Kona Coffee 101: An Introduction

We have all heard of Kona coffee, but I knew little about the coffee growing process, and specificlly how labor intensive it is. We spend the day at a local coffee plantation and this is what I learned.

Greenwell Farms is a fourth generation coffee plantation started back in 1850 when Henry Nicholos Greenwell left England with his wife, and relocated to Kona to start a cattle farm. Coffee was a sideline business for the family, with only a few acres of trees dedicated to it on the land and the majority of the area was used for cattle ranching.  He would export some to relatives back in Europe. In 1873, Greenwell's coffee won a recognition diploma at the worlds fair in Vienna, and his Kona Coffee was now on the world map.

When he passed, his wife, who had no interest in continuing to cattle ranch, slowly converted the farm more to coffee and other fruit trees. Today, the fourth generation runs the 90 acre farm and has about 70 acres of coffee, 10 of macadamia nuts and 10 of random fruit trees, to include avocado, apple banana's, pineapple, and island oranges. - needless to say it would be hard to starve on this island.

Coffee trees are a pretty hardy bunch and grow like weeds, in very little or no topsoil, but they like the very rich volcanic rock. Taking a page from viticulture, in order to be 'Kona' coffee, it has to be grown in this terror, a section of the island about 20 miles long and only 1000 feet or so wide (in elevation). Not unlike a  vitas vinifera varietal, pure Kona coffee must contain at least 90% Kona Typica plant. In another interesting parallel to wine, a 1990 infestation of the rodi-knot nematode damaged many trees in Kona, and was solved using root grafting to a resistant strain. 

A coffee tree left alone will grow to 20 feet high, and mechanical harvesting still has not resulted in an adequate solution, due to the steep terrain and difficult landscape. As a result most Kona coffee is harvested by hand. Another reason its prices command a premium. To help facilitate this, coffee trees are cut - a process called 'stumping' ever three years or so (photo below) After a tree is stumped, it will not fruit the next year so usually a third of a farms coffee trees are not producing in a given season. Reason two its expensive.

A tree will bear fruit three or four times during a harvest season - from October to February. Fruit is harvested when the cherry is red. Wait too long and the result is bitterness.

These trees were harvested last a couple of moths ago and are just now beginning to show buds of flowers again. When in full bloom, the flowers are white and completely cover the trees - hence the term Kona snow.

 A typical tree will yeald about 15 pounds of fruit, which results in about 2 pounds of coffee, once all the multiple layers of the cherry are stripped away.

Once the cherries are harvested, they are 'wet processed' in a pulper that removes the bean from the cherry pulp.

As an interesting side note: this pulp used to be returned to the ground, but has recently been found to have extremely high levels of antioxidants. As a result t is now typically sold off to companies that will then juice the pulp, and turn it into a health drink such as Kona Red.

Once the coffee beans have been through the pulper, they have a green slimy surface layer on them called the pectin layer, that is full of sucrose. If they are not processed in a day or so, they will mold (yuck) and the flavor profile will be put off. In order to accomplish this, they travel down the PCV pipes, and get an overnight soaking in a big vat. This process is called fermenting.

Another interesting side note that I did not know: most coffee cherries contain two beans, and look similar to the two halfs of a peanut. Occationally (about 5% of cherries) however, contain only 1, smaller whole and round bean. This is called a peaberry. Initially thought to be 'runts' and discarded, the peaberries are now separated from the rest and when roasted correctly, produce a very good (some consider premium) coffee. - so its sold at a premium! I never knew where the "Peaberry Coffee' name came from…. now you do too.

Back to our little coffee story. Once the beans are done in their tub, they move to drying. they are laid out on large slabs and the sun kicks in and is allowed to naturally dry the beans. every couple of hours the workers use a rake to turn them and the moisture content is slowly reduced. - It''s pretty labor intensive to do it this way rather than use a mechanical drier. Reason number three Kona coffee is expensive.

Greenwell uses these cool little houses to dry their coffee beans. When the trade winds bring a shower, the roof of the building can be slid on and off (shown here in its closed position) to keep the rain off of the drying beans.

