FAQ
What makes Kona Coffee so special?
The Hawaii Department of Agriculture's Plant Quarantine Program began over a hundred years ago when, in 1888 King of Hawaii, David Kalakaua decreed that in order to protect the coffee industry, new plants would not be allowed into the islands. This protection has resulted in 100-plus year old trees that are free of diseases and pestilence. While the rest of the coffees in the world have suffered Kona Coffee has not because of its island location and isolation in the middle of the Pacific 2500 miles away from land. Creating the best coffee in the world that is organically grown with natural low acid. Today by law, any imported coffee beans into the state of Hawaii must be fumigated with Methyl Bromide, a pesticide and toxic substance used to killer termites.
How Kona Coffee grows and is processed:
Kona coffee blooms in February and March. Small white flowers cover the tree and are known as Kona Snow. In April, green berries begin to appear on the trees. By late August, red fruit, called "cherry" because of the resemblance of the ripe berry to a cherry fruit, are starting to ripen for picking. Each tree will be hand-picked several times between August and January, and provides around 20-30 pounds of cherry.
Within 24 hours of picking, the cherry is run through a pulper, the beans are separated from the pulp, and then placed in a fermentation tank overnight. The fermentation time is dependent on the temperature and therefore on the elevation; about 12 hours at a low elevation or 24 hours at a higher elevation. The beans are rinsed and spread to dry on a "hoshidana" or drying rack. Traditional hoshidanas have a rolling roof to cover the beans in the event of rain. It takes 7-14 days to dry the beans to an optimal moisture level of between 10-13% (some say 9.5-12.5%). From here, the beans are stored as "pergamino" or parchment. The parchment is milled off the green bean prior to roasting.
It takes nine to ten pounds of cherry to make one pound of roasted coffee. Thus 100 pounds of cherry will yield about 11 or 10 pounds of roasted coffee.