Hawaiian Kona Coffee - Healthy Coffee Research Part 1

While watching the newest coffee ad on TV, I had this sudden surge of interest to make a research on most popular cup of coffee in the world. I am aware that there are many delicious types of coffee beans in the world. I found out three of the best coffee in the world: Hawaiian Kona Coffee, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee and Kopi Luwak.

Hawaiian Kona Coffee came from the well-cultivated slopes of Mount Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii. During the nineteenth century, Samuel Reverend Ruggles introduced this crop to the tropical region of Kona before it became a huge item in the coffee world market on 1899. Recently, there are at least six hundred farms of Kona Coffee worldwide and an average Kona farm has an area of five acres or 20,000m².

There are two types of Hawaiian Kona Coffee. According to Wikipedia, the Type 1 refers to the two beans per cherry and one surface is flat surface while the other side is oval. Examples of these are: Kona Extra Fancy, Kona Fancy, Kona Number 1 and Kona Prime. The Type 2 Kona bean has a round shape per cherry or also called as peaberry. Examples of this coffee types type are: Peaberry Number 1 and Peaberry Prime.

When the Kona plant grows, it produces small white flowers that cover its tree. These white flowers are called as Kona Snow. Truth is, the Kona plant will start to bloom during February and March. The green berries will appear in April and in late August, the red fruit or “the cherry” will be fully developed and ready for harvesting. For the record, a Kona Tree can produce 20-30 pounds of cherry.

The Fermentation Period of Hawaiian Kona

The process of fermentation largely depend on the temperature, usually twelve hours if the elevation is low and if the elevation is high, the fermentation process will take twenty-four hours. Drying the Kona coffee beans will take seven to fourteen days and the optimal moisture level must be between ten to thirteen percent. In fact, one pound of roasted Kona coffee requires seven to nine pounds of cherry and by the way, a hundred pounds of cherry can yield at least twelve pounds of roasted coffee.