Finally, when the beans are dry enough, they head to a mill for processing. Here the beans are graded, and separated by size into several size classifications, that produce different flavor profiles. The peaberries are also separated at this point and the last couple of layers (the parchment and silver-skin) similar to a peanuts red skin is removed. 

Once processed and separated, the 'green' beans are then shipped to cofee suppliers who will roast them and possibly add other flavors, based on their particular specifications.

Our fantastic tour guide Keko, let us know that only about 1% of the total coffee market is comprised of Kona coffee. for Greenwell, they ship 90 percent of their beens wholesale to coffee roasters such as Starbucks and reserve about 10% to roast themselves and sell on the farm, so you won't see the name in stores, but yo can order it online from their website.

Our personal favorite is their chocolate macadamia nut. An A-M-A-Z-I-N-G blend produced with what else, local Kona chocolate and macadamia nuts.

Keko said that their farm produces about 250,000 pounds of coffee annually. If I'm doing the math right - at an average retail of $18-$20 a pound, - that farm is doing just fine, thank you very much.

Overall - a very interesting way to spend an afternoon in my new home, here in Kona. I would highly recommend the (free) tour, and the (not so free) coffee if you're in the area.

More random photos below.

There is one section of the farm that still has very old coffee trees on it. These are about 110 years old. a coffee tree will last about 125 years, but apparently its yield will significantly reduce after about 25 years or so. As a result most are replaced at that time.

these trees were 'stumped' last year and will not produce anything this year.

Shot of the Greenwell Farm

In the fall, during harvest season migrant workers from mexico also head here. its backbreaking, not very fun work so no one here wants to do it, similar to agriculture on the mainland. These are their bunkhouses. It takes 30-40 of them to harvest this farm.

this is the old processing house on the property - very cool

one of my new favorite things to eat on the island are these apple bananas. A local grown little dude thats about a third the size of a regular banana, and incredibly good.

There are several different varieties of avocado here also - some as big as a melon

A little baby pineapple growing near the old mill house

This has nothing at all to do with coffee - but the hibiscus on this island - just growing wild and in random places is absolutely beautiful. 

It comes in many different colors and we often find them just lying on the side of the road after falling from their plant. All you need is a hair clip and you're all set.

I also like the fan palms in several places here. They are pretty cool.

Again - nothing to do with coffee or the farm - this was just a random old dump truck that is sitting on Ali'i drive about a mile from our condo. Looks like it has been there quite a while!

Aloha! - another great day in paradise.

Kona Blog - 10 days in - the good and the bad.

My first 10 days here have been completely fantastic. This place truly is paradise. I can't imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere else. The fears about everything being incredibly expensive are mostly unfounded. - Sure there are some things that are outrageous compared to home. But for the most part - if you stay out of the mega resorts bars, and shop smartly, there is not a huge difference. Gas on the street is $4.55 currently, but only $4.19 at Costco, We have found that produce in the grocery stores is higher (3.99 for a head of iceberg lettuce) - but there are farmers markets all over where the prices are normal. It just necessitates dispersing your shopping between 3-4 places rather then just running down to King Soopers for everything.

So far we have traveled up and down the entire west coast of the Big Island from North to South tip, exploring various beaches, restaurants and bars. Highlights include '69' beach - named thusly due to being across from the 69 mile marker. We also met a great couple in our complex, Debbie and Todd, who introduced us to the Kona Brew Pub. - Needless to say the Kona Coffee Porter is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!. I had to buy a two liter growler to take home, but it did not last long. - Thank goodness it is re-fillable!

We did experience a bit of a scare last night - well, Colleen did anyhow, as we discovered this little critter cursing across our bedroom floor. Apparently these centipedes are pretty common in Hawaii and can provide a vastly little bite - equivalent to a bee sting, if you don't check your shoes before you put them on. The Hawaiian people say it can feel like a gun shot… I hope not - lets try to avoid that particular experience. Our new little friend - a four inch wily little sucker that was VERY quick if I might say so myself, has been safely deposited in the bushes WAY down the block.

