December 22nd, 2009
Kona Mountain Estate Coffee And K-cups From Hawaii
Estate-grown Kona coffee from the big island of Hawaii. Sweetly aromatic, with a splendid harmony of brightness and body, and perfect balance
With its elegant simplicity and balance, we tend to think of Kona coffee as a haiku in a cup… it speaks volumes with very few words.We roast our Kona with great care so its aromas and flavors are not masked by the smoke and thunder of a heavy flame.
If complex African coffees compose a symphony of flavors, Kona coffee is a string quartet of mild sweetness, delicate floral notes, fruited accents and harmonic balance. The best Kona coffee is described as having a “clean” cup with a dry aftertaste. Its flavor doesn’t linger, but invites another sip…and conjures visions of palm fronds dancing gently with trade winds on a warm, sandy beach. No surprise — many people are introduced to the coffee’s magical qualities while on vacation, but even those who have never traveled to the Islands appreciate Kona’s silky mystique.
“Elegance, balance and simplicity — the essence of a fine Kona and our Kona Mountain Estate displays these characteristics beautifully. Delicate floral aroma. Soft sweetness and refined acidity, this quiet coffee speaks volumes!”
We buy our Kona Mountain Estate coffee from Kona Mountain Coffee, a family-owned estate farm nestled on the leeward side of the Mauna Loa volcano. At 90 acres, it is one of the largest estate farms in the Kona Coffee Belt and has a state-of-the-art wet mill. Beans from this farm are large, with a beautiful blue-green color similar to a tropical lagoon. They consistently garner awards at the annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, a prestigious cupping competition open to all of Hawaii’s 600-plus Kona farms.
Kona is the most unique coffee growing area of any in the world: low altitude, high latitude, with the highest labor rates of any other coffee farming area. Fortunately, Kona has enjoyed generations of committed farmers who use the best traditional techniques – customized to this area – and who fight against any compromise in quality.
As a pure Kona, the Guatemalan cultivar that is popular in this microclimate is mild and sweet, a beautiful cup where the love and caring required to grow it on the edge of the volcanic Big Island of Hawaii is tangible. Along the western edge of the Big Island of Hawaii, a small swath of fertile soil is known as the Kona Coffee Belt. Three miles wide and seven miles long, it is the only place where Kona coffee is grown. The area’s rich volcanic soil, unique weather pattern and cool sea breezes form a perfect microclimate to grow some of the most highly prized coffee in the world.
