Arabica coffee renowned for its gourmet qualities is produced in the Kona region situated on the western side of the state of Hawaii’s largest island. The Kona Coffee Belt, or Kona Coffee Country, is the region where Kona Coffee is grown.
What Is Kona Coffee?
Coffee grown in the Kona area of the Big Island of Hawaii has been given the name “Kona coffee”.
This tiny district is world-famous for its beans. Yup. The coffee beans cultivated in Kona, Hawaii are renowned across the globe because the region is blessed with an excellent climate and geography for growing top-notch coffee.
What kind of flavor can you anticipate when you have a cup of Kona coffee?
The best Kona coffee is sweet with balanced acidity. You’ll get a clean cup, with no defects. When Kona coffee is even roasted till it is dark, it still lacks the bitterness commonly found in other types of beans.
What makes this coffee so exceptional? The area in which the crop is cultivated has an ideal weather and landscape which leads to excellent flavors of the beverage.
The Kona region has a very specific name due to the fact that it is known as the Kona Coffee Belt. Let’s ascertain what makes this region unique for cultivating Kona coffee.
Why Are Kona Beans Famous?
Authentic Kona beans are famous for several reasons. Kona coffees have an exceptional environment and a quality of cultivation that creates the best coffee trees as a result of the fortifying volcanic earth.
Kona brands are well-known due to their strict adherence to quality control guidelines.
What is the importance of quality control in regards to the contents of a bag of Kona coffee beans?
When the coffee is picked, it is subjected to an initial screening for quality assurance. Fruit that is not yet mature or is overly mature is thrown away.
Then the fruit is gone through in order to separate the seeds, and any seeds with any issues are taken out. That ensures you’re getting only top-quality coffee beans.
However, the highest grade of Kona coffee is considered to be one of the finest types of coffee beans that can be found around the globe. Hawaii has legislation that subdivides certified Kona beans into three distinct categories, which range from Type I to Type III. In the Kona district, these are:
- Type I, also called Kona Extra Fancy, Kona Fancy, Kona Number 1, Kona Select, Kona Prime
- Type II, also called Peaberry Number 1 or Peaberry Prime
- Type III is also known as Triple X
One can understand from the various labels that accompany Type 1 Kona coffee beans that they are of the best quality. Type III is usually not regarded to be Kona coffee since it does not fulfill all the requirements of the locality.
This sort of ordering system shields the good name of Kona beans and ascertains that you can acquire the most optimal coffee.
What Does 100% Kona Taste Like?
At the coffee lectures I conduct, many individuals express frustration that the beverage is too bitter. The main advantage of Kona coffee is evident.
You won’t be stuck with the disagreeable taste that may cause you to add spoonfuls of sugar. Kona coffee is full-bodied, robust, and pleasing to the taste, lacking in any pungent bitter taste.
What about the body?
Kona coffee has a satisfying medium mouthfeel. The taste remains after the final sip and there are no unpleasing tastes or faults. You will be enjoying a cup of delicious and fragrant coffee that appeals to many people’s palates.
Flavors
The flavor of Kona from Hawaii is renowned for being straightforward but still intense, usually gentle, fragile, and soft in quality, accompanied by an interesting scent and flavor.
A quality Kona coffee is deliciously nuanced with a light to medium body, vibrant acidity, characteristic spice and creamy notes, notes of fine wine, a pleasing scent, and a lingering aftertaste.
Kona coffees of the highest quality are procured from one estate rather than a variety of them combined for a general sale.
Growing Regions
Though Kona coffee farms are not situated at the same heights as other regions known for their high-quality Arabica beans, the maturation period of the coffee cherries on the plants in the Kona region is long. This is a greater contributing factor to the quality of coffee beans than elevation.
Grades
The primary grades of “Type I” Kona coffee beans are:
- Extra Fancy (the highest grade)
- Fancy (also a high grade)
- Kona #1, a mid-grade coffee bean often sold in bulk and used in many restaurants; and
- Prime (the lowest grade)
All Kona Peaberry Coffees from Hawaii are categorized as “Type II” and these subsections are made up of Peaberry Prime and Peaberry #1.
Varietals
Most of the coffee produced in the Kona Coffee Belt is of the C. arabica var. typical, or Typica, kind. The production of Blue Mountain coffee from Kona is limited. This variety of plant is Coffea Arabica, also known as Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, which is traditionally farmed in Jamaica.
A delicious Blue Mountain java has a traditional tone that is delicate, yet the sweetness and liveliness of the acidity complement it nicely. The Blue Mountain coffee that has been made has almost no bitterness, and its strong smelling aroma has subtle hints of sweet herbs and nuts.
It is yet to be determined if the new Blue Mountain coffees produced in the Kona area will have the same quality as Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee cultivated in Jamaica.
Coffee Belt
The Kona Coffee Belt is a highly ideal location for growing coffee as it ranges in elevation from 500 to 2,500 feet and is located on the west side of the Mauna Loa and Hualalai volcanoes. This coffee belt which is 30 miles in length and one mile wide is only present in the Kona district of Hawaii.
The majority of the coffee plantations by Kona are producing Coffea arabica var. typical, otherwise known as Typica. The Coffea Arabica var. blue mountain varietal is produced in the Kona region as well, but not on a large scale.