Colleen is a little homesick after ten days - but mostly for our stuff. We are in a vacation condo, still driving a rental car until Jethro the Jeep arrives next week. Its harder then we thought hanging out on 'someone else's' couch and sleeping in someone else's bed. It just feels like vacation. We may have to think again about bringing a shipping container here. We both miss our big bed and a comfy couch that you can sprawl out on. - Home appears to be where your stuff is - and although we are here - our stuff is still in a storage shed in CO. - Don't get me wrong. We're not headed back anytime soon! - but I also miss being able to cook with some decent kitchen equipment. More than I thought I would.

On a very positive note, Colleen and I were meandering down the main street on our second or third day here, and of corse we had to go into the Wyland gallery. Those who have been to our house know he is one of our favorite artists and we have 6 or 7 pieces from him. Colleen was resistant, because when ever we hit a Wyland gallery - we usually end up spending a bunch of time there, and walk out with something expensive. She did not want to get piece number 8. Well as it turned out, we did spend a fair bit of time in the place, chatting with the gallery director, a very nice lady named Jill, who in the end, offered Colleen an job!

The plan was not to work for the first few months, but if something falls in our lap - especially something fun and new like a gallery job - you can't pass it up. Colleen goes back for an official interview today. Wish her luck! I still have to work through my reciprocity with the state, in order to practice here. That should take about 90-120 days. Most everyone we have spoken to tells us getting a healthcare job on the island should not be a problem for me once thats complete, as the island is short staffed. Meanwhile I will likely volunteer for an organization I found that is working to deal with the feral cat population on the island. - its a pretty big problem here with several colonies in the resort areas as well as up on Mouna Kea.

This weekend we will likely head over to the Hilo side for some more exploration. There is just so much to explore and do - however much of it requires a four wheel drive. Jethro can't get here soon enough.  The vehicle tracking page that the shipping provider has, says he is currently over in Honolulu and will be on the big island in a few days. I hope his trip was uneventful across the pacific. - He's and island jeep now!

Well - thats enough for now on this rainy Kona morning. As always, more photo journal below.

Aloha!

I liked this pic of some lava from 69 beach - if you look, it appears to be a dragons head resting on the sand.

Hanging out on 69 beach. - still can't pry that iPhone from my hands…..

Headed up the side of Mauna Loa looking back at the Kona coast

Looking out over the Pololu coast on the north side of the island

The foggy Pololu valley

Pano of the whole area. I love this iPhone feature.

These guys were parked out right on the side of the road right at the end of the trail head for Pololu valley - waiting for passers by to bring them an apple

At the beach near Hawi, several locals had just come in from and afternoon fishing on their jet skis. Colleen took picktue of this 'little' fish they caught.

Just hanging out of for the day at Honl's beach. This is the one directly below our condo and is about a 2 minute walk.

Honl's beach again - I got in trouble for taking this picture…..

It would not be a Hawaii blog post without the obligatory sunset shot.

This was our view from the restaurant lanai at the Mauna Lani resort - where the expensive drinks are….

Hard to complain when this is what I have done for the last 10 days…. but as I re-read this blog post - it appears i'll find a way!

Kona - Our new home!

A few days ago I was actively bitching about moving out of Colorado in a blizzard. Well - it was all worth it! - I still can't believe we actually live here now and I feel truly blessed. We have been 'on island' for a little more than 48 hours now. When we arrived, we had nothing but our five (yes 5) suitcases and a couple of carry-on bags, so yesterday we spent the day at Costco, Wal-Mart and the local market stocking up on food, shampoo and all the normal household items we could not drag with us. 

Of note: - This was our first jaunt on Hawaiian Air and I would highly recommend them. All of the staff, from the counter folks in LA to the Flight Attendants and even the baggage claim folks are so polite. Its like they know they live in paradise and it has infected their soles to the core. Fantastic customer service.

When we arrived, our condo was everything we expected and more. It has a fantastic view and is just a short walk from a small beach as well as the main restaurant and shopping strip on Ali'i Drive. We've spent the last two days getting our island legs and exploring our immediate surroundings. Today we also jumped in our rental (Jethro the Jeep should arrive in about two weeks) and headed South.

