Kona Coffee (Honokaa, Kaanapali: buying, costs, trains)

[mom2max]

What roaster sells the best Kona Coffee?

[whynot?]

I like Langenstein Farms, but there are -- like -- 600 growers on the BI, and many of them have great coffee! (Have to put a plug for Maui's Kaanapali Coffee Farms, too! I know you didn't ask about Maui, but their Moka is really outstanding.)

[hotzcatz]

Longear's Hamakua coffee is better than Kona coffee. He's in Honokaa town and the Ahualoa area. Long Ears Hawaiian Coffee - Aged Single Estate Gourmet Coffee from the Big Island of Hawaii

Before sugar was around, there was coffee grown all over the island of Hawaii. Once sugar was established the fertile windward fields of coffee were put into sugar production. The rocky steep slopes of Kona couldn't grow sugar so they stayed in coffee. There are still a few stands of coffee in the Hamakua gulches from when this whole area was coffee and the beans from this side are never bitter. If you can find it, Hamakua coffee is better than Kona coffee. There isn't a lot of it around, though. Also the trees here are almost exclusively the old Guatemalan strains which have a better bean but don't produce as much. A lot of the Kona crops have been switched over to a different strain of coffee which isn't quite as good, but is more prolific. Not that Kona isn't bad coffee, but Hamakua is better, IMHO.

[Jungjohann]

Your best bet is to buy your own coffee roaster, and roast your own!!! Light, medium, French, Espresso, it'a all up to you. Buy a grinder as well.. you'ld be amazed at the varieties of coffee out there, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Sumatran, Costa Rican, as well as the Hawaiian beans. Best thing is that green beans are far cheaper than anything else out there, and, if stored properly, actually improve with age. I've never really cared for Kona coffee.

Aloha and okolemaluna

[Huckleberry3911948]

dont know but i am about to go off on coffee bean buying frenzy
this time i will go for variety.

[treedonkey]

Kona Earth

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Longear's Hamakua coffee is better than Kona coffee. He's in Honokaa town and the Ahualoa area. Long Ears Hawaiian Coffee - Aged Single Estate Gourmet Coffee from the Big Island of Hawaii

Before sugar was around, there was coffee grown all over the island of Hawaii. Once sugar was established the fertile windward fields of coffee were put into sugar production. The rocky steep slopes of Kona couldn't grow sugar so they stayed in coffee. There are still a few stands of coffee in the Hamakua gulches from when this whole area was coffee and the beans from this side are never bitter. If you can find it, Hamakua coffee is better than Kona coffee. There isn't a lot of it around, though. Also the trees here are almost exclusively the old Guatemalan strains which have a better bean but don't produce as much. A lot of the Kona crops have been switched over to a different strain of coffee which isn't quite as good, but is more prolific. Not that Kona isn't bad coffee, but Hamakua is better, IMHO.

Some would say that Sharky's Puna coffee is the better than Kona coffee and Hamakua coffee.

[hotzcatz]

I haven't tried any Puna coffee, maybe I'll swap some beans with someone from there and see how they are. The name "Sharky's" just doesn't sound all that tasty, it sounds sorta like it would have a bite to it, but it's just a name, I guess. For that matter, "Long Ears" isn't all that tasty sounding of a name, either!

Kona coffee does have the most merchandising and brand name recognition. Costs more, too, so maybe advertising is worthwhile.