Hawaii Kona Coffee Brewing Methods How to Drink Hawaii Kona Coffee Powder

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Perhaps everyone has heard of Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, but you might be slightly less familiar with Hawaii Kona coffee. As one of the representatives of island-type coffee, Kona coffee is known as the "king and queen" alongside Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. Many people who come to FrontStreet Coffee and see the price of Kona coffee on the menu ask why Kona coffee can be sold so expensively—it's clearly not as famous as Blue Mountain No. 1 coffee, yet its price is close to that of Blue Mountain No. 1. FrontStreet Coffee will now take everyone to understand what Hawaii Kona coffee is.

What is Island-Type Coffee?

Island-type coffee growing regions are located in the vast ocean, with no connection to land. Here, the annual temperature variation is not significant, but there is a large temperature difference between day and night, and there is enough cloud cover to block the sun. Although the average altitude of coffee growing regions is not very high, Hawaii's special island-type climate and fertile volcanic soil make the coffee produced here of high quality. The flavor of island-type coffee is defined as gentle and elegant. The body is slightly thinner, not as rich and mellow as Indonesian Mandheling, and lacks the varied acidity of Kenyan coffee.

Why is Kona Coffee So Expensive?

In the 2019/20 production season, Hawaii's coffee bean production was only 12,400 tons, while Ethiopia produced 384,000 tons in the same season, and Brazil reached as high as 2.652 million tons. Meanwhile, Hawaii must comply with US federal regulations and minimum wage standards, which is $7.25 per hour, approximately 47.2 RMB. As the saying goes, "scarcity makes things valuable." FrontStreet Coffee believes this is the main reason for the high price of Kona coffee.

Kona Coffee Varieties - Typica

Kona's Typica was introduced from Guatemala in 1892. The Typica beans grown in Kona are large in size, and the growing altitude ranges from 600-1100m. Compared to other coffee-producing countries, Kona's growing altitude is considered low altitude, but on the Hawaiian Islands, Kona is considered high altitude. Someone once tried to transplant Kona's Typica to other islands, but because the other islands had too high temperatures and too low altitudes, the Typica did not grow well, so it couldn't develop the unique gentle acidic aroma of the Kona region.

Reasons for Low Kona Coffee Production

The altitude of Hawaii's coffee growing regions ranges from 150-1000 meters, belonging to typical low-altitude growing regions, which is actually not suitable for Typica. Additionally, being located in the tropics, the fruits are very susceptible to pests and diseases. Among these, the most harmful pest and disease affecting Hawaii is undoubtedly the coffee berry borer. According to statistics, since this pest was discovered in Hawaii in 2010, it has infected more than 800 coffee farms, not only reducing coffee quality but also increasing production costs by 10-15%.

In addition to pests, in late 2020, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) reported this disturbing finding to Governor David Ige's office about two weeks ago. About a month ago, a coffee farm in the Haiku area of Maui showed symptoms suspected to be leaf rust disease in a report submitted to HDOA. It is still unknown how leaf rust reached Maui Island, Hawaii, and how long it has been there cannot be determined at this time.

What is Leaf Rust? What Impact Does It Have on Coffee?

Leaf rust symptoms mainly occur on leaves, with very few cases on fruits and branches. After leaves are infected by rust fungi, small light yellow water-soaked spots initially appear on the back of the leaves, with light green halos around the spots. When the spots expand to 5-8mm, orange-yellow powdery spore piles grow from the stomata on the affected parts. The spots gradually expand, and several spots connect to form irregular large spots. Later, the center of the spots dries out and turns brown.

Brown spots are visible on both sides of the leaves and eventually fall off gradually. Coffee plants can die within several years. The gradual discovery of leaf rust in Hawaii poses a serious threat to Hawaii's coffee industry because this disease can spread rapidly and kill coffee crops in large numbers.

Kona Coffee Bean Processing Method

One of the major characteristics of traditional Kona coffee is its elegant fruit acidity and clean, balanced flavor, which is attributed to the washed processing method. After selection, machines are used to remove the pulp and mucilage, then they are placed in pools for water fermentation. After completing fermentation and removing mucilage, because fermentation bacteria and impurities remain on the coffee beans, the coffee beans are washed again. To ensure thorough cleaning, this step consumes a large amount of fresh water, then the fruits are dried and hulled.

However, Kona coffee beans face environmental pollution problems precisely due to washed processing. One issue is that the water after fermentation becomes acidic, and long-term discharge has significantly increased the acidity of surrounding water sources and soil. Secondly, coffee fruits contain high amounts of phosphorus and potassium. When water containing large amounts of phosphorus and potassium is discharged, these elements can cause soil to lose its natural regulatory functions, affecting other ecosystems.

How Do Kona Coffee Beans Taste?

Kona coffee beans are exceptionally full and carry cinnamon spice flavors, with balanced and moderate acidity. Moreover, they have a bright luster, and Kona beans are uniformly shaped. The characteristic of Kona coffee lies in its fresh sweet aroma reminiscent of grass or trees, along with citrus-like fruit acidity and richness, combining various characteristics without any trace of muddled texture. When FrontStreet Coffee cupped Kona coffee, they found the coffee flavor was rich and aromatic, not bitter, not astringent, with no burnt taste, having gentle acidity and maltose sweetness, with a rich, smooth, and mellow mouthfeel.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Roast Kona Coffee Beans?

Kona coffee beans belong to the category of low-density beans, so the dropping temperature cannot be too high. When emitting sweet aromas, the color changes to light yellow, and the moisture content is high, requiring sufficient steaming time. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster suggests that Kona coffee beans should not be roasted too deeply—medium-light roasting is sufficient.

FrontStreet Coffee's roaster uses a Yangjia 800N, with 550g of green beans. When the roaster reaches 200°C, add the beans with the damper open to 3. After 1 minute, adjust the heat to 150°C, keeping the damper unchanged. Roast until 5'35", when the temperature reaches 150°C, the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, and dehydration is complete. Adjust the heat to 140°C and change the damper to 4. At 9'30 minutes, ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the toast smell clearly transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'30", first crack begins, reduce the heat to 70°C, fully open the damper (be very careful when adjusting heat—don't reduce it so much that there's no cracking sound). Turn off the heat at 182°C and drop at 193.4°C.

How Does FrontStreet Coffee Brew Kona Coffee?

Use a Hario V60 dripper—the rib design of the V60 dripper can enhance the coffee's layered complexity.

Coffee amount used: 15g

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Brewing water temperature: 89°C

Grind size: EK43S 10.5 setting (70% pass-through rate with #20 standard sieve)

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing method: Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then slowly pour 150g of water in small circular motions from the center outward (digital scale shows 180g). Then wait until the coffee bed drops to 1/2 level and pour 45g of water with large flow, reaching a total water amount of 225g. Remove the dripper after all coffee liquid has flowed into the lower server to finish extraction. Total brewing time is 1 minute 50 seconds.

Kona coffee brewing flavor: This brewing method expresses Kona's rich fruit tones, with the sweet aroma of mulberry, black plum, plum, and maltose, creating an overall rich layered complexity and juice-like mouthfeel.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473