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100% Kona Coffee What makes Kona coffee so special?
Kona Coffee is the market name for a variety of gourmet coffee of Guatemalan origin, Coffea Arabica, or Kona Typica, as it is called here. This coffee is cultivated on the slopes of two volcanoes, Mount Hualali and Mauna Loa, in the North and South Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii. Coffee is successfully grown in only a limited number of locations around the world because it requires a very specific combination of soil, sun, and water. Kona’s rich volcanic soil, bright sunny mornings, natural cloud cover, ample rainfall, and mild temperatures provide perfect growing conditions for coffee. Our Kona Coffee Belt is the only place in the world that grows fine gourmet American coffee and is only two miles wide and 20 miles long, ranging from 500 to 2000 feet elevation.
Our eleven-acre farm is one of over 650 small family farms in the Kona Coffee Belt, producing quality Kona coffee on over 3500 acres total. For the dedicated farmers who have chosen this life, coffee cultivation is very labor-intensive. Everything must be done by hand to ensure the extra care that the subtle and delicate Kona Arabica coffee bean requires. This tremendous extra care is what distinguishes 100% Kona Coffee from lesser coffees, much like a fine vintage wine. Also, like French wines, use of the name “100% Kona Coffee” is restricted by Hawaii state law to the highly prized specialty coffee grown in Kona.
 The high quality and limited supply of Kona coffee creates a strong demand. In the entire world, Kona coffee production represents only .1% of worldwide coffee production. But because of its full body, distinctive mellow taste, low acidity, and rich aroma, Kona coffee has become recognized for its excellence throughout the world. We sincerely hope you enjoy our 100% Kona Coffee as well. Order Sweet Spirit Farms coffee today and find out just why Kona Coffee is so special. Mahalo.
History of Kona coffee
Kona’s coffee history is as rich as the coffee brew itself. King Kamehameha II and his wife made a visit to England in 1825. The royal party became ill with measles, and both the King and Queen died. While bringing back the bodies to Hawai`i, a member of the party stopped in Rio de Janiero to pick up some coffee plants. This became the first planting stock for the Hawaiian Islands. Coffee was introduced to Kona for the first time in 1828 as an ornamental plant by an American missionary, Reverend Samuel Ruggles. The trees flourished and before long coffee plantations were being established on the mountain slopes. However, it wasn’t until much later in the century that Kona coffee became a consistent and worthwhile crop.
In 1899 the world coffee market bottomed out, and most of the operations folded. This is when Japanese immigrants came in and homesteaded plots of a few acres to farm and produce coffee on a small scale. Between 1900 and 1945 donkeys were used as basic transportation in Kona, especially during harvest time, hauling 100-pound bags of ripe coffee cherry out of the rugged coffee lands up or down the main road to the coffee mills. They were named “Kona Nightingales” because of their musical braying, and the noble donkey will always be known in Kona for its vital role in the Kona coffee industry.
Farming coffee is definitely a labor of love, since time and technological advances haven’t changed much about the way things are done to grow coffee here. There have also been some trying times in the past ten years for Kona coffee farmers due to major price fluctuations and conflicts with some processors blending Kona coffee with inferior beans and still calling it “Kona coffee”. With the small supply and high demand for Kona coffee, many manufacturers resort to selling “Kona Blend” coffees rather than 100% Kona Coffee. Visit Sweet Links to read the Hawaii Island Journal article "Keeping It Kona".
The 100% Truth about 100% Kona Coffee
*Only 2 million pounds of coffee per year are actually grown in the Kona District of Hawaii. (The only place in the world where famous Kona coffee is cultivated.)
*Over 20 million pounds of coffee per year are sold with a label of “Kona” coffee. That means many millions of pounds are some mysterious BLEND using a mix of foreign beans, usually unidentified, resulting in an inferior coffee containing 10% or even less of actual Kona coffee.
*Generally, estate grown coffees are of the highest quality. If you want to discover the finest coffees available, it helps to shop carefully and purchase directly from the producing farm. Estate farms only sell their own coffee, and only sell 100% Kona Coffee. You will know exactly where it came from and what you’re getting. Sweet Spirit Farms is a registered Estate Farm and we guarantee to you that the coffee you receive from us is only pure Kona coffee.
*Remember: If it’s not 100%, it’s not Kona Coffee. Look for the Seal of Approval on the coffee before you purchase. You get what you pay for. Guarantee yourself a true gourmet cup of coffee and taste the difference!
