Kona Coffee Beans: the best Hawaiian coffee

When you are on a mission to find and enjoy the finest coffee, look no further than Kona, the best Hawaiian coffee.

At first sight, it seems at the very least improbable that a crop making up only 0.01% of the worlds coffee production can have any right to be considered truly important. But kona coffee punches way above its weight.

With expertly-tended small estate farms producing coffee beans in ideal climate and environment conditions Kona has everything going its way.

Make time and space in your coffee brewer of choice for one of the finest coffee experiences.

What is Kona Coffee and where does it come from?

The volcanic hills of the Kona district of Big Island provides ideal growing conditions for arabica coffee plants: The maturing coffee beans prefer Kona’s higher elevation above sea level, the volcanic soil, and reliable heavy summer rainfall. Combine the unique climate with the finest coffee plants and you create the finest Hawaiian coffee beans.

Kona coffee is the result of cross breeding of several varieties of arabica coffee plants including the varieties: typica, mocha, blue mountain, caturra and catuai. The range of varieties give the beans a unique combination of the best of the parent plants.

What are the origins of amazing Hawaiian Kona coffee

there were many early attempts to grow coffee on the islands making up Hawaii. Coffee plants were first brought to the Kona district in 1828 by the missionary Samuel Ruggles. As was common among missionaries, Ruggles took with him some of the home comforts including cuttings of Brazilian coffee plants. These would have provided him with a large enough crop to provide coffee for him and a few others.

Eight years later English merchant, Henry Nicholas Greenwell, started the first of the commercial Hawaiian coffee farms in the Kona district of the Big Island, and went on to build the brand, and image, of Kona coffee.

So successfully was the kona brand built, that kona coffee is, despite being made up of several varieties of arabica beans, a protected brand. Just as only grapes grown in the Champagne region of France and despite there being many great white sparkling wines created around the world.

There are 650 commercial growers based in Kona on the Big Island within an area of 3,500 acres. Between them, they produce some of the most expensive, and highly prized, coffee beans in the world.

So is kona coffee worth its hype? And more importantly is it worth the price? To answer these questions we need to know what it tastes like.

Taste makes Kona the ultimate Hawaiian coffee

The taste of kona coffee was best summed up by Mark Twain, in his Letters from Hawaii:

“Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it by what name you please.”.

Pure Kona coffee has a light clean sweet taste with notes of fruit, brown sugar – verging into honey, spices and even milk chocolate. What’s not to like?

The emphasis, though, has to be on ‘pure’. Given its high demand (and price) many have been keen to cash in on the allure of kona beans. Kona coffee has often been blended with other varieties of inferior quality beans. The resulting coffee issold on its connection with Kona beans but cannot provide such an enjoyable flavour.

Kona peaberry coffee

So if Kona coffee is among the finest coffee in the world, what is the finest kona coffee?

Popular opinion would tell you that kona peaberry is the finest of the fine, the champagne of coffees.

What is kona peaberry?

To answer this I have to explain what peaberry is: most coffee berries mature to produce two coffee beans. But, occasionally a berry will contain only 1 coffee bean, that bean, which is usually bigger and rounder than an ordinary coffee bean, is a peaberry.

Peaberries were considered unwanted aberrations, but are now recognized and prized over as the finest kona beans.

The fact that you cannot predict which berries, or even plants, will produce Peaberries, means the only way to sort them is by hand and eye when sorting pre or post roasting. This is time-consuming and therefore expensive. So the difference in flavor must be really worth the effort.

And what makes kona peaberry coffee so special?

As we know, kona coffee has a fresh, clean, sweet, nutty, spicy and fruity flavor. Well imagine those flavor bursts turned up to eleven. With vibrant spices nuts fruit and milk chocolate flavors flowing across your palette.

Put together in a single cup of joe. Kona peaberry more than justifies its extra costs of production and purchase.

Which is just as well, because its not easy to find and when top-quality batches come onto the market they sell out fast.

So I am going to tell you what you need to look out for when choosing a Kona coffee and my pick of the best.

Why you need to add the best Hawaiian coffee to your daily grind

As everyone who loves coffee knows, there are many different types of beans and brewing methods to choose from. But when it comes to the best cup of coffee, Hawaiian coffee is hard to beat. The Hawaiian Islands are home to some of the best coffee beans in the world, including Kona coffee beans. Grown in rich, volcanic soil and processed with great care on small estates to create a smooth, delicious coffee.

When brewed correctly, Hawaiian coffee has a rich, complex flavor that is perfect for starting the day or enjoying on a lazy afternoon.

So if you’re looking for the best cup of coffee possible, be sure to add the best Hawaiian coffee to your daily grind.

Not only will you enjoy an amazing cup of coffee, but you’ll also be supporting a local business. So what are you waiting for? Track down Hawaiian coffee Kona coffee beans online or at your local grocery store. You won’t be disappointed!