Kona Coffee
Anyone who knows a great cup of coffee knows the name Kona. Growing the beans on the hills of Mount Hualalai, which is located in Hawaii’s Kona District, produces this premium coffee.
Kona coffee has been cultivated for about 200 years. It became a commercial crop in the 1830s. The late 1800s saw another strain, Guatemalan Arabica coffee, being introduced to the industry. It eventually became referred to as Melikan Koppe, which translates to American coffee. Oddly, this strain is now preferred and the predominate strain that Kona cultivates today.
There are two varieties of Kona beans: Type 1 and Type 2. Type one beans mean that are two beans in each cherry, while Type 2 means there is only one bean in each cherry. There is different grading for each. With Type 1, the grades are Kona Fancy, Kona Extra Fancy, Kona Prime, and Kona Number 1. Type 2’s grades are Peaberry Prime and Peaberry.
Kona coffee beans are considered to be seeds, which, most of the time, are referred to as cherries since they so closely resemble the fruit. This coffee cherry is actually a sweet and pulpy fruit that changes to a lovely red when it is ripe. This fruit harbors two seeds, which are actually the coffee beans. It takes a whopping eight bags of this fruit to produce only one bag of scrumptious, roasted Kona coffee.
Kona is sold worldwide as bulk coffee and is often found in its natural, green, unroasted form. Surprisingly, Kona coffee is even used often to flavor crops grown in other parts of the world and is marketed as Kona blends. But, just because it says Kona, doesn’t mean you are getting a genuine Kona product. Legally, a blend must only contain a mere one Kona coffee bean, although in Hawaii it has to be 10 percent Kona. To find a true Kona product, look for a label that says it is 100 percent.