From our seedling to your cup (with a whole lot of in-between)
Kona coffee beans are planted in a seed flat and in 6 to 8 weeks the seeds germinate and the sprouts are transferred to one-gallon plastic bags filled with a special nursery mix of black cinder (lava rock) and compost from macadamia nut husks. These seedlings are what we call our coffee keiki (keiki means baby or sprout in Hawaiian) and they are tended carefully in our nursery for 12 to 14 months. When they are about 24” tall, the keiki are permanently transplanted in the coffee field. Some of the holes are dug manually with a pickaxe or shovel, if there’s enough soil. Many of the holes have to be dug with a tractor and rotary hoe to break up the lava so the plant roots will have somewhere to go.
 Some trees can produce coffee fruit within just one year, all the trees will produce some fruit within two years, and in five years they will be mature. One mature tree will typically be able to produce a finished product of 1½ to 2 pounds of roasted coffee per year and coffee trees can last as long as 100 years. We have planted 500 to 600 trees per acre at Sweet Spirit Farms.
The coffee trees are shaped for efficient growth and future production by pruning using scientific practices. Trees must also be fertilized and weeds controlled. All of this caretaking is done by hand. We installed drip irrigation on our farm as a backup system in times of inadequate rainfall. A 20,000 gallon catchment tank catches rainwater from the metal roof of our house to store for use on our farm. With only one inch of rain a roof with 1000 square foot of surface will create 650 gallons of water. It’s great free water!
Summer is the rainy season here at our location. In the drier winter months, the buds are developing on the coffee trees. About two weeks after the first soaking rain in late February or March, the buds burst into bloom and the coffee trees are covered with fragrant white blossoms that look like light snow. Being Colorado natives, we think we like this “snow” a little better than the real thing. Plus everywhere we see Kona Snow, we know there will be coffee to follow! There are usually 3 to 4 blossomings and each bloom of flowers produces another batch of coffee cherry that ripens later in the year.
 In April, green berries begin to appear on the trees, eventually turning yellow to orange and by late August, red fruit called “cherry” (for obvious reasons) is starting to ripen for picking. Each tree will be handpicked many times between August and December, providing approximately 20 pounds of cherry per tree. Many of the trees can have new flowers, immature green beans, and ripe red cherries all at once. Picking is a very meticulous process that ensures that only cherries at peak maturity are harvested. Professional pickers can pick between 200 and 400 pounds a day.
The coffee cherry must be run through a pulper within 24 hours of picking to ensure peak flavor. This separates the actual coffee beans (normally two in each cherry) from the red outer skin and fleshy pulp. The beans are then placed in a fermentation tank overnight. This allows natural enzymes to break down the sweet layer of sugar that envelops the bean. After a final water bath, the beans are set out on an open-air deck and turned continuously to dry from the sun. It can take a minimum of a week or two to dry completely. At this stage, the coffee beans are called parchment and can be stored very successfully for a year or so. A few months of storage in a cool, dry place can actually help age the coffee, just like wine. For every 100 pounds of cherry that is picked, we are left with 78 pounds of pulp and only 23 pounds of parchment.
Before the parchment can be roasted, it must go through yet another process called milling. This removes the stiff parchment skin covering the beans,  and then polishes each bean to remove the last protective layer called silver skin. The green bean can be graded depending on size, moisture content, purity of bean type and size. The coffee beans must meet the minimum quality standards set by the USDA to be exported or sold as Kona coffee. Finally, the green bean is ready for roasting. After roasting, the 100 lbs. of cherry that resulted in 22 lbs. of parchment will end up as 15 lbs. of roasted coffee ready for brewing.
Roasting unlocks the flavor and aroma we know as coffee. An estate roast combines the full range of flavors from the harvest, resulting in a coffee that carries the unique stamp of the Kona region – rich flavor, exceptional aroma, smooth taste and delicate acidity – a coffee that can be brewed strong to bring out its flavor without bitterness. Sweet Spirit Farms offers both a medium roast and a dark roast, depending on your individual taste. Our Medium Roast enhances the delicate fruity taste that Kona is known for around the world. It tends to be more toward a medium/dark (often called Full City) to bring out the best in Kona coffee. The beans are a beautiful full brown color that look good 
enough to eat. Our Dark Roast is for coffee lovers that like a richer, more smoky flavor and maximum body and strength. These beans are roasted to a very dark brown and glisten from surface oils.
Our whole bean gourmet coffee is packaged immediately after roasting to ensure freshness. Our protective foil coffee bags are opaque and have one-way valves to maintain peak freshness by keeping out oxygen and light. They can also be zip-locked after opening to remain airtight for storing. Ground coffee will not stay fresh nearly as long as whole bean so it's best not to grind until you’re ready to brew. Use good fresh water (ideally cold) for your coffee when brewing. Don’t let your coffee sit too long; freshly brewed is always best. Now that we’ve taken you from seedling to cup, we hope you’re ready to order your own Sweet Spirit Farms 100% Kona Coffee. It is incredibly delicious and with the first sip, you’ll be transported to Hawaii with the spirit of paradise and aloha.
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