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Ah, Hawaii... what a nice place. They grow nuts, fruit, and coffee. The coffee is expensive. It is mild (sometimes too mild) or it can be wonderful! It can be terrible and flat. The best coffees cost a lot ...the worst cost way too much. So the goal with Hawaiians is to quit thinking that all Hawaiian coffee is good, and to realize that only a handful of coffees deserve the high price in terms of cup quality (you can easily argue that all deserve a high price in terms of the care and labor expended in producing them). And frankly, you must pay quite a bit for the truly great small-farm Kona.

In terms of the other islands, and quality coffee production, there is little positive to say at this writing. We had occasionally offered coffees from Maui, Molokai, and Kauai. But these are not grown like true small-farm Estate grade Kona coffees, nor do they taste like them. Kona isn't grown at impressive altitudes compared to other coffee origins, but on Maui and Kauai, coffee is grown at exceptionally low elevations. Also, most Kona is a special cultivar, Kona Typica, a traditional varietal that cannot be grown at low elevations. Recently, we found out that Ka'u coffees have come a long way, and the lots from Will and Grace Tabios' farm are excellent. So Ka'u is a region with soild quality potential.

In a historical sense, coffees like Kona are the pinnacle of a particular definition of what "good coffee" is ... clean, pleasant, mild, good aftertaste. This is a notion of "good coffee" handed down from a time when low-grade coffee was called Brazil Rio and it had a seriously foul, dirty taste (so distinctly awful it is still called Rioy in defective coffee terminology). The best coffees were considered the polar opposite; island coffees -- mild, delicate and clean. Certain Specialty Coffees we now appreciate as intense and desirable cups, Yemeni coffees, Ethiopian Harar, Dry-processed Sumatras for example, would be considered terrible in this definition. If you love these intense coffees, Kona may seem too light, too simple, too mild. The even scores in the mid-80s indicate balance and solid quality. Consider this when you cup Kona coffees.

More Kona Coffee History and Information | Kona Cupping 2004 | Kona Cupping 2005 | Kona Coffee Festival web site