The Secrets of the Hawaiian Coffee Production

From the time the Hawaiian coffee plants blossom to when the coffee is brewed by the consumer, the production process includes rigorous quality control measures to ensure buyers that every cup they enjoy contains the finest and highest quality ingredients and is truly worthy of the Kona coffee label. Just like many fruits, coffee starts with a fragrant, delicate and beautiful blossom. These blossoms will develop into coffee cherries and the seeds of the ripened cherry are the coffee beans with which we are so familiar. The Hawaiian Islands have the perfect geography and weather to support the coffee trees and allow them to blossom starting in February or March. By May, the coffee cherries are beginning to form. They are ripe by September and that's when the cherries are almost ready to be picked.

The harvesting takes place between October and December. Often times, harvesting is done round the clock in three shifts of workers. This allows the finest cherries to be picked one by one in the shortest amount of time. During this process only the ripened fruits are harvested, which means that hand-pickers return to the same trees and harvest as the coffee cherries are ready. Sometimes, the pickers return to the same tree up to 8 times. After the Maui coffee cherries are harvested, they are delivered to the processing plant within the shortest period of time. There are two different processing methods - dry and wet processing. Dry processing is the method that requires the fruit to be dried by direct sunlight or on raised screens. At this phase, fermenting, water-based sorting, and skin peeling take place. This results in the dried coffee cherries turning into hard, dark brown pods. The green pulp and the green seed are then removed from the skin of the pod, and the remaining parchment layers are pounded by hand.

This hand process helps to remove the defects. Wet processing is also known as washed coffee. This transforms the fruit into a green coffee bean for roasting. During this process, water is used at the wet mill to transport the seed though the process. This allows a quicker and easier method for removing defects because they float on the surface. In traditional wet processing, the wet mill is where the outer skin of the fruit is removed - or the coffee is pulped, as the farmers say. After the defective beans are removed, the remaining high quality beans are fermented, washed and dried. These can be dried by direct sunlight on a screen or patio, or they can be dried using a mechanical dryer.

The final step in Hawaiian coffee production is the sorting step, which takes place in the dry mill. There is a color sorter where an electronic eye scans each bean and checks it for color. This is how the finest coffee beans are selected and the rest are rejected. Selection is highly important, because the quality of the beans impact the quality of the coffee. Hawaii has gained the reputation of producing the finest coffee worldwide, and this bean selection process is important to maintaining that quality.

Finally, in order to maintain the quality of Hawaiian coffee production the Hawaii Department of Agriculture has its final word. Before the product is labeled as 100% pure Kona coffee, each batch is graded and cupped according to a very strict grading system.

- Beginning in 1992, Maui Coffee Company has established themselves worldwide as the premium roaster of Kona and Maui coffees. From the coffee fields of their backyard, Maui Coffee Co. takes fresh Kona coffee and http://www.mauicoffeeco.com beans and roasts them to perfection for your coffee enjoyment.

Maui Coffee Company
219 Kupuohi Street, Lahaina, HI 96761
(808) 661-9401