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Greetings all!
We have returned from our holiday in Hawaii and I thought I would share some of the Kona experiences we had along the way.
Prior to going over, I made inquiries with the quarantine mob (AQIS) and ended up obtaining an import permit that allowed me to bring home up to 5KG of green coffee.
Kona is on the Big Island of Hawaii. The actual growing area that is ideal for coffee is not huge, but they do pack a lot of plant and a lot of farms in there.
Not all farms are interested in tourists. The ones that are, are almost certainly overpriced and keen to sell you as much other stuff as possible.
Also, asking for green beans from some of them gets you some blank stares along the way.
We had a guide book that mentioned a tourist pamphlet called the Kona Coffee Country Driving Tour. The place we were staying did not have one, so we just set off in search of one of the more well known places - Greenwell Farms.
Now, I have no idea whether their coffee is any good yet. I bought some, but have not roasted it yet.
Anyhow, here is a pictorial of our tour of the place.
The shop is about 100 meters from the mill. Greenwell grow their own as well as buy cherries off other growers in the area.
As you approach the mill, there are some plants around that still bear fruit. The guide said that they are past their best from a commercial point of view, but they keep them for sentimental purposes. Apparently, they were part of the first planting.
Picked a cherry and had a look:
They were in the midst of their 6 month harvest season, so the mill was operating each day.
Some cherries for processing:
Fermenting.
Drying.
It rains pretty much every afternoon in Kona, so the drying platforms all have a retractable roof that is brought over the beans to cover them. They were built like this many years back and are still moved manually today.
The finished product.
We found that a lot of the farms (even those listed in the driving tour brochure - we found one at Kona Blue Sky) do not really want tourists to drop in. Some even state that they do tours, but when you front up, you might just find one person holding the fort or, as happened on more than one occasion to us, no-one there at all.
All in all, it was interesting, but the only ones who encourage tourists (that we found) were: Greenwell Farms - http://www.greenwellfarms.com
Kona Blue Sky - http://www.konablueskycoffee.com/
Mountain Thunder - http://www.greenwellfarms.com Would only sell green in 5lb lots. Too much investment in an unknown for me!
Holualoa - http://www.konalea.com/
There are probably others, but once we had seen 4 and visited another 3 with no luck, my interest was satisfied and I had 3lbs of very expensive green coffee to try when we returned.
As for their coffee on offer at the farms - All prepared in vac pots. Nothing really tasted that outstanding to us. Kona Blue Sky probably had the nicest tasting ones of the lot, but it might just have been that it was fresher than the other places.
Roasting - they do not seem to have the concept of a roast profile. They bung it into the roaster and just go x minutes at x temperature and that = our Dark roast. More than one place said that was how they did it. When I asked about subtle variations due to moisture content etc., they just looked at me like I was odd. Oh well.
It was still very interesting.
When I get around to roasting some, Ill let you know.
Brett.
We have returned from our holiday in Hawaii and I thought I would share some of the Kona experiences we had along the way.
Prior to going over, I made inquiries with the quarantine mob (AQIS) and ended up obtaining an import permit that allowed me to bring home up to 5KG of green coffee.
Kona is on the Big Island of Hawaii. The actual growing area that is ideal for coffee is not huge, but they do pack a lot of plant and a lot of farms in there.
Not all farms are interested in tourists. The ones that are, are almost certainly overpriced and keen to sell you as much other stuff as possible.
Also, asking for green beans from some of them gets you some blank stares along the way.
We had a guide book that mentioned a tourist pamphlet called the Kona Coffee Country Driving Tour. The place we were staying did not have one, so we just set off in search of one of the more well known places - Greenwell Farms.
Now, I have no idea whether their coffee is any good yet. I bought some, but have not roasted it yet.
Anyhow, here is a pictorial of our tour of the place.
The shop is about 100 meters from the mill. Greenwell grow their own as well as buy cherries off other growers in the area.
As you approach the mill, there are some plants around that still bear fruit. The guide said that they are past their best from a commercial point of view, but they keep them for sentimental purposes. Apparently, they were part of the first planting.
Picked a cherry and had a look:
They were in the midst of their 6 month harvest season, so the mill was operating each day.
Some cherries for processing:
Fermenting.
Drying.
It rains pretty much every afternoon in Kona, so the drying platforms all have a retractable roof that is brought over the beans to cover them. They were built like this many years back and are still moved manually today.
The finished product.
We found that a lot of the farms (even those listed in the driving tour brochure - we found one at Kona Blue Sky) do not really want tourists to drop in. Some even state that they do tours, but when you front up, you might just find one person holding the fort or, as happened on more than one occasion to us, no-one there at all.
All in all, it was interesting, but the only ones who encourage tourists (that we found) were: Greenwell Farms - http://www.greenwellfarms.com
Kona Blue Sky - http://www.konablueskycoffee.com/
Mountain Thunder - http://www.greenwellfarms.com Would only sell green in 5lb lots. Too much investment in an unknown for me!
Holualoa - http://www.konalea.com/
There are probably others, but once we had seen 4 and visited another 3 with no luck, my interest was satisfied and I had 3lbs of very expensive green coffee to try when we returned.
As for their coffee on offer at the farms - All prepared in vac pots. Nothing really tasted that outstanding to us. Kona Blue Sky probably had the nicest tasting ones of the lot, but it might just have been that it was fresher than the other places.
Roasting - they do not seem to have the concept of a roast profile. They bung it into the roaster and just go x minutes at x temperature and that = our Dark roast. More than one place said that was how they did it. When I asked about subtle variations due to moisture content etc., they just looked at me like I was odd. Oh well.
It was still very interesting.
When I get around to roasting some, Ill let you know.
Brett.
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