Hawaii Coffee Overview

Kona is still the center of Hawaiian coffee, but …

We had occasionally offered coffees from Maui, Molokai, and Kauai. But these are not usually grown like true small farm EstateA “coffee estate” is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does… …more grade coffees from the Big Island, nor do they taste like them. Kona isn’t grown at impressive altitudes compared to other coffee origins, but on Maui and Kauai coffee is grown at exceptionally low elevations, sometimes near tide pool level! Also, much Kona is an older coffee varietyA botanical variety is a rank in the taxonomic hierarchy below the rank of species and subspecies and above the rank of form (form / variety / subspecies… …more, TypicaA coffee cultivar; a cross between Typica and Bourbon, originally grown in Brazil: Mundo Novo is a commercial coffee cultivar; a natural hybrid between “Sumatra” and Red Bourbon,… …more, a traditional type that cannot be grown at the lowest elevations. Recently, we found out that Ka’u coffees have come a long way, and can be excellent. So Ka’u is a region with credible quality potential.

In a historical sense, coffees like Kona are the pinnacle of a particular definition of what “good coffee” is: clean, pleasant, mild, good aftertaste. This is a notion of “good coffee” handed down from a time when low-grade coffee was called BrazilBrazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra sang, “they grow an awful lot of coffee in Brazil”.: Brazil is a coffee giant . As Frank Sinatra… …more Rio and it had a seriously foul, dirty taste (so distinctly awful it is still called RioyA defect term referring to harsh, acrid, medicine flavors from Brazilian coffees of the lowest order; named for Rio de Janeiro. Result of continued enzyme activity when coffee… …more in defective coffee terminology). The best coffees were considered the polar opposite; island coffees — mild, delicate and clean.

Certain exotic coffee origins we appreciate as intense and unusual flavor profiles, such as Yemeni coffees, Ethiopian Harar, and wet-hulled Sumatras for example, would be considered defective in this definition. If you love those intense coffees, Kona may seem too timid, too simple, too mild. With scores in the mid-80s, they don’t rate like the best Kenyas or Ethiopias, but the descriptors indicate balanceSuggests a harmony and proportion of qualities, and implies mildness since no one quality dominates.: Balance is both an obvious and slippery taste term. It implies a harmony… …more and clean cupClean cup refers to a coffee free of taints and defects. It does not imply sanitary cleanliness, or that coffees that are not clean (which are dirty) are… …more quality. Consider this when you taste good Hawaiian coffees. 

Hawaii Coffee Pricing and Risks

The famously fragile ecology of HawaiiThe Kona district on the big island of Hawaii produces the best coffee from this state – clean, sweet and mild. : Ah, Hawaii… what a nice place…. …more has been shattered; along with other invasive species and insects, the recent appearance of Broca, the Coffee Berry Borer insect, has had a huge negative effect on the farms of Hawaii. And coffee fungus is having it’s impact too.

Hawaiian coffee costs a lot because there is no cut rate labor … if the world had universal labor laws then all coffee would be priced like Kona etc. We think that’s the direction it should go, and coffee should be treasured while farmers are fairly rewarded.

So the goal with Hawaiians is to quit thinking that all Hawaiian coffee is good, and to realize that only a handful of coffees deserve the high price in terms of cup quality (you can easily argue that all deserve a high price in terms of the care and labor expended in producing them). And frankly, you must pay quite a bit for the truly great small-farm Kona

The Hawaii Kona Value Proposition

Good Hawaiian coffee is expensive. The reason has as much to do with the dynamics of small-scale farming as it does with producing any product in the United States … things cost more. In particular, finding good workers and paying them well is expensive. And of course it’s well worth it to create good jobs and to hold onto good people in a competitive job market. But it means the final product is going to cost more.

If people aren’t framing the Hawaiian coffee value proposition right, they may expect that, based on price alone, a Hawaiian coffee should taste 5x better than some other originIn coffee talk, it refers to a coffee-producing region or country; such as, “I was just at origin.” Of course “Origin” for most product we use is not… …more. (Whatever 5x better means in regards to taste!?)

That person will be disappointed … and it’s a shame because while Kona or other classic wet-process Hawaiian coffee might not set off an explosion on your palate, it’s a wonderful charming mild coffee. It’s not the loudest but it’s awfully pretty. When did that become a bad thing?

If you do want a classic, clean-cupping Hawaiian coffee to speak to you a bit louder, a great idea is single-origin espresso. I’ve always been impressed with how all those subtle characteristics in a Kona get punched-up when you run it through an espresso machine! (Tip, dose up slightly … when we use 18 gr for other coffees, 19.5 is great for Darnell Estate Kona). And I can say that the crew here, including a few first rate baristas, were really impressed with their first-ever Kona espresso!

Kona coffee is a treat, and other efforts in Hawaii with alternate processingThe removal of the cherry and parchment from the coffee seed.: Coffee is either wet-processed (also called washed or wet-milled) or dry-processed (also called wild, natural or natural… …more and varieties of coffee are producing very interesting, non-traditional coffee experiences that are well worth exploring.