How To Buy The Best Kona Coffee
Maybe it was a souvenir from a Hawaii vacation or possibly that gold foil bag of "Kona Blend" on the top shelf of your local grocery store. Chances are you were highly underwhelmed with that experience. Unfortunately, these scenarios are all too common and generally fail to show just how amazing 100% Kona Coffee can be. To avoid a bad experience and make sure you