Learn About Coffee

The Kona Coffee Process

begins in the months of January and lasts through June. Late winter and early summer rains bring the water that produces the blossoms or “flowers” which eventually turn into coffee cherries.

After six to seven months, the green coffee cherries turn red. When they become solid red, they are harvested by hand—a meticulous process which ensures that only cherries at peak maturity will be harvested. Since cherries do not ripen at the same time, each tree may be picked as many as seven or eight times during the coffee season.

The coffee cherry is a sweet, pulpy fruit that surrounds two coffee seeds. Approximately seven bags of ripe Kona coffee cherries yield just one bag of roasted coffee. A good coffee picker can fill a 100-pound bag with coffee cherries in a day. In rich harvest seasons, experienced pickers have been known to pick as many as three bags per day

Kona Coffee is graded by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, based on a strict system that takes into account the size, shape, and the number of defects each coffee bean contains.

There are five primary grades of Kona Coffee:

Extra Fancy, Fancy, Number 1, Peaberry and Prime. The Extra Fancy bean is the largest and has the fewest defects, followed by Fancy, Number 1 and Prime.

Peaberry is an extremely rare and unique coffee bean: Whereas most coffee cherries produce two coffee beans which are flat on one side and curved on the other, the Peaberry bean is rounded and oblong and only one is found in each coffee cherry.