Hawaii’s Kona Coffee

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The weather patterns in the north and south districts of the Big Island of Hawaii produce some of the best coffee in the world. Sunny mornings, rainy afternoons and mild nights create the perfect combination for growing not only some of the most sought-after coffees in the world, but also the most expensive.

Samuel Reverend Ruggles brought the coffee plant to Hawaii early in the nineteenth century.  Later in the century coffee growing became a profitable and worthwhile crop, but following a world coffee market crash in 1899, plantation owners had to start leasing land to their workers. These workers continued to produce large and high quality coffee crops.

Many family estates have been growing Kona coffee for generations and offer extensive tours.  There are roughly 600 coffee plantations on the Kona coast of Hawaii’s Big Island.  Hawaii holds an annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, complete with parades, coffee tastings coffee picking contests and the Miss Kona Coffee scholarship pageant.

The Kona coffee plants bloom only in February and March, but cannot be picked until August, when the green berries have turned red (now they are called “cherries”).  The picking, which is done by hand only when the berries have turned red, will continue until January.  Each tree yields 20-30 pounds of cherries a year.  Since it takes seven to nine pounds of cherries to make one pound of roasted coffee, 100 pounds of cherry will make only about 12 pounds of roasted coffee.

Kona beans are divided into two grades, type I and type II, with four classes in type I, and two classes in type II.  Type I beans are the best, as they have two beans in each cherry and fewer defects.  They are round on one side and flat on the other.  Type II beans have only bean per cherry, and are also called a peaberry.

When buying Kona coffee, it’s important to read the fine print.  Kona coffee is both rare and expensive, so buying a bag of “Kona Blend” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a mix of Kona coffees.  Often it means that out of every 10 beans only one or two of them are Kona and the other eight or nine are just Columbian or Brazilian beans.

Forbes magazine has touted Kona coffee as the “Best coffee in America” and many people agree. The fertile volcanic fields in Hawaii produce a medium bodied, fine acidity coffee with a distinctive aroma-just a hint of cinnamon.