Farms
In the area known as the Kona Coffee Belt, there are a total of 500 small farms, the majority of which are five acres or less. Most of the coffee farms and factories in Kona are owned and operated by families.
During the early days of the Kona coffee industry around one hundred years ago, many of the growers were of Japanese descent. At its peak, 80% of the Kona coffee growers were Japanese immigrants. Descendants from the earliest Kona coffee farmers are still producing coffee in Kona today, forming fifth-generation farming families.
Harvesting and Processing
Farmers of Kona coffee harvest the cherry at the pinnacle of ripeness, visiting the same area up to eight times within the same growing season.
Once the coffee cherry has been selected, it is put through a wet-process that consists of fermenting, washing, drying, milling, and categorizing. This produces unroasted green coffee beans that have been crushed but not yet roasted. Once the Kona coffee beans have been selected and processed, they are prepared to be roasted and put in containers to be sold.
The ideal growing environment in the Kona Coffee Belt, combining a suitable climate and soil composition, is what makes Kona coffee a superb example of coffee artistry, which is fostered and perfected from the preparation of the soil until it is ready to be sipped.
Roasting
You should strive to buy Kona coffee that has been recently roasted for the best quality. This helps ensure that it’s as flavorful as possible.
Medium roast coffees are typically suggested in order to maintain the distinct characteristics and unique tastes that make Kona coffee so exceptional.
Ultimately, it will be your own personal preference that will determine which roast of coffee you select, be it medium or dark. It can also be roasted as an espresso blend, though this makes it more plain.
Coffee Berry Borer?
This beetle referred to as the Coffee Berry Borer is small in size and puts its eggs inside the coffee cherry (fruit). After it hatches, the larva starts to feed on the coffee bean that is located inside the aforementioned cherry.
Following this outbreak of pests, other bugs may target the coffee fruit, as well as the coffee seed situated inside the fruit. These other invaders may cause bacterial and fungal damage.
In the Kona Coffee Country of the Big Island of Hawaii, a quarantine has been put in place to protect against the Coffee Berry Borer, a harmful pest that has been seen affecting many of the Kona coffee farms.
Peaberry Coffee
A Kona Peaberry from Hawaii is a coffee bean within a coffee cherry (fruit) which is bigger than the typical kind that contains two pieces. Under the Kona coffee grading system, Kona Peaberry beans that contain one whole seed are categorized as Type II, and those with two halves are Type I.
Kona Peaberry coffee beans are rare, and they stand out due to their intense taste. The beans have a greater volume than other types of Kona coffee beans. Hawaii Kona Peaberry coffee is recognized for its velvety texture and strong smell.
Peaberry beans are normally split off from the other coffee crops and sold as a superior type of coffee bean. Kona Peaberry beans are thought of as the finest quality Kona coffee and thus tend to cost more than its counterparts.
Peaberries are not necessarily a higher-grade than Fancy or Prime, they are just less common. Beans of various sizes are split apart during the sorting procedure to help guarantee a regular roast. This is due to the fact that their distinctive size might cause an incorrect roast development if mixed together with typical beans.
It may be because the peaberry is able to extract more nourishment from the coffee tree as it is forming inside the coffee berry. The peaberry bean may have a different outcome while roasting given its unique form.
Type II Kona coffee grades are divided into Peaberry Prime and Peaberry Number One, according to size, humidity, and type of bean.
The Best Kona Coffee Brands From Hawaii
It’s time for the enjoyable part—here is the list of my top selections of Kona coffee. These businesses are trustworthy, getting their products from Kona district, with the best choices at the top of the list.
What criteria do I use to order them?
It is essential to consider the taste profile of the coffee beans, but also their suitability for different brewing techniques and their potential to produce a top-notch cup of coffee.
Kona Coffee Tri-Pack Extra Fancy – Medium Roast
In my judgment, Koa Coffee, a company ran by a family, is the number one selection when it comes to Kona coffee.
This specific Koa coffee is the best of the best because it has a pleasant taste, is pleasingly sweet, and there is almost no hint of bitterness. This beverage has a balanced level of intensity that tastes terrific when served as black coffee, but it’s just as delicious when made with milk. To get the most out of Koa coffee, it is recommended to make it as a pour-over or in a French press.
I suggest this selection for those who have yet to determine their preferred Kona coffee. This Koa coffee includes only the best beans, which are between a medium-light and medium-dark roast.
One of the options packaged in this deal is the acclaimed Private Reserve Kona Coffee. At one point, Forbes recognized it as the finest in the United States.
I concur – the beans from the private reserve are my go-to Kona coffee beans. You can guarantee that this is an authentic Kona Coffee. Koa has concocted a mixture of various Kona coffees that is not a merged product made up primarily of non-Kona beans.
This collection of Grand Domaine coffee beans was awarded first place in the Kona Coffee Cupping Contest due their superiority in taste and equilibrium.
Also in this bundle is the Estate Kona coffee. Koa Coffee has a special kind of coffee known as “single-origin, single-estate coffee”, in which the coffee beans all originate from one particular farm. It is well understood that coffee beans grown on high-altitude plantations produce outstanding flavors that will stay with you indefinitely.
Koa Coffee can definitely be considered one of the finest when it comes to Kona Coffee. I prefer the medium-light beans the most, yet the medium-dark beans are still exceptional. They can ship their coffees to wherever you are located, allowing you to have the chance to sample them regardless of where you live.