From Cherries to Brew

Kona Coffee is grown solely in the districts of North Kona and South Kona on the big Island of Hawaii, mostly grown on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa, two dormant volcanoes. Our farms are a little south of the art community of Holualoa on the slopes of Hualalai. Kona Coffee
is grown between approximately 700 feet and 3,000 feet of elevation. The dark, rich volcanic soil, temperate climate, morning sun,
and afternoon showers make a wonderful climate for growing coffee.

Kona Coffee is from the Arabica coffee tree family, and the coffee process really begins with what we call Kona Snow. This is the flowering
of the coffee trees, usually in January to March of each year. Each flower will eventually become coffee cherry. Our harvest season starts
in July and ends in February, with October, November, and December being the busiest months with the most coffee cherry produced.

Our coffee is hand-picked when the coffee cherry is a deep red color, meaning the beans have fully developed. Each bag weighs
approximately one hundred pounds. Most pickers can pick two to three hundred pounds a day, although some routinely pick upwards
of five hundred pounds a day. Once picked, coffee must be processed within 24 hours, as the high sugar content in the fruit begins
to ferment, which can ruin the coffee.

1. Wet Milling

Also called “pulping”… it is the process where the fruit of the coffee cherry is removed from the pit, which is the coffee bean. We dump the bags of freshly picked coffee into a hopper that takes them into the Pulper. They travel first through a de-stoner, which removes any rocks or other foreign materials that may have inadvertently ended up in the bags during picking. Next, the coffee cherry is transported to a hopper, and from there into the pulper itself, which removes the cherry skin and fruit from the bean. After the cherry is removed, the beans go through a second process of de-museling, which removes a sugary layer from the bean. Removing this layer helps prevent fermentation and speeds the drying process.

2. Drying

After the coffee is wet-milled and been run through the de-museler, we spread it out in a thin layer on concrete or wooden decks to dry. This process can take anywhere from 2 or 3 days to a week, depending on the weather and how sunny it is during the day. The drying process takes the beans down to a moisture content of between 9% and 12.5% moisture. At this point, the outer layer of the bean has dried enough to feel like parchment paper, and in fact it is called “parchment.” Parchment is a good way to store coffee if you are not planning on roasting it right away, as the parchment protects the beans and keeps the moisture content steady and less susceptible to temperature and humidity changes. We normally use super sacks to store the parchment, large, heavy-duty sacks that hold approximately 1500 pounds of parchment.

3. Dry Milling

The process of milling coffee continues with the dry milling. During this process, the coffee is first run through a “huller” which removes the parchment. Next, the beans are sent across various screens to determine their size, and from there into another hopper to await the gravity table. Kona Coffee comes in various grades, the highest being Extra Fancy, then Fancy, Number one, and Prime. A small portion of the crop is Peaberry. Grades are determined by size and weight. The screening process determines the size, and the gravity table separates the heavy beans from the lighter beans. The green coffee is then bagged in one hundred pounds bags and labeled according to grade.

4. Roasting

Coffee roasting is part science and part art, and each individual coffee roaster has tricks and tips that he or she does to create what they consider the perfect cup of coffee. In general, Kona Coffee is a light, smooth, even coffee with almost no bitterness. As such, most people prefer Kona Coffee roasted to a Full City roast, or a medium roast, depending on the definition of the roaster. In this roast, the oils stay mostly within the coffee bean rather than being brought to the surface, thereby avoiding over-roasting or potentially burning the coffee. Kona Coffee also tastes great in a dark roast or, if carefully done, it can be a very smooth espresso shot. However, most people familiar with Kona Coffee prefer the medium roast, as it usually seems to bring out the most flavor in the coffee.

Roasting temperature is an individual preference. No matter what roast you enjoy, we are confident that our award winning Kona Coffee will provide you with a wonderful coffee experience. Enjoy!