Here is the first set of photos from the last couple of days.

This is our little condo building on Ali'i Drive

Here is what it looks like inside

This is the kitchen

This is the view from our lanai. I woke up the first night to the sound of waves crashing in the distance - very cool.

This was our sunset tonight.

This is the little beach that is just across the road from our complex. Yesterday there was a cruise ship, the Pride of America, in port. Ironically that is the ship Colleen and I were on in April 2011 for our 20th anniversary and was when we fell in love with this island. We mentioned 'someday we should move here' then - now we do! - I still can't believe it.

This is another view

The street is lined with amazing colors and flowers

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These are the little flowers that Colleen wears in her hair. She has some plastic ones we bought when we were here before. they grow in the tops of trees and the real ones look and feel just like the plastic ones - or vice versa.

This is one of the bar's across the street from our condo.

Lots of little black crabs and small blow holes in the surf

Today we headed South to the Captain Cook monument. Great snorkeling and beautiful water here.

no beach here but cool surf.

Next stop was Pu'uhonua O Honaunau beach

Again, not a lot of beach here, but lots of people laying out on the lava rocks and snorkeling. We saw a pod of 20-30 spinner dolphins.

One of the cool things is the tidal pools formed at low tide. they usually have a bunch of little fish in them - trapped there until the next high tide.

Next stop a little further South was Hookena Beach Park. This was a neet little black sand beach that you can camp on. Half the beach was filled with tents and the black sand was seriously H-O-T.

Colleen on the beach

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Aloha to all my mainland peeps.

Then its Southbound again to the southern most tip of the USA (no it is not on Key West!) Along the way we passed this cool windmill farm.

Clearly it is very VERY windy on this part of the island as attested to by this tree. It was very interesting driving through the different climate zones as we headed south. Tropical, dry, Vog, Lava field, then tropical again. Someone told us today that there are 14 different climate zones in the world, and the Big island has 11 of them.

Once at the southern tip of th island, the cliffs were amazing.

The water here is turquoise blue.

someone spent some time carving this into the cliff. iEach letter was about four feet high.

There was a big blow hole here that some guy jumped into while it was full.

Then it drained and he swam out the tunnel to the ocean.

There were several canoes in the water and these little frames have pulleys on them so that they can be raised and lowered in tot he water. The cliffs here are probably 40 feet high.

Looking down from one of them, there is a ladder that stretches into the water. This whole area reminds me of a computer game I love called URU, one of the Myst series. Surreal cliffs and amazing color water.

anyone want to jump?

Thats it for now… more exploring to come.

Goodbye Colorado - thanks for the sendoff!

This last week has been quite a challenge. For those following along, we are in the process of moving to Hawaii. We have been busy packing and purging stuff and had planned to have a big garage sale to get rid of years of accumulated household junk. Colorado, however, had a different plan. Having lived here all of our lives, we should have known better then to try to plan a move for the end of February. Needless to say because of the cold snap, all the garage sale stuff went to goodwill instead. We got ourselves all packed up and ready to rent the truck because we had additional help last Sunday. - Of course, we ended up with six inches of snow….

With not much choice, we rented the truck anyway, and started loading it about 9am. By the time we hit storage at about 1, we were in a full fledged blizzard. - we got it done, and a huge thank you to Josh - and my Daughters boyfriend Michael for putting up with miserable conditions to try to load a storage shed. When we finally finished about 3;30 - the icing on the cake was getting the U-Haul truck stuck in a drift at the storage facility lot. - 

Thank god I had a good Jeep and a tow rope. We pulled it out - and fishtailed the empty truck back to U-Haul all the way down Buckley road.

Thursday morning we pulled out of Denver headed west. - A beautiful Colorado day with bright sunshine. - until we hit I-70 at Floyd hill. Road construction and one lane traffic intermittently all the way to the tunnel let us crawl at 15 miles per hour.

I'm not sure if Colorado was trying to tell us not to go - or just giving us a memorable sendoff…. 

We love you Colorado - but we won't be missing the snow and traffic anytime soon!