How to Choose Better Coffee in America: Must-Buy Hawaiian Kona Coffee Prices for Your Hawaii Trip

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HAWAII Big Island Travel Guide

With its unique volcanic terrain and moderate rainfall, the Big Island cultivates premium Hawaiian Kona coffee beans, renowned for their distinctive aroma and rich, full-bodied flavor.

Must-Visit Activities

Coffee Farm Tours

Located in the heart of the Kona district on the Big Island, Greenwell Farms has been in the coffee business since the mid-nineteenth century, with a history spanning over two hundred years. The estate is dedicated to bringing high-quality, 100% pure Kona coffee beans to enthusiasts worldwide.

A tour of the coffee farm is well worth your time. Greenwell Farms offers daily guided tours where specialists lead visitors through the entire process of coffee production—from planting, growing, and harvesting to roasting, tasting, and purchasing.

Work Opportunities at Coffee Farms

Greenwell Farms also provides working holiday visas, attracting young people from overseas to personally experience harvesting Kona coffee beans and try their hand at being small-scale coffee farmers.

The red berries indicate ripeness and are ready for harvesting! When eaten raw, red coffee cherries taste sweet and have an oily texture. In contrast, green coffee cherries taste sour and astringent when consumed raw.

At Greenwell Farms, the coffee trees are intentionally maintained at a height reachable for manual harvesting. Banana trees are also planted around the coffee trees to provide shade and protection from rain, creating a natural barrier.

A machine separates coffee cherries from branches and leaves.

The harvested cherries are washed with water.

What is a "Coffee Cherry"?

It's actually the fruit of the coffee plant. It earned this charming nickname because ripe coffee cherries resemble cherries in color.

Must-Buy Souvenirs

Hawaiian Kona Coffee Beans

Kona coffee beans, grown in the Kona district of Hawaii's Big Island, are cultivated on Hawaiian volcanic soil and represent the only coffee variety produced in the United States. They offer a relatively strong flavor profile with acidity and rich aroma. With consistently high quality, they are a must-buy item when visiting Hawaii, suitable both for personal use and as gifts.

Raw coffee beans range from ivory white to khaki in color, while roasted beans develop their characteristic brown hue.

The tour concludes beautifully with a tasting session of various Kona coffee flavors.

Coffee Knowledge

1. Different Roasting Methods and Flavor Profiles

Coffee beans are categorized by shape into round beans (peaberry) and flat beans. Merchants humorously refer to these as male beans and female beans. Peaberries are more elliptical with finer, less obvious center creases, while flat beans are more flattened with center creases that become more pronounced after roasting.

Our guide mentioned that peaberries were once considered defective by coffee farmers and fetched poor prices. However, there's another theory suggesting that peaberries are beans that have been consumed and excreted by civet cats, which gives them a special aromatic quality—sweet and mellow without bitterness.

Coffee merchants have successfully changed consumer perceptions of peaberries. In recent years, they have become highly sought after. Since only about 1 kilogram of peaberries can be selected from 300-500 kilograms of coffee beans, frequent shortages have caused peaberry prices to soar.

If you find a flavor profile you particularly enjoy, it's recommended to purchase it on the spot to avoid regretting not buying it later!

2. Don't Feel Upset If You Buy Expensive Coffee Beans, and Don't Get Too Excited About Cheap Ones!

In Walmart and other local supermarkets, gift boxes of Kona coffee beans and ground coffee are commonplace. Even from the same brand and in similar packaging, prices can differ by as much as one-third.

However, it's essential to carefully examine the "percentage" of Kona coffee beans in the package. The higher the percentage of Kona beans, the more directly it reflects in the price!

Also be cautious of products that don't clearly indicate the percentage, with only a line of extremely small text on the back of the package providing this information. When selecting Kona coffee beans, extra care is needed to avoid buying coffee mixed with other bean varieties after a ten-hour flight!

Introduction

The cultivation history of the century-old Greenwell Estate in Kona began in 1850 when Henry Nicholas Greenwell and his wife Elizabeth left England and began experimenting with coffee cultivation in Hawaii. Today, it boasts a history of over 160 years.

In addition to its own 150 acres, Greenwell Estate carefully selects and purchases coffee beans from approximately 300 farms in the Kona region. These ripe cherries are then meticulously processed in their own processing plant. This approach not only ensures coffee quality but also allows for careful selection of defective beans.

These high standards have earned international acclaim over the past century, and the estate has also become a popular tourist destination for Hawaii coffee. Today, many visitors tour Greenwell Estate to observe the coffee processing and manufacturing procedures.

Recommended Hawaiian Kona Coffee Brands

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Hawaiian Kona coffee beans offer excellent guarantees in both brand and quality. More importantly, they provide exceptional value-for-money—a 100-gram package costs only 120 yuan. Calculating at 15 grams of coffee powder per cup, one package can make 6 cups of coffee, with each cup costing only about 20 yuan. Compared to café prices that often reach dozens of yuan per cup, this represents a conscientious recommendation.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473