Hawaiian Kona Coffee is Not Equal to Hawaiian Coffee: An Introduction to the Growing Environment and Origin of Authentic Kona Coffee

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Have you ever tried Hawaiian Kona coffee?

Once this smooth, silky coffee hits your taste buds, you'll experience your first true "coffee climax" and understand why it's in demand worldwide.

I bought 'kona' for about 6 months before realizing something terrible had happened. I was taken advantage of, and I don't want that to happen to you.

Therefore, before you purchase Kona beans online, please note:

Most beans sold as "Kona" don't live up to their name. That is, you're being ripped off... exploited... and possibly even lied to.

It's expensive, so Hawaiian Kona beans are often blended with cheaper beans to produce affordable blends... but this isn't obvious. In fact, sometimes it's incredibly difficult to clarify.

It's like someone offering you premium wine... but watering it down to sell more wine.

Be careful: Because Kona's value is so high, many people want to make money from it. This leads to numerous mislabeled products on the market. If you want to try this sought-after blend, you should ensure you get the real thing - otherwise, it's pointless.

So... the question is:

How do you know what's real and what's a scam???

Red Warning Flag #1: Stay away from "Hawaiian Kona Blends"

Because there's only a limited amount of the "real deal" and it's very expensive, many companies produce "Kona blends" at more affordable prices.

However, you should know that these blends contain Kona in name only.

According to Hawaiian law, any blend labeled "Kona blend" must contain at least 10% certified Kona beans.

Companies looking to make money will naturally use 10% and no more beans. 90% of these blends will be cheap coffee from other parts of the world.

Do the math - there won't be much Kona in your cup.

Worse yet, some companies go all out with scams and don't use any certified Kona at all.

While Hawaiian law is strict about this, many places don't care if companies use the Kona name for marketing purposes only. In many countries, so-called Kona beans might contain only a small fraction of Kona beans, or none at all.

For this reason, you should buy Kona from Hawaii labeled as 100% Kona coffee.

If that's beyond your budget, your second-best bet is Kona blends produced in Hawaii, as they contain at least one-tenth Kona as required by local laws.

But no matter how attractive the packaging, stay away from "Kona blends" produced outside Hawaii - they're basically all scams.

Red Warning Flag #2: 'Hawaiian Kona Coffee Beans' not from the Kona region

Like French Champagne, the Hawaiian Kona belt is renowned for its excellent microclimate. However, this doesn't apply to all of Hawaii. In fact, most other Hawaiian islands, including Maui and Kauai, are not suitable for coffee cultivation.

Due to a long history of sugarcane cultivation, most Hawaiian island soils are depleted and lacking nutrients. The clay types are far less fertile than Kona's rich volcanic soil, and the climate is unfavorable for coffee cultivation.

FrontStreet Coffee's Kona Coffee Roasting Recommendations:

Like Blue Mountain coffee, Kona has low density. For low-density beans, the dropping temperature shouldn't be too high. When releasing sweet aromas, the color turns to light yellow. With high moisture content, sufficient simmering time is needed. The coffee beans should be clean, crisp, and have a solid, weighty feel. Don't roast Kona too dark - medium-light roast (City to Full City) is recommended.

FrontStreet Coffee recommends keeping detailed records before roasting: coffee bean moisture content, density, origin, processing method, roasting room temperature and humidity, etc. Plan your roasting curve carefully. Record relevant chemical and physical changes during the roasting process - this will help you better understand the final roasting results and improve your roasting curve.

Roaster: Yangjia 800N, input 550g raw beans

Roasting curve:

Preheat the drum to 200°C, with damper at setting 3. After 1 minute, adjust heat to 150°C, keeping damper unchanged. Roast to 5'35" at 150°C, when beans turn yellow and grassy smell completely disappears, indicating dehydration completion. Adjust heat to 140°C, damper to 4.

At 9'30", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on bean surface, toast smell clearly transitions to coffee aroma - this can be defined as the prelude to first crack. Listen carefully for the first crack sound. First crack begins at 9'30", reduce heat to 70°C, open damper fully (be very careful with heat adjustment - don't reduce so much that cracking stops). Turn off heat at 182°C, drop beans at 193.4°C.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473