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KOA COFFEE PLANTATION WINS 2002 KONA COFFEE FESTIVAL CUPPING CONTEST Koa Coffee Plantation is this year's winner of the prestigious Kona Coffee Cupping Competition. With over 60 entries, Koa Coffee Plantation started the second day of competition in first place and stayed there till the end. In addition to winning the Cupping Competition in 2002, Koa Coffee Plantation was selected as Forbes choice for best coffee in America in 2001. Quoted as "wonderfully smooth" by Forbes fyi Magazine, "a typical medium mellow bodied Kona coffee with a delicate acidity" by Judge King of the Kona cupping contest and "concentrated, full-bodied and rich flavor with great balance and absolutely no trace of a bitter aftertaste" by Culinary Thymes Magazine, Koa Coffee Plantation has set a new standard in Kona coffee. When asked what he thought might make the difference in Koa Coffee's beans, Marin Artukovich said, "We are a high elevation coffee farm which typically produces a larger more-preferred bean. In addition to our high elevation, three to four times a year we use our pulp and skins to fertilize and nourish our trees. As of this summer, we are the only farm in Kona to use a wet-processing system from Columbia that is ecologically and environmentally efficient and which also takes the mucilage off the beans before the fermentation process." Koa Coffee Plantation was started in 1997 and has grown from a backyard business to a business that includes, wet milling, drymilling, farm management, cherry buying, processing for other small farmers, wholesale, and a very active online retail business. "Our farm, our business and our lives have been incredibly blessed in a short amount of time," said Artukovich. "We work hard and it is our intention to give our customers the best service and highest quality coffee that we can. Winning the cupping competition was a wonderful way to confirm that we are producing our coffee exactly the way we intend to."