Why Is The Kona Coffee Also Called The Gold Of Hawaii?
The Kona coffee is a special type of coffee grown exclusively in Hawaii. It has a very distinct smell and taste that makes it a hot favorite all over the world. Hawaii is the only place from where this type of coffee is grown and exported world wide. In the recent past a number of spurious brands are circulating in the market under the brand of Kona coffee which is slowly undermining the popularity of this wonderful type of coffee.
How Is Kona Coffee Grown?
This coffee is grown organically in the shade for which much hard work and care is required. The flowers of the coffee plant usually develop somewhere around March give and take couple of weeks.. The flowers get pollinated and very soon in their stead you would find the green coffee berries which would be harvested from mid August to mid January. Each plant would give something around thirty pounds of coffee berries
The berries that have been removed from the Kona coffee plant need to be processed within 24 hours or it would loose its delicate flavor. The processing involves a number of steps starting from classifying each berry according to its color and freshness to pulping and fermentation. The by product obtained after the pulping (removing the pulp from the berry) is used as a fertilizer.
The beans obtained after pulping are run through fermentation process for up to 20 hours in air tight massive tanks after which the beans are carefully cleaned and dried. The drying process is slow and very precarious as it requires constant turning and watching lest the beans get affected by mildew which could spoil the whole crop. It takes about ten to (maximum) fourteen days for this process to be completed before you could have a sealed packet of Kona coffee in your hand.
Once the beans are dried, they would be once again classified - this time to have them graded by their size (and weight) as well as shape. The larger ones are the best and cost the most, though the smaller beans are excellent as well.
The Gold Of Hawaii
This coffee was baptized as the Gold of Hawaii because of the high returns it brings the farmers - as good as gold. The only draw back is that the Kona coffee is not trademarked and hence there are many spurious organizations that mix this excellent coffee with cheaper varieties coffee beans and sell it as the original for high profits.
It is not easy to fight this battle of supremacy but with the support of millions of fans all over the world, hopefully Hawaii would come up with some laws that would prevent any type of duplication.
