Posts Tagged ‘Kona’
Kona coffee labeling stirs controversy
A bill that would prohibit using the word “Kona” on a bag of coffee unless its use is part of a trademarked name is moving forward in the state Legislature.
Read more on Hawaii Tribune-Herald
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S? my bf and I have always had good kaffe.Vi k? pte just an expensive espresso and coffee makers. We have sj? Lvklart k? Pt several different types of coffee (ground and b? Nor), and espresso. One of the types of coffee we got was a Kona blandning.Vi have m? RKT to n? Is brewing, ‘r the resulting coffee is much lighter in f? Rgen, and tastes. It seems to taste as if it already has gr? DDE in den.Vi? R interested in contests? Ll 100% Kona b? Normal but f? Rs? Ker find out more information about Kona coffee. ? Is it normal f? R Kona brewing a lighter f? Rg? What? R “normal” flavor of the Kona?
hard-packed volcanic rock, the almost perfect weather conditions, and the absence of disease provides Kona coffee trees in the area the highest yield of coffee beans in the world. Of course these Hawaiian Kona coffee beans is the highest quality. The Kona coffee arabica trees, a relative of the gardenia, characterized by shiny, dark green leaves and fragrant white flowers. Hawaiian Kona beans have a very aromatic fragrance and a sweet taste that is quite noticeable from mild coffee available in grocery stores. When brewed Kona has a superb aroma with a light, mild body and a clear, sweet, mellow flavor. For higher-quality Kona coffee also makes a delightful summer refreshment when served as an iced coffee.
One of the key elements involved in the coffee taste is well-harvest and processing part of the job, it’s just where best Kona Coffee Beans are picked and processed so that only the finest to be sealed and sent. A good roasting process can make a big difference in taste. Roasting is called an “art form” by many in the industry. Immediately after roasting the oxidation begins and coffee which is freshest.
Think Hawaii and basically you think and leave paradise – sun, surf, beach, nature, Luau, including honeymoon. For coffee lovers, does Hawaii real fancy coffee. Specifically, Hawaiian Kona coffee.
Hawaiian Kona coffee owes its aura of distinction to its history, tradition and Mother Nature. True Kona coffee is grown on the volcanic slopes of what is known as the Kona coffee belt. Combine the richness of the volcanic soil of the weather patterns of the Kona District and you have perfect condition as you can grow this type of coffee beans. The result is one of the finest and premium coffee in the world.
History and tradition of Kona coffee is unlike other coffee growing regions where the coffee plant is indigenous, and nurtured by his own people. Kona coffee can actually be attributed to its survival and existence of many different nationalities.
There was a Spaniard who planted the first coffee beans on the island of Oahu. Since Kona coffee beans were a byproduct of beans were introduced from Brazil as early as the nineteenth century by an Englishman. In the late nineteenth century, was driving crash in world prices for coffee almost Hawaiian coffee farms into extinction. Owner leased parts of their farms to tenants, most of whom were Japanese immigrants. Later, slaves from the Philippines and Europe would contribute to the growth of this type of coffee. But even before the farm was rented, did Hawaiians and Chinese in large part the work force.
This brief history sets up the distinction that Kona coffee is today. As a result of leasing out the various parts of the original coffee houses, modern farms range from just two to five acres in size. Its small size may inhibit large-scale production, but shrubs are not getting more attention.
Being able to receive specialized care, and its rarity are two important factors to why Kona coffee commands a higher price. In fact, cover the specialized care provided to it by hand picking each cherry coffee bushes. This is in sharp contrast to machine-harvest, which is required in other types of wealth holdings. Hand-picked each one gives farmers an opportunity to examine up close the quality of the coffee cherries.
If your curiosity has been piqued, and so far has been pressing to buy your first bag of Kona coffee beans, this is a warning – not all Kona coffee sold in the market is clean. When you are on the market, you should be aware that there are “100% Kona Coffee” to “Kona blend”. 100% Kona is pretty self explanatory. “Kona blend” is what you should be cautious.
There are sellers who blend Kona beans with common beans Robusta and the size of Kona beans can be as little as a bean per pound. This is what is passed off as “Kona blend”. Hawaii state law dictates that sellers of Kona blend should comprise 10% Kona beans. But outside of Hawaii, Kona beans amount would be significantly less.
Of course there is also a difference in pricing with 100% Kona is expensive. If the price is outrageous, there are always cheaper options – with no work ethic, culture, history and tradition. But when you choose to go with the real thing, perhaps you could whisper a thank you to the generations of hard working farmers who have cared for the 100% Kona coffee beans in the taste of paradise as it is today.
While most people do not associate with coffee farms Hawaii, it is the only state in the Union which has climate and soil where the coffee plants to flourish. Rich, slightly acidic volcanic soil, sunny mornings with cloudy afternoons and over 60 inches rain in the summer months offer the perfect environment to grow Primo coffee.
