ABOUT THE GROWING REGION OF KONA
The legendary Kona coffee flavor profile has captured the imagination of coffee drinkers worldwide since the 1800s. Kona has a reputation for smooth, mild acidity, lemon, apple, and tea-like notes, with a rich but delicate body.
With more than 800 individual farms, Kona is by far the largest growing region in the islands. The steep slopes and rocky terrain of the Kona coast almost prevented much of the large-scale conversion to sugarcane that halted coffee production in other Hawaii growing regions, which means Kona has remained a continuous coffee producing region since the mid-1800s.
Today Kona is experiencing a coffee renaissance. Traditionally, Kona coffee farmers have sold fresh coffee cherries to large mills which aggregate many farms into a single homogenized commodity product. This practice is beginning to give way as more and more farmers are participating in the Specialty coffee market and maintaining ownership of their coffee through the entire production cycle from planting to processing, roasting, and even preparing the coffee in their own cafes. With this turn toward Specialty production methods in the last ten to fifteen years, Kona has seen a dramatic increase in the overall quality of coffee being produced in the region.