For the past 70 million years or so, a volcanic hot spot located in the middle
of the Pacific Ocean has created an archipelago that extends for over 3000
miles. The Pacific tectonic plate moves northwest at approximately 2-3
inches per year while the hot spot is stationary. This is why the
islands appear in a chain with the newest islands to the southeast. New
land is still being created today by the Kilauea volcano. There is even
a new island being created, Lo'ihi, which will probably surface in a few tens
of thousands of years.
The state of Hawaii extends for over 1500 miles and contains 132
islands, reefs and shoals. This map shows the eight most popular
islands. 72% of the state's population is located in Honolulu on
the island of Oahu. Hawaii, the "Big Island", contains only 12%
of the state's population. It's very confusing that the state of
Hawaii also contains an island called Hawaii but most of the people
don't live there.
The big island has two main cities, Hilo and Kailua-Kona. Hilo is
an industrial city on the east side of the island. Kailua-Kona
is on the west side of the island and is a popular tourist
destination. To further confuse things, Kailua is the actual name
of the city while Kona refers to the entire district. There
is another city named Kailua on the island of O'ahu so the Kailua on
the island of Hawaii is called Kailua-Kona, or sometimes just Kona.
If you ask your computer for a map you'll probably need to specify
Kailua-Kona, using the hyphen.
Besides the Ironman, Kona is
also quite well known for its premium coffee. The Kona coffee district
extends along the southwest edge of the island of Hawaii on the slopes of
Hualalai
and Mauna Loa
volcanoes (yes, we live on an "active" volcano). The
entire Kona coffee district is approximately 30 miles long
and only a mile wide with an elevation range of 700 to 2000
feet. Only coffee grown in this region can be called Kona
coffee. Of the 3 billion pounds of coffee consumed in the United
States each year, less than 0.3% comes from the approximately 650 Kona
coffee farms. The limited supply creates a higher demand for
this special coffee.
What makes Kona coffee so special? It starts with the climate.
Good coffee requires very specific conditions. Coffee trees prefer
temperatures between 59° and 73°F so they can't be grown anywhere that
freezes in the winter and in hotter tropical regions coffee is often
grown in the shade of larger trees to avoid the searing tropical sun.
Coffee trees also like lots of water, about 60-85 inches per year, but it's
best if there is a short dry period in the winter to allow the trees to go
semi-dormant followed by consistent rainfall throughout the productive
summer months. Many warmer climates have wet winters and hot dry
summers, the opposite of what coffee needs. Kona has the perfect
annual rainfall pattern. Coffee trees are also picky about their soil,
growing best in the rich, well drained volcanic soil found in Kona.
Being on the leeward side of the Hualalai volcano, our coffee farm is perfectly
suited for Kona coffee trees.
The average Kona coffee farm is between 3 and 7 acres. At 13 acres,
our farm is larger than most. Even with 13 acres, all our coffee
is still hand picked. A mechanical harvester can cost well over
$100,000 and is only practical when harvesting hundreds of acres at a
time. More importantly, hand picking helps maintain a quality that
the giant industrial farms give up in favor of quantity. The high
quality and relatively small supply of Kona coffee creates a strong demand.
With such a small supply but high demand for Kona coffee, many manufacturers
have resorted to selling "Kona Blend" coffees. Don't be fooled! Kona
Blend is only required to have 10% Kona coffee, the other 90% is cheap filler
beans. One pound of prime rib mixed with nine pounds of hamburger does
not make ten pounds of prime rib. So your coffee is not Kona coffee unless
it is 100% Kona coffee.
A pound of roasted Kona coffee currently sells for about $30. If
that seems expensive, consider all the labor involved. An acre of
mature, well cared for coffee trees can produce approximately 10,000 pounds
of cherry per year while a good picker can only pick a hundred or so pounds
of cherry per day. It requires several pickers several days to
finish one round of picking. Since the cherries don't all ripen
at the same time, there can be four to eight rounds of harvesting in a
single season. Furthermore, it requires five pounds of ripe
cherry to produce a single pound of dried coffee bean. Besides
picking, the coffee also has to be pulped, dried, hulled, roasted, shipped
and don't forget all the pruning, weeding and other care the trees
require. All that work for a mere $30. But if you still think
Kona coffee is expensive, consider Indonesia's Kopi Luwak coffee, it's
beans must first be eaten and excreted by a small
civet cat
before being collected off the ground and sold for over $100 per pound.
Compared to that, Kona coffee is a bargain.
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Have you ever dreamed of quitting your high pressure job, leaving the city and
moving to a tropical island? The Strawn family actually did it.
Their Kona coffee farm is an estate farm which means the coffee is in their
direct control from planting to packaging. Visit www.KonaEarth.com
to see pictures, read about life on the farm and have some fresh 100% Kona
coffee shipped directly to you.