There are many traditional Hawaiian coffee grown in the Hawaiian islands, but for this trip, I chose to visit the Big Island Hawaii to tour agricultural region where Kona coffee is grown.
To further experience the true “aloha” to Hawaii, Shaun husband and I chose to kip on two very distinct bed and breakfast nestled in the Kona Coffee Belt instead of the typical resort hotel where most tourists go palm beaten.
Roger Diltz, owner of Aloha Farm Bed & Breakfast formerly a place of B & B, gave us important directions to find his house (elevation 800 feet) between Kealakekua Bay and Puuhonua O Honaunau National Park (City of Refuge). When you try to find a place in this region, it is wise to drive in daylight hours because the roads are not well marked and street signs that are not so easy to discern during the day is almost invisible at night.
Before our arrival at this eco-tourism B & B, Roger, on fishing for the catch of the day, left his dog Koa and a note on the door to greet us. Disarming the beginning, this Rottweiler / Lab mix became our companions for an early walk in the grounds before breakfast at 7:30 am
We thought an alarm may be necessary. But as the daylight began to break the sound of the “jungle” as the only Twitter and within 20 minutes the birds had orchestrated his talks to a full-scale crescendo of tweets, cackles and whistles.
The aroma of Kona coffee wafted through the house as Roger prepared a rib-sticking breakfast complete with Jaboticaba syrup over coconut hotcakes. The view during breakfast from Lanai (covered porch) was just as you would imagine a tropical forest of exotic plants backdropped by an indigo sea as far as a person could see.
Evenings at Aloha Farms was pretty funny. We were invaded by hordes of nocturnal Geckos as they came in full force to stick to walls like gum to a shoe. These modest chartreuse lizards kept the mosquitoes away as well as potted plants Citronella. In the distance, the deafening thump of five pounds of avocados drop from overloading-tree twigs usually leads Koa to consider if it would be a wild boar.
Every morning we still did not plan on eating normal tourist snorkel, kayak or swim-with-the-dolphins excursions. Instead, we tried to tediously identifying hidden courtyards nestled in this region which is only two to three miles wide, twenty miles long and extends over the southwestern coast of the Big Island of Hawaii. We wanted to find out how Kona coffee is grown, picked, pulped, fermented, dried, ground (hull) and roasted. (You did not realize there were so many processes to get the eye-opening cup every morning, now did you?)
Our itinerary took us first Lang Stein farms where the manager Darcee Lucas met us for a non-traditional cupping.
When we came into the roasting room Darcee had placed three porcelain cups stark alone with a pot of freshly brewed coffee at a corner table, no cream or sugar in sight. Shaun, a coffee drink, frowned, I received “How should I drink coffee without milk?” Appearance.
As Darcee poured, she said: “Now take your cup and looking at the oil floats on top of coffee. Notice the colors. The smell of coffee. Now drink coffee.” We sipped this classically delicate, pure fruit, flowers Kona coffee. I could see a sigh of relief from Shaun. “I can actually drink the coffee black, it almost tastes sweet without sugar,” says Shaun.
My ulterior motive was now facing, I wanted to get my instant coffee-drinking Brit of a man on a path to enjoy a real brewed cups. Its mild flavor seemed to have lost him.
Our hike took us on to Pele Plantations, overlooking Kealakekua Bay where Captain Cook discovered Hawaii. Owners Gus and Cynthia Brockson was eagerly roasting and packaging online orders ready for dispatch.
Their Kona coffee farm is certified organic, which means that the coffee is grown using methods and materials with low environmental impact. These organic production systems replenish and maintain soil fertility, reduce the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and fertilizers, and build biologically diverse agriculture.
According to Brock’s, it is not enough to have a certified organic coffee farm: “To call Kona coffee” organic “must also be processed in a facility with equipment and procedures that are certified organic. We are proud to be one of only four processors in Kona have been given this status. “
Heading up Koa Road we visited KOA orchards, situated at an altitude of 2500 meters on the slopes of the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Loa. Located in the small town of Captain Cook, this is the only farm where we could see Kona blossom and green and red cherries on a single plant. The sweet smell of flowers – affectionately dubbed “Kona Snow” – reminded me of its sister plant, Gardenia. In May, flowers give way to the green coffee fruit, it is a rare sight to see the red cherry at lower elevations this time of year.
KOA plantations have a state-of-the-art wet mill facility from Colombia, a dry mill from Brazil and throughout their parchment / green beans are temperature and humidity controlled.
In the roasting room, we watched the beans are roasted in a large commercial roaster companies. The temperature and time were carefully so as not to burn the beans. “The most important thing is to listen for the first crack,” said guide John Lang Stein. After about 15 minutes, coffee beans literally “pop” as they expand. This first “crack” means the first roast, as a mild roasted coffee usually called American roast. It second “crack” is a much darker roast coffee.
