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If you ever had a cup of gourmet Hawaii coffee, you know.
Hawaii is the only U.S. state where coffee is produced commercially. One of the pricier coffees on the market, Kona coffee is one of the most prized in the entire world. Produced from a rare bean which is exclusively grown on the upland slopes of North and South Kona on the Big Island, it is rich, aromatic and mellow.
There are roughly 600 coffee farms in the Kona coffee belt, which benefit from the high elevation, rich volcanic soils and the specific Hawaii climate: constant cloud coverage, cooling breezes, and good rainfall. Coffee farms cover an area of 2000 acres and produce up to 6 million pounds of beans per year.
Some of them are small, with only 3-5 acres with modest facilities, and some are large farms using state of the art technology - including equipment to determine harvesting times.
Most Hawaii coffee farms offer tours to the public, so you can explore the thriving coffee orchards, learn about the meticulous harvesting process, pulping, sorting, grading and roasting.
Are you a coffee lover? Imagine... savoring samples of various Hawaii coffee blends, and bringing several bags home as gifts for friends!
Growing Kona coffee is a practice that is nearly 200 years old. First brought to Hawaii from Rio de Janeiro in 1825, coffee beans were planted in Kealakekua, and nearly a hundred years of effort by Japanese farmers led to its preservation.
Coffee trees can take up to five years to mature and the older plants yield a more richly-flavored bean. The trees burst into bloom in the spring time and are fully covered with fragrant white puffy blossoms that look like a slight dusting of snow, called "Kona snow".
From that point on, workers tend meticulously to each plant. They prune, water, manage soil content, pest control and sunlight exposure. Harvesting begins in late summer, and coffee berries are harvested one at a time over 5 to 6 months. Every cherry on every plant is carefully inspected and only picked when it is a deep rich red color.
Each tree on average yields 1 lb of coffee a year, that is why you pay between $40-$50 per lb of pure Kona coffee... But then, when you first open the bag of roasted beans and have your first cup, you will know it is worth every single penny!
Even if you don't usually drink coffee, you have
to try Peaberry coffee. You'll love it. An extra fancy, low-acid coffee, it makes up only 5 % of Hawaii coffee crops and it’s highly prized for its full and smooth flavor.
Learn about Hawaii Coffee Farming
Visit the family-owned Holualoa Kona Coffee Company’s plantation and see how the cherry skins and the husks produced from the mill are composted and returned to the orchards to build new soil.
Only organic fertilizers are used, with free fertilizer contributed by the flock of fifty tame gees that roam the property freely!
Or, visit Kona Joe Coffee, owned by Joe Albans, a former orthopedic surgeon turned "tropical coffee baron".
You will see the Grand Cru of Hawaii coffee, produced through their patented system of trellising coffee trees, just like grapevines.
The tree is grown along the wires of the trellis by years of pruning and tying to open up the tree. Growing sideways and upward, the coffee tree gets more uniformly exposed to the sun, with a more even ripening of the coffee cherry, leading to a richer flavor.
While on your Big Island Hawaii vacation, go on a self guided tour of Kona coffee country by getting a free brochure from the Visitors' Bureau in Waikoloa.
Drive by each farm, taste the gourmet coffee for free, learn the coffee-making lingo, insider tips on how to make a great cup, and even a recipe for Kona coffee macadamia-nut & chocolate chunk pie!
On your drive, stop for a coffee break at the Holuako Café, in the heart of the Hawaii coffee belt. Every backyard seems to teem with glossy green leaves and ruby-red coffee cherries and the air smells like an espresso bar.
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