia nuts and transforms them into Pure Mana Hawaii skincare products that capture the essence of their land. These aren't side projects – they show how deeply the Stiths care about using every gift from their farm.
Our partnership goes beyond just buying coffee. We've supported their:
- Earth-Friendly Vision: Helping a farm that works to restore natural systems
- Creative Farming: Celebrating how growing food can connect with art and new ideas
- Community Bonds: Connecting coffee lovers directly to the farmers who grow their beans
Before Hawaii, Jason and Kollette were Peace Corps volunteers helping farmers in El Salvador. Now their 60-acre farm grows both coffee and macadamia nuts while nurturing the land around them.
Double Rainbow above the Stith family home on Mahina Mele Farms in Kona, Hawaii
Overcoming Challenges
The journey hasn't been without problems. When coffee rust disease finally reached Hawaii – the last place on Earth that didn't have it – the Stiths found natural solutions using organic treatments that help plants fight back. When their 70-year-old macadamia trees started dying from root rot, they researched sustainable answers while planning for the future. This resilience reflects the volcanic landscape itself – finding ways to thrive in challenging conditions.
Kona coffee blossoms
Ripe Kona Coffee getting picked
Kona coffee tree buds
As we celebrate two decades together, we're not just marking time. We're honoring a shared belief that every choice—from the way we farm to the products we create—can be an act of love for our planet.
Kolette Stith and Sue Mandini are the minds behind Pure Mana Hawai‘i, a macadamia nut oil-based skincare line. PHOTO COURTESY PURE MANA
Farming in Harmony with Nature
Walking through Mahina Mele Farm shows you their thoughtful approach to agriculture. Coffee trees grow alongside avocado trees that provide natural shade. African tulips and Ice cream bean trees add nitrogen to the soil naturally. Bananas, papayas, and healing Noni plants create a diverse ecosystem where everything supports each other.
Their coffee tastes of the volcanic soils and careful growing methods. When you brew Mahina Mele coffee, you can taste hints of brown sugar, milk chocolate, citrus fruit, and hazelnut – flavors that come from a farm where intention meets innovation.
One of the many Macadamia Nut trees on the Mahina Mele Farm supporting with valuable shade for coffee and delicious organic Mac Nuts
A Taste of Hawaiian Creativity
When you drink their coffee, you're joining this ongoing story. Each cup connects you to Hawaiian volcanic soil, to farming that protects the Earth, to Jason's music and Kollette's healing creations.
As we celebrate twenty years together, we're not just marking time. We're celebrating the belief that every choice – from how we grow coffee to what we create – can be an act of love for our planet.
We invite you to raise your cup and taste the difference that mindful farming makes. Experience coffee grown with creativity, care, and deep respect for the land – because at Mahina Mele Farm, love truly is in every origin.
Organic Kona coffee drying on the patio
Lilies blossoming in the shade on Mahina Mele Farm
Stith family from Mahina Mele farms
Lavender Grace is the Sustainabiity Consultant for Thanksgiving Coffee Company
Stay in touch - we like to stay connected
Recommended Reading
Back to the Blog-
![Mayan Mocha Smoothie]()
Recipe:
Mayan Mocha SmoothieA note of respect: This is a contemporary smoothie inspired by the long relationship between cacao and the peoples of Mesoamerica. It is not presented as a traditional Maya recipe.
Mayan Mocha Smoothie made with Mendocino Vienna cold brew, cacao, banana, and cinnamon
Ingredients
3/4 cup strong Mendocino Vienna cold brew, chilled
1 frozen ripe banana
1 tablespoon unsweetened cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup oat milk or milk of choice
Tiny pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon maple syrup or honey, optional
A few ice cubes, optional
Directions
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Taste, then add sweetener or ice if desired. Pour into a tall glass and finish with a light dusting of cacao and cinnamon.
Why it works: Mendocino Vienna’s nutty, dark-chocolate character gives the smoothie a true coffee backbone, while banana adds body and natural sweetness. For the fullest flavor, brew the cold brew the night before and chill it well.
The Story Behind the Coffee
Mendocino Vienna is more than the flavorful foundation of this smoothie. It is an organic dark roast shaped by coffees from three continents and more than fifty years of artisan roasting on the Mendocino Coast. Read Back to the Land, Forward in Time to explore the relationships connecting coffee, biodiversity, farmer knowledge, and place.
