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… 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…, 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,…, 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… 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… 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… 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… 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…. 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.

Coffee is being downgraded before export, and can’t fetch the prices it used to as an Extra Fancy grade when it gets knocked down to Kona No. 1 Grade. The affected beans do affect cup quality, but can be sorted out. Yet this takes labor, and in an expensive market that is just not feasible.  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.