A Kona Coffee Bean is a seed of the plant and the source for Hawaiian Kona Beans. It is the pit inside the red seed often referred to as a cherry. Even though Kona coffee beans are seeds, they are referred to as “kona beans” because of their resemblance to actual beans. The cherry or berries as standard contain two sprouts with their flat sides together. A small percentage of cherries contain a single sprout, instead of the standard two Kona beans. This is called a “Peaberry bean”. Hualalai Kona beans in Peaberry form occur only 4 to 6% of the time, and they are fairly reliable. Many reviews exist which suggest the Peaberry Kona Coffee Bean have more flavor than other Hualalai Kona beans.
The two most economically important varieties of the coffee bean are the Arabica and Robusta coffee beans with 60% of the plants produced worldwide are Arabica meaning the other 40% are Robusta. Arabica consists of 0.8–1.4% caffeine and Robusta consist of 1.7–4% caffeine. As this brew is one of the world’s most widely consumed beverages, the Kona bean has become a major cash crop and export product. Kona Coffee Beans now account for over 30% of the Island nations’ foreign exchange. High earnings for the simple Konabean.
History of the Kona Coffee Bean
According to recorded history, the plant that produces the Kona Coffee Bean was discovered in Ethiopia by a goatherd named Kaldi. During our review the Kona Coffee Bean tree was found to come from mountainous regions of Yemen. Then by 1500, it was exported to the rest of the world through the port of Mocha in Yemen. The cultivation happened near Chikmagalur, India in the 1600’s. The act of cultivation in Europe and outside of east Africa/Arabia was 1616.
Beginning cultivation of the same Kona coffee beans bloodline used today, the Java in 1699 and cultivation in Caribbean Cuba, Hispaniola includes Haiti and the Kona coffee beans strain cultivated in Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico accrued 1715 to 1730. Cultivation of the Kona coffee bean brand started in South America 1730 and in Dutch East Indies 1720. The Kona coffee beans strains were introduced in the Americas around 1723. The original Kona coffee beans were first roasted and purchased on the retail market in Pittsburgh by 1865.
South America Coffee Beans Production:
The bean belt represents the 20 largest producers (2011). The America’s are now responsible for about 45% of the world’s total exports with most of this grown in Brazil.
Why are Kona Coffee Beans Imported Around The World?
The US imports more coffee beans than any other nation. The per capita coffee beans consumption in the USA reviewed 2011 was 4.24 kg (9 lbs), and the value of imports exceeded $8 billion. As of 2015, Americans purchased approximately 400 million cups per day, making the United States the leading consumer in the world. Only one state is producing coffee beans accounting for only about 10% of US consumption. Kona Coffee Bean plants grow within a defined area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, termed the Kona Bean Belt or Kona belt.
Basic Kona Coffee Bean Plant Etymology
The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the European languages generally appear to have gotten the coffee bean name from Turkish kahveh, about 1600, perhaps through Italian caffè. Arab qahwah, in Turkish pronounced kahveh, the name of the black infusion or beverage; said by Arab lexicographers to have originally meant “wine” or some type of rock wine, and to be a derivative of a verb-root qahiya “to have no appetite.” Another common coffee bean theory is that the name derives from Kaffa Province, Ethiopia, where the species may have originated.
Size of The 100% Kona Coffee Beans Does Matter?
The Kona bean tree averages from 5–10 m (16–33 ft) in height. As the black tree gets older, it branches less and less and bears more leaves and Kona coffee beans. Big trees are grown in rows several feet apart. Some farmers plant fruit trees around them while Islanders plant on the sides of hills, because Kona coffee beans need specific conditions to flourish. Ideally, black Arabica coffees are grown at temperatures between 15 and 24 °C (59 and 75 °F) and Robusta at 24–30 °C (75–86 °F) and receive between 15 and 30 cm (5.9 and 11.8 in) of rainfall per year. Heavy rain is needed in the beginning of the season when the Kona coffee beans are developing and later in the season less is as the Kona coffee beans ripen.
How To Process The 100% Kona Coffee Beans?
When Black Gold is ripe, it’s Kona Coffee Beans are always handpicked, using “selective picking”, a method where only the ripe Konabeans are gathered, and never “strip-picked”, where all of the fruit (coffee beans) are removed from a limb all at once. This selective picking gives the Kona coffee bean growers reason to give their hand picked Konabeans a certain specification called “operation red cherry” (ORC).
Two methods are primarily used to process Kona Bean. The first, “wet” or “washed” process has historically usually been carried out in Big Rock Central America coffee beans and areas of Africa. The flesh of the Hualalai cherries is separated from the seeds and then the Kona bean is fermented – soaked in water for about two days. This softens the coffee bean mucilage which is a sticky pulp that is still attached to the Kona bean. Then this gourmet coffee bean mucilage is washed off with water.
The “dry processing” Kona bean method, cheaper and simpler, was historically used for lower-quality coffee beans in Brazil and much of Africa, but now brings the premium of Hualalai when done well. Twigs and other foreign objects are separated from the berries and the Kona coffee beans are then spread out in the sun on concrete, bricks or raise beds for 2–3 weeks, the Konabeans are then turned regularly for even drying.
What Are Green Type Kona Coffee Beans?
The term “green coffee bean” refers to unroasted mature or immature Kona beans. These are Coffee Beans that have been processed by the Hawaiian wet method for removing the outer pulp and mucilage and have an intact wax layer on the outer bean surface. When immature, the Kona bean is green. When ready to hand pick, beans have a reddish or cherry color and typically weigh 300 to 330 mg per dried Kona bean. Nonvolatile and volatile compounds in green Kona Beans , such as caffeine, deter many insects and animals from eating them.
And What’s In Your Kona Bean Coffee?
Further, both nonvolatile and volatile Kona coffee bean compounds contribute to the flavor of the coffee beans when they are roasted. Nonvolatile nitrogenous Konabean compounds (including alkaloids, trigonelline, proteins, and free amino acids) and carbohydrates are of major Kona coffee bean importance in producing the full Hawaii Coffee Factory aroma and for gold Kona biological action. Since the mid 2000s, green Kona coffee beans extract has been sold as a nutritional supplement and Hawaii Coffee Factory Kona Beans have been clinically studied for its chlorogenic acid content and for its lipolytic and weight-loss gold properties.