Tired and hungry, we made ourselves on the highway to Old Tobacco Road, which is an old farm road and rough enough to suggest that a four wheel drive will be necessary. There is a mil long drive up to our next dig through plantations of coffee and macadamia nuts. We arrive at the exclusive Aloha Guest House is owned and operated by Johann Greg Timmerman and Garriss with indigenous artists Lino Laure.
The grounds of the Aloha Guest House was impeccably landscaped for a tropical where the vines and leaves grow at a faster pace! Exotic flowers and fruits thrive in the volcanic rock.
We are confronted with Lino and pooch Mango, which, as it turned out, liked to scratch her back – every morning – on a chair just outside our room has its own entrance created quite a stir. (She was our place alarm clock.)
Aloha Guest House – situated 1500 meters above the Kona coast, where the climate is tempered by the cold ocean winds – features amenities such as a seven-person whirlpool spas, HDTV, Wi-Fi, a shared guest kitchenette and a 24-hour coffee and tea bar offers freshly brewed 100 % Kona Peaberry Coffee – their own private label grown and roasted by Kena Coffee Farms.
Breakfast, prepared by Johann, was often a simplified version of haute cuisine and served in a large dining table with elegant table settings, exotic flowers are included.
Throughout the B & B’s paintings of Lino Laure is showcased. Lino’s natural talent is obvious, he paints the wonders of the Hawaiian Islands with regard to the smallest just an artist wants to say.
But during the day beckoned us to leave behind all this luxury to be able to complete our eco-tour.
A trip to Greenwell Farms in Kealakekua, Hawaii, took us on a historic family trip that goes back to 1850 when Henry Nicholas Greenwell left England and first set foot on the fertile soil of rural Kona.
Together with his wife Elizabeth Caroline, Henry spent the next forty years farming, livestock breeding and perfecting his Kona Coffee, soon exporting to Europe and America.
Today the farm is managed by the descendants of Henry and Elizabeth, and grows its own coffee on 150 hectares of the most productive land in the Kona District. Greenwell Farms offers walks in the coffee fields and processing facilities that run continuously from 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday, Saturdays, 8 am to 3 sm
A stone-throw away is the Kona Historical Society’s Living History Farm Tour. This seven-acre farm was lived in the 1900s by Japanese immigrants. The tour is an interpretation of the daily lives of coffee growers in the early 20th century brought to life through historic buildings, artifacts, authentic scenery, live animals, machinery and produce gardens, orchards and fields.
David Bateman, owner of Heavenly Hawaiian Farms, said that the process is much the same today: “Since not all cherries ripen at the same time, there are usually 4-6 crumbs during harvest season. Pickers manually pick red cherry fruit contains coffee beans. A good picker can pick 400 pounds of cherries in one day. Some pickers have picked as much as 1.200 pounds per day, all by hand, beans of beans. “The standard ratio cherries to produce a pound of roasted coffee is seven to one.
Related to Lehuula Farms, Owner Bob Nelson CASH its equipment for a lot of cherries to be pulped and dried. In addition to owning a pulper, Bob – a transplant from Alaska – is one of two unique sets of islands to dry coffee beans through a drying process that he uses to speed up the drying process. Most farms – including Lehuula – still sun-dry their beans on large tires to a moisture content between 10 and 13 percent.
This four-acre coffee farm – located at 1400 meters on the western slope of Hualalai Mountain – currently supports more than 4,000 coffee trees many of which are 90 years or older and is said to give a rare taste of coffee that is not in younger trees. “The Cherry Orchard is as good as it ever will be,” said Bob picked the cherries, reminds us that there is always a way to destroy it through the many steps it takes to process coffee.
Dr. Joe Alban explained that on his coffee farm, he produces 35 percent more cherries than in other coffee farms because of their unique vineyard-style coffee plantations. Sold at $ 65 per pound, is the world’s first trellised coffee plantation owned and operated by Dr. Joe and Mrs. Deepa Alban.
Kona Joe ® trellised coffee is U.S. Patent 6,449,898 B1 for “Method and apparatus for efficient Coffee Bean Production” and is recognized for adapting the techniques of fine wine for coffee production. “The inspiration for adapting traditional viticultural practices for coffee cultivation came from our family vineyard, Alban Vineyards, an award-winning winery and vineyard located in the central coast of California,” says Joe.
Kona Joe Coffee sponsor for the first time ever Barista Competition to be held at this year’s Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, a 10-day festival which takes place in early November when the harvest of Kona Coffee is on track.
I came to Kona to see how coffee is grown and what an education I received. Anyone can go on this trip to see the work of a coffee farm, without a passport and without concern about traveling to a foreign country.
Every morning when I take my freshly brewed cup of java, I have a deep respect for the labor intensive process it takes to produce and coffee farmers who work tirelessly to bring us this commodity, we can not seem to do without.