Hawaii Coffee Farming Methods
- Most coffee in the Kona district, and around Hawaii, is handpicked by workers who each pick between 100 and 300 pounds of cherries (the raw coffee bean/fruit) per day. The amount varies depending upon the time of the year. There will be less coffee picked between January and June, as July through December is the main harvesting season.
- After being picked, the cherries arrive at a mill to be wet-milled. Wet-milling is the process of sending the cherries through a pulper that removes the outside skin to reveal the actual bean. The beans are soaked for eight to 18 hours, a process that generally occurs during the night.
The beans are dried in the sun for about a week. Hawaiian coffee farmers believe that drying coffee beans in the sun helps them retain more coffee taste. Some farmers even have huts with roofs that slide back and forth to keep coffee from inclement weather.
After a week or so, the dried beans are taken to sorting machines that grade them. Farmers put great stock in this process because the quality of the beans reflects the integrity of their farm and farming methods. The sorting machines help to sort between the Kona grades of Peaberry, Extra Fancy, Fancy, #1, and Prime. These classifications are awarded to beans depending on their weight, which in turn effects the taste of the end product.
Due to a small, dense bean, farmers in Kona say that Fancy and #1 make the best coffee. Peaberry is a small bean that grows only one bean per pod (there are usually two) and is considered to be one of the higher grades of Kona coffee. Extra Fancy, the largest and heaviest bean, is also a high grade. Prime is always regarded as the lowest grade of Kona coffee.
Once the coffee beans have been sorted, they are still in the green bean stage. At this point, they are bought from the farmers by roasters who will roast and sell the beans to make drinkable coffee.
