Named after the mountain it sits on, "La Isla" (The Island) is a fertile haven producing rich, beautiful red coffee cherries. Luis ensures that farming practices are as environmentally sustainable as possible. The farm follows a careful maintenance schedule, fertilizing three times per year and applying treatments to prevent leaf rust and other fungal diseases. They cultivate several varieties including Villa Sarchi, Gesha, and SL-28.

The Black Honey Process requires more effort and skill than the standard honey process used at La Isla. Since this lot features the rare Gesha variety, Luis and his team chose this special technique. The process begins by leaving all the mucilage on the parchment after pulping. The coffee is then placed in mounds directly on their patios for several days, where it's turned just four times daily to ensure even fermentation. After this initial period, the mounds are spread into thin layers on the patio and turned hourly for about a week. The La Isla team arranges the drying parchment in distinct patterns to track turning directions. Finally, the process concludes with a week of drying on raised beds.

Luis Padilla is poised to become the next big thing in Costa Rican coffee production. While he may appear to be your typical fun-loving family man, Luis and his family are deeply passionate about agriculture and coffee. The coffee tradition comes from his mother's side of the family—his grandfather, Raul, was instrumental in developing the Naranjo growing area as early as the 1940s. As Luis's grandfather grew older, he distributed his land among his 13 children, and Luis's mother received the farm where she was born and raised. Luis has fond memories of growing up on that same farm with his parents and grandparents, recalling the many duties required to maintain the plantation. Eventually, the grandparents passed away, the parents shifted to other work, and Luis went to university to study agronomy. During this time, one of Luis's uncles expressed interest in buying the farm from his sister, and while they agreed to sell it to him, the property remained within the family.

While studying agronomy, Luis and his immediate family maintained their passion for farming projects. They seized an opportunity to purchase land in San Pablo de Leon Cortez, Tarrazu, where they put Luis's agricultural knowledge to work by establishing an avocado farm. They later sold this successful venture, and Luis, fresh from graduating, decided to forge his own path. He established a business offering microloans to rural farmers who typically struggle to secure financing, helping to develop and sustain agricultural projects in the region. Though Luis takes great pride in this venture and the assistance it provides to many farmers, helping others achieve their dreams awakened his desire to own a coffee farm once again.

Luis partnered with his parents to search for a farm near Naranjo, where it all began and where the family still resides. They discovered a coffee farm in Lourdes de Cirri, Naranjo, owned by a Hungarian expat named Lazlo. Though Lazlo had begun renovating the farm and planting premium varieties like Villa Sarchi, SL-28, and Gesha, he had abandoned the plantation months before Luis purchased it. Despite being larger than their initial target, the family embraced the project and established La Isla in 2017. They began by constructing a robust wet mill at the farm's peak and have since been steadily replanting the farm with improved, younger trees. While this project may seem new on paper, it embodies rich tradition, deep passion, and proven experience.

Gesha is a coffee variety originally collected from Ethiopian forests in the 1930s. It was sent to the Lyamungu research station in Tanzania, then brought to Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Central America in 1953, where it was logged as accession T2722. Recognized for its tolerance to coffee leaf rust, CATIE distributed it widely throughout Panama in the 1960s. However, farmers didn't favor it due to its brittle branches and relatively low yield, so it wasn't widely planted.

There are actually multiple genetically distinct plant types referred to as Gesha, many sharing similar Ethiopian origins. World Coffee Research has confirmed that the Panamanian Gesha descendant of T2722 is a distinct and uniform variety. When managed well at high altitude, its cup profile can be phenomenal, known for delicate floral and peach aromas.

The lack of a standard translation from Ethiopian dialects to English has resulted in two interchangeably used spellings. The coffee was originally collected near a mountain commonly rendered in English as "Gesha." However, it was first recorded in germplasm records as "Geisha," a spelling mostly maintained by coffee researchers and germplasm banks for decades. The use of "Geisha" is problematic, though, as its non-coffee context carries specific connotations that many feel have been misappropriated for marketing value.

Gesha's global reputation was cemented by the Peterson family of Boquete. Their Hacienda Esmeralda won the Best of Panama competition in 2004 with this variety. The following year, their Gesha received exceptionally high marks and broke the then-record for green coffee auction prices, selling for over $20/pound.

The pulped natural or honey process falls between washed and natural methods in terms of fruit left on the seed during drying. After harvesting, the cherries are pulped to remove the skin, then dried with the sticky fruit mucilage remaining—hence the name "honey." The coffee is sometimes classified by the colour it turns during drying, which depends on how much fruit remains and how it's arranged and turned. Colours range from black honey (darkest) through red, yellow, and sometimes white. More fruit on the seed provides more fuel for fermentation, which can unpredictably affect the flavour profile. However, it usually yields more intense fruit flavours than washed coffee and higher perceived acidity than natural processing.