Lavender Grace Kent, Head of Brand Narrative & Culture
Lavender Grace documents Thanksgiving Coffee’s history, producer relationships, environmental commitments, and continuing work at the intersection of coffee, culture, and biodiversity.
Stay in touch - we like to stay connected
Mayan Mocha Smoothie
read more -
![First Harvest]()
First Harvest
How One Organic Coffee Line Changed The Way We See Coffee
This COFFEE grew WILD before it ever grew a NAME.
Long before coffee found its way into cafés, kitchens, and morning rituals around the world, it grew wild in the mist-covered highlands of southwestern Ethiopia. No one planted it. No one bred it. The forest did that work, season after season, for longer than anyone can trace.
In a region called Kaffa, coffee trees still grow beneath the forest canopy the way they always have - untamed, unhurried, shaped by rain and shade rather than by human hands. Every hillside grows its own character into the cherry. Every harvest tells a slightly different story, the way every plot of soil has its own voice.
Coffee trees growing in the shade beneth bannana trees in Guatamala.
There is a story many coffee lovers know. A young goatherd named Kaldi noticed his goats dancing with unusual energy after eating bright red coffee cherries. Curious, he tasted them himself. Whether history or folklore, the tale reminds us that discovery often begins simply - by paying attention to what's already growing at your feet.
From Ethiopia, coffee crossed the Red Sea into Yemen, where Sufi communities took it up as a companion for long nights of prayer. It settled into a daily rhythm of devotion, conversation, and learning. Soon coffeehouses opened across Mecca, Constantinople, Venice, London, and beyond - gathering places for artists, merchants, philosophers, and neighbors. Long before the internet, coffee was there and knew how to bring strangers into the same room.
Coffee Finds New Mountains
As coffee traveled, it found new ground to root in. Volcanic soil in Central and South America. High elevation. Seasonal rains. And always, at the center of it, generations of farmers who knew how to read their land. Each region added something of its own, while the plant itself never forgot where it came from.
Coffee became a bridge.
Across continents.
Across languages.
Across cultures.
Every cup carried the calloused hands of people most of us would never meet.
A Different Kind of First
In 1992, Paul and Joan Katzeff asked a different question at Thanksgiving Coffee: what if we knew the people behind the harvest?
That year, we introduced one of America's first certified organic single-origin coffee collections - The Harvest Line. The coffees came from Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. We named them Aztec Harvest, Mayan Harvest, and Inca Harvest, honoring the cultures rooted in those landscapes. And on every package, we put a photograph of the farmers themselves - real hands, real faces, the people whose knowledge shaped every bean before it ever reached a roaster, (This was also a first, to show the farmers on the packages).
Today, that may not seem unusual. Thirty years ago, it was.
Most coffee packaging spoke about brands. The Harvest Line spoke about relationships.
The original Harvest Line, introduced one of America's first organic coffee lines and featured the real farmers on the package. 1992
Organic Was Always More Than a Label
Organic farming has always been about what's tended to.
Healthy soil.
Clean water.
Thriving forests.
Pollinators.
The families whose lives depend on the land.
Farmers knew this before "organic" became a certification stamped on a bag: the health of the land and the health of the people are the same. You can't tend one and neglect the other.
That understanding is what shaped the Harvest Line, it was more than an organic coffee collection, it became an invitation to look past the label, toward the land, the culture, and the people that made the harvest possible.
Translating Coffee
For us, coffee has never been just coffee. It is a way to tell the story of how we shape one another, through action, through kindness, through the wellbeing we choose to protect. The way we did that was simple: we set out to translate it.
To translate forest into flavor.
To translate distant mountains into morning ritual.
To translate the work of farming families into faces we can recognize, and relationships we can stand behind.
Every roast is a chance to understand coffee a little more honestly. Every origin is a reminder that remarkable coffee begins long before it ever reaches a roaster - it begins with someone tending soil most of us will never stand on.
The First Harvest Continues
More than fifty years after Thanksgiving Coffee first opened its doors, and more than thirty years after Paul and Joan Katzeff asked a simple but transformative question, that same spirit continues to guide our work.
We believe exceptional coffee begins with exceptional relationships. That's why we build our sourcing on long-term partnerships with farming families, invest in the health of the communities and landscapes where coffee grows, and hold ourselves accountable through action, not simply aspiration.
