Hawaii Kona Coffee Rural Exploration_How to Drink Authentic Hawaii Kona Coffee_Kona Coffee Price

Kona coffee is an Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) grown on the Big Island of Hawaii. It takes its name from its main production area, which sits on the slopes of the Hualalai and Mauna Loa volcanoes in the South and North Kona districts of the island. It ranks among the most expensive coffees in the world, and only coffee grown in the Kona district is allowed to carry the name "Kona coffee." (Source: WIKI)

Characteristics of Hawaiian Kona Coffee

Hawaiian Kona beans have the most flawless appearance of any coffee: extraordinarily plump fruit with a bright, glossy sheen. The cup is rich and aromatic, layered with cinnamon spice, and the acidity is well balanced and moderate.

The finest Kona coffee is sorted into three grades: Extra Fancy, Fancy, and Number One. All three are produced both on estates and under natural conditions. Most coffees sold today as "Kona" actually contain less than 5% genuine Hawaiian Kona. Hawaii has another fine coffee as well, Hawaiian Kai Farms coffee. True Kona is a genuine rarity and not easy to come by.

Flavor: Smooth and rich, with an enticing nutty aroma

Recommended roast: Light to medium

Rating: ★★★: Excellent

The Hawaiian Kona Coffee Market

Hawaiian coffee is the only premium variety produced in any of the 50 United States, which naturally makes the mainland its largest market. The quality standards set by Hawaiian coffee farmers are strict and revised every year. Across the industry, Hawaii's coffee sector is among the most tightly regulated, and it also carries the highest labor costs and the heaviest investment.

Kona has always been cultivated through a family-farming model. In the beginning only men were permitted to work the plantations; women joined later. Because Hawaiian families preferred to rely on their own labor rather than hire outside workers, households with eight or nine children were entirely normal. In time, new immigrants kept arriving from the Philippines, the mainland United States, and Europe to work in Hawaiian coffee. Over the years this shaped a society centered on family culture that still absorbed outside influences with ease, one of Hawaii's defining traits. The Kona harvest runs from late August each year into January of the following year, with farmers picking ripe fruit in batches and processing it into coffee beans.

Kona is processed by both washed and natural methods. Hawaii's clean, sweet mountain spring water is ideal for the washed method, which yields Kona beans with a bright, clear appearance and a pure, fresh flavor. The washed beans are spread across large flat surfaces and dried naturally in the sun.

Hawaiian Kona beans have the most perfect appearance of all: exceptionally full fruit with a bright luster, which makes them the most beautiful coffee beans in the world. Kona tastes fresh and crisp, with a medium body, mild acidity, and a rich aroma that lingers. On the whole the flavor is relatively gentle, less heavy than Indonesian coffee, less wine-like than African coffee, and less forceful than coffees from Central and South America. Its mixed aroma weaves together wine, fruit, and spice, as charming as the many-hued landscape of a volcanic island, with a finish to match.

Hawaiian Kona Coffee Brand Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee's roasted Hawaiian Kona beans offer full assurance of both brand and quality. More than that, they are outstanding value: a 100g half-pound package costs just 120 yuan. At 15g of beans per cup of single-origin coffee, one package makes 6 cups, so each cup works out to roughly 20 yuan. Set against café prices that often top 100 yuan a cup, that is remarkable value.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Kona's island balance is what appeals to you, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 is the natural next step. Like Kona, it is built on the Typica variety, and it is prized for a balance few regions can approach: gentle and supple, with an acidity that never bites, a full and pure aroma, and a clean, quietly sweet finish.

For a fruitier counterpoint, try FrontStreet Coffee's Colombia Sidra. The Sidra variety originated in Ecuador's Pichincha province, and genetic comparison has shown it shares traits with Ethiopian landraces. Given a medium-light roast, FrontStreet's Sidra brims with floral notes, tropical fruit, grape, candied fruit, and passion fruit, with a juicy body that has earned it a devoted following.