Hawaii Kona Coffee Cultivation History Story_ Hawaii Kona Coffee Images_ Kona Coffee Price

Kona Coffee: The Jewel of Hawaii

Kona coffee comes from the world-renowned Hawaiian Kona growing region and is often called the most visually beautiful coffee bean in the world. Its flavor is fresh and crisp, with wine aroma, fruit fragrance and spice notes running through it, as captivating as the colors of its volcanic island home. In Hawaii, watching the fiery sunset sink into the orange sea, breathing the flower-scented air and sipping a cup of rich Kona by the water, there is no other place on Earth that offers quite that enjoyment.

The Evolutionary History of Hawaiian Kona Coffee Cultivation

The earliest settlers of Hawaii arrived between 300-400 AD, and historians believe they came from the Marquesas Islands. People dispersed into different tribes living on the islands, led by hereditary chiefs. The earliest Hawaiian residents created the islands' rich musical culture, though not much written material has survived.

The European discovery of Hawaii was purely accidental. Explorers were originally searching for a legendary passage to the spice-producing East and instead found the richest pearl in the Pacific Ocean.

A captain named James Cook landed on Kauai in 1778 to resupply his ships. On the return journey he ran into severe cold and storms, which forced him back to Hawaii in early 1779, where he anchored at a beach in Kona. From then on the Hawaiian Islands became an important stopover port on global trade routes. Hawaiian chiefs traded the island's specialty sandalwood with passing ships for weapons, goods and livestock. Starting in the 1820s, Western religions began to spread widely across the islands, and many churches built in that era are still in use today.

Hawaii is a paradise for tasting and buying coffee. Each island has several distinctive places for tourists and locals to taste and buy coffee, from cozy small shops to comprehensive centers that introduce coffee knowledge. In Hawaii you can watch the fiery sunset sink into the orange sea, feel the flower-scented fresh air, and sit by the ocean sipping a cup of rich coffee. Probably no other place in the world can offer you such enjoyment.

In 1813, a Spaniard first planted coffee in Manoa Valley on Oahu, a location that is today the main campus of the University of Hawaii. In 1825, a British agricultural expert named John Wilkinson transplanted some coffee beans from Brazil to Chief Boki's coffee plantation on Oahu. Three years later, an American missionary named Samuel Reverend Ruggles brought coffee tree branches from Chief Boki's plantation to Kona. This coffee descends from the earliest Arabica coffee trees that grew on the Ethiopian plateau, and to this day Kona coffee continues that noble and ancient lineage.

Hawaiian Kona Green Beans

The coastal Kona region of Hawaii's southeastern islands offers pure Hawaiian Kona coffee with nutty aroma and moderate acidity with subtle wine notes, rich and rounded, full of oils, and bursting with layers of sweet richness and fruit fragrance.

Hawaii Main Island - Kona (Hawaii Kona)

Origin: Hawaii

The coastal Kona region of the Hawaiian Islands offers pure Hawaiian Kona with nutty aroma and moderate acidity carrying subtle wine notes, rich and rounded, full of oils, and bursting with layers of sweet fruit fragrance.

Hawaiian Kona Coffee Bean Brand Recommendations

Hawaiian Kona coffee beans roasted by FrontStreet Coffee are solid on both brand and quality, and they deliver on their reputation as one of the most balanced, easy-to-love cups around, with the nutty aroma and gentle acidity that make Kona so approachable.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Kona's balanced, nutty, low-acid character has close relatives elsewhere on our menu. The FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon is a good match, a red Bourbon from Cerrado with a soft, rounded body and aromas of cream, peanut, cocoa and caramel, low in acidity with only a light bitterness. If you want the sweetness turned toward dried fruit and tea, the FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan Typica brings hazelnut, dried apricot, black tea, caramel and ripe plum together at a medium roast, a quietly balanced cup in the same spirit as Kona.