Our coffees continue to tell the story of where they come from.
Our partnerships continue, harvest after harvest.
Every morning cup is an invitation.
An invitation to know where your coffee comes from. To honor the hands that shaped it. And to remember that the future of coffee, like its past, is rooted in the relationships we choose to cultivate.
The first harvest is not ours to own.
It is ours to carry forward.
Featured Coffee
Organic Guatemala Dark Roast
From the farmers of Guaya'b, HuehuetenangoOur Organic Guatemala Dark Roast comes from the Guaya'b Civil Association, a cooperative of more than 600 smallholder farming families in the mountains of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Since 2005, Thanksgiving Coffee has partnered with these farmers, whose commitment to craftsmanship and ecological stewardship continues to produce one of the most distinctive coffees in our collection.
Each day's harvest is carefully handpicked, then depulped, fermented, and dried in small batches on individual family farms. Antique Bourbon, Typica, and Caturra varietals grow beneath a restored forest canopy, where rich volcanic soils and dense shade create ideal conditions for exceptional coffee.
The forests surrounding Guaya'b were once cleared as coffee production expanded across the region. Today, a new generation of farmers is reversing that history by restoring native tree cover, cultivating diverse crops alongside coffee, and creating healthy habitat for migratory birds, pollinators, and local wildlife. Their organic honey project is one beautiful example, supporting both biodiversity and improved coffee pollination.
The result is a cup that reflects both the place and renewed purpose of being stewards of the Earth.
Tasting Notes
- Rich cherry sweetness
- Lush floral aromatics
- Deep wine-like body
- Smooth, lingering finish
For the farmers of Guaya'b, every harvest is an expression of care for the land, their families, and the generations who will follow.
Recipe
Highland Campfire Café
Inspired by the volcanic landscapes of Guatemala. This is the kind of coffee that slows the morning. Rich enough to stand on its own, yet wonderful with a touch of spice.
Ingredients
- 10 oz freshly brewed Organic Guatemala Dark Roast
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cacao powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Tiny pinch of sea salt
- 1 teaspoon local honey or maple syrup
- Splash of steamed whole milk or oat milk (optional)
- Fresh grated dark chocolate for garnish
Directions
Whisk the cacao, cinnamon, sea salt, and honey together in your favorite mug. Pour in a small amount of the hot coffee and stir until smooth. Fill the mug with the remaining coffee and finish with steamed milk if desired.
Top with a shaving of dark chocolate and enjoy while the morning is still quiet.
The rich cocoa notes of Guatemala meet warm spice and a hint of sweetness, creating a cup that feels both familiar and quietly celebratory.
Lavender Grace Kent - Head of Brand Narrative & Culture
Helping to steward the stories, partnerships, regenerative initiatives, and cultural legacy of Thanksgiving Coffee Company.
Stay in touch - we like to stay connected
First Harvest
read more
Recipe:
Mayan Mocha Smoothie
A note of respect: This is a contemporary smoothie inspired by the long relationship between cacao and the peoples of Mesoamerica. It is not presented as a traditional Maya recipe.
Mayan Mocha Smoothie made with Mendocino Vienna cold brew, cacao, banana, and cinnamon
Ingredients
3/4 cup strong Mendocino Vienna cold brew, chilled
1 frozen ripe banana
1 tablespoon unsweetened cacao powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup oat milk or milk of choice
Tiny pinch of sea salt
1 teaspoon maple syrup or honey, optional
A few ice cubes, optional
Directions
Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Taste, then add sweetener or ice if desired. Pour into a tall glass and finish with a light dusting of cacao and cinnamon.
Why it works: Mendocino Vienna’s nutty, dark-chocolate character gives the smoothie a true coffee backbone, while banana adds body and natural sweetness. For the fullest flavor, brew the cold brew the night before and chill it well.
The Story Behind the Coffee
Mendocino Vienna is more than the flavorful foundation of this smoothie. It is an organic dark roast shaped by coffees from three continents and more than fifty years of artisan roasting on the Mendocino Coast. Read Back to the Land, Forward in Time to explore the relationships connecting coffee, biodiversity, farmer knowledge, and place.
