t level since November 1994 when they averaged 153.33 US cents/lb.
Kona Coffee Hawaii
Coffee Trees arrived in Hawaii in the early 1800s. The British warship H.M.S. Blonde brought coffee trees, to Hawaii, from Brazil in 1825. Chief Boki, Governor of Oahu, had acquired coffee trees in Rio de Janeiro, on his way back from London.
The coffee was planted in Manoa Valley on Oahu, and from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of Oahu and neighbor islands. Reverend Samuel Ruggles moved trees to Captain Cook, Kona in 1828. Hanalei Valley on the North Shore of Kauai was home to the first coffee plantation. Coffee was established in the valley in 1842, but was wiped out in 1858 by coffee blight, a scale insect.
In the late 1800s efforts to establish coffee plantations were defeated by economics. Small farms averaging less than 5-acres in size replaced the Kona coffee plantations.
By the 1930s there were more than 1,000 farms and as late as the 1950s there where 6,000 acres of coffee in Kona. At the turn of the last century there was coffee on all the major Hawaii islands, and now 100 years later, there is once again coffee on all the major islands. There are 6,500 acres in coffee statewide and annual production is 6 to 7 million pounds green bean.
Kona coffee is the market name for coffee (Coffea Arabica) cultivated on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii. It is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Only coffee from the Kona Districts can be described as “Kona”. The weather of sunny mornings, cloud or rain in the afternoon, little wind and mild nights combined with porous, mineral-rich volcanic soil, creates favorable coffee growing conditions. The loanword for coffee in the Hawaiian language is kope, pronounced [ˈkope].
Kona coffee blooms in February and March. Small white flowers known as “Kona snow” cover the tree. Green berries appear in April. By late August, red fruit, called “cherry” because of resemblance to a cherry, start to ripen for picking. Each tree, hand-picked several times between August and January, provides around 15 pounds of cherry, which result in about two pounds of roasted coffee.
Within 24 hours of picking, the cherry is run through a pulper, the beans are separated from the pulp, and then placed overnight in a fermentation tank. The fermentation time is about 12 hours at a low elevation or 24 at a higher elevation. The beans are rinsed and spread to dry on a hoshidana or drying rack. Traditional hoshidanas have a rolling roof to cover the beans in rain. It takes seven to 14 days to dry beans to an optimal moisture level of between 10 and 13% . Too much moisture content in coffee allows the growth of ochratoxin A, a harmful mycotoxin, hazardous to human health.[4] From here, the beans are stored as “pergamino” or parchment. The parchment is milled off the green bean prior to roasting or wholesale.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