Lavender Grace Kent, Head of Brand Narrative & Culture
Lavender Grace documents Thanksgiving Coffee’s history, producer relationships, environmental commitments, and continuing work at the intersection of coffee, culture, and biodiversity.
Stay in touch - we like to stay connected
Mayan Mocha Smoothie
read more
First Harvest
How One Organic Coffee Line Changed The Way We See Coffee
This COFFEE grew WILD before it ever grew a NAME.
Long before coffee found its way into cafés, kitchens, and morning rituals around the world, it grew wild in the mist-covered highlands of southwestern Ethiopia. No one planted it. No one bred it. The forest did that work, season after season, for longer than anyone can trace.
In a region called Kaffa, coffee trees still grow beneath the forest canopy the way they always have - untamed, unhurried, shaped by rain and shade rather than by human hands. Every hillside grows its own character into the cherry. Every harvest tells a slightly different story, the way every plot of soil has its own voice.
Coffee trees growing in the shade beneth bannana trees in Guatamala.
There is a story many coffee lovers know. A young goatherd named Kaldi noticed his goats dancing with unusual energy after eating bright red coffee cherries. Curious, he tasted them himself. Whether history or folklore, the tale reminds us that discovery often begins simply - by paying attention to what's already growing at your feet.
From Ethiopia, coffee crossed the Red Sea into Yemen, where Sufi communities took it up as a companion for long nights of prayer. It settled into a daily rhythm of devotion, conversation, and learning. Soon coffeehouses opened across Mecca, Constantinople, Venice, London, and beyond - gathering places for artists, merchants, philosophers, and neighbors. Long before the internet, coffee was there and knew how to bring strangers into the same room.
Coffee Finds New Mountains
As coffee traveled, it found new ground to root in. Volcanic soil in Central and South America. High elevation. Seasonal rains. And always, at the center of it, generations of farmers who knew how to read their land. Each region added something of its own, while the plant itself never forgot where it came from.
Coffee became a bridge.
Across continents.
Across languages.
Across cultures.
Every cup carried the calloused hands of people most of us would never meet.
A Different Kind of First
In 1992, Paul and Joan Katzeff asked a different question at Thanksgiving Coffee: what if we knew the people behind the harvest?
That year, we introduced one of America's first certified organic single-origin coffee collections - The Harvest Line. The coffees came from Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. We named them Aztec Harvest, Mayan Harvest, and Inca Harvest, honoring the cultures rooted in those landscapes. And on every package, we put a photograph of the farmers themselves - real hands, real faces, the people whose knowledge shaped every bean before it ever reached a roaster, (This was also a first, to show the farmers on the packages).
Today, that may not seem unusual. Thirty years ago, it was.
Most coffee packaging spoke about brands. The Harvest Line spoke about relationships.
The original Harvest Line, introduced one of America's first organic coffee lines and featured the real farmers on the package. 1992
Organic Was Always More Than a Label
Organic farming has always been about what's tended to.
Healthy soil.
Clean water.
Thriving forests.
Pollinators.
The families whose lives depend on the land.
Farmers knew this before "organic" became a certification stamped on a bag: the health of the land and the health of the people are the same. You can't tend one and neglect the other.
That understanding is what shaped the Harvest Line, it was more than an organic coffee collection, it became an invitation to look past the label, toward the land, the culture, and the people that made the harvest possible.
Translating Coffee
For us, coffee has never been just coffee. It is a way to tell the story of how we shape one another, through action, through kindness, through the wellbeing we choose to protect. The way we did that was simple: we set out to translate it.
To translate forest into flavor.
To translate distant mountains into morning ritual.
To translate the work of farming families into faces we can recognize, and relationships we can stand behind.
Every roast is a chance to understand coffee a little more honestly. Every origin is a reminder that remarkable coffee begins long before it ever reaches a roaster - it begins with someone tending soil most of us will never stand on.
The First Harvest Continues
More than fifty years after Thanksgiving Coffee first opened its doors, and more than thirty years after Paul and Joan Katzeff asked a simple but transformative question, that same spirit continues to guide our work.
We believe exceptional coffee begins with exceptional relationships. That's why we build our sourcing on long-term partnerships with farming families, invest in the health of the communities and landscapes where coffee grows, and hold ourselves accountable through action, not simply aspiration.
Our coffees continue to tell the story of where they come from.
Our partnerships continue, harvest after harvest.
Every morning cup is an invitation.
An invitation to know where your coffee comes from. To honor the hands that shaped it. And to remember that the future of coffee, like its past, is rooted in the relationships we choose to cultivate.
The first harvest is not ours to own.
It is ours to carry forward.
Featured Coffee
Organic Guatemala Dark Roast
From the farmers of Guaya'b, Huehuetenango
Our Organic Guatemala Dark Roast comes from the Guaya'b Civil Association, a cooperative of more than 600 smallholder farming families in the mountains of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Since 2005, Thanksgiving Coffee has partnered with these farmers, whose commitment to craftsmanship and ecological stewardship continues to produce one of the most distinctive coffees in our collection.
Each day's harvest is carefully handpicked, then depulped, fermented, and dried in small batches on individual family farms. Antique Bourbon, Typica, and Caturra varietals grow beneath a restored forest canopy, where rich volcanic soils and dense shade create ideal conditions for exceptional coffee.
The forests surrounding Guaya'b were once cleared as coffee production expanded across the region. Today, a new generation of farmers is reversing that history by restoring native tree cover, cultivating diverse crops alongside coffee, and creating healthy habitat for migratory birds, pollinators, and local wildlife. Their organic honey project is one beautiful example, supporting both biodiversity and improved coffee pollination.
The result is a cup that reflects both the place and renewed purpose of being stewards of the Earth.
Tasting Notes
- Rich cherry sweetness
- Lush floral aromatics
- Deep wine-like body
- Smooth, lingering finish
For the farmers of Guaya'b, every harvest is an expression of care for the land, their families, and the generations who will follow.
Recipe
Highland Campfire Café
Inspired by the volcanic landscapes of Guatemala. This is the kind of coffee that slows the morning. Rich enough to stand on its own, yet wonderful with a touch of spice.
Ingredients
- 10 oz freshly brewed Organic Guatemala Dark Roast
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cacao powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Tiny pinch of sea salt
- 1 teaspoon local honey or maple syrup
- Splash of steamed whole milk or oat milk (optional)
- Fresh grated dark chocolate for garnish
Directions
Whisk the cacao, cinnamon, sea salt, and honey together in your favorite mug. Pour in a small amount of the hot coffee and stir until smooth. Fill the mug with the remaining coffee and finish with steamed milk if desired.
Top with a shaving of dark chocolate and enjoy while the morning is still quiet.
The rich cocoa notes of Guatemala meet warm spice and a hint of sweetness, creating a cup that feels both familiar and quietly celebratory.
Lavender Grace Kent - Head of Brand Narrative & Culture
Helping to steward the stories, partnerships, regenerative initiatives, and cultural legacy of Thanksgiving Coffee Company.
Stay in touch - we like to stay connected
First Harvest
read more
Our 2024 Impact Report
At Thanksgiving Coffee, every roast begins with a question: What really matters?
In 2024, we found answers by listening—to farmers, to customers, to our team, and to the land. The result is the most honest and grounded Impact Report (pdf) yet: a reflection of where we’ve been and where we’re headed next.
As we simplify our product line to focus on what we do best, we’re holding tight to the relationships and regenerative values that have always defined our work. That means sourcing from smallholder cooperatives, supporting ecological resilience, and roasting every bean with care and intention.
“Coffee, when done right, Is A Relationship.”
In 2024, we listened more deeply than ever:
⭐ 88.9% of our green coffee was Certified Organic
⭐ $91,529 donated to causes we care about
⭐ Verified health and income gains from clean energy investments in Uganda
⭐ Roasting with purpose for 52 years and counting
Our Ongoing Commitments
We remain committed to being ethically sourced and artisan roasted, maintaining over 88% of our coffees certified Organic, and guiding all purchases by our Purchasing for a Healthier Planet criteria. (This criteria was established in 1995 and is still going strong.)
While we're retiring many of our Cause Coffees this year, a few important ones will remain and their impact continues. From restoring pollinator habitat to protecting migratory bird forests, your daily cup still fuels change where it’s needed most.
Biodiversity loss is one of the most urgent challenges of our time, and we’re proud to stand with the growers, ecologists, and educators who are working to reverse it—one forest, one garden, one farm at a time.
Past Impact Reports
Lavender Grace is the Sustainability Consultant for Thanksgiving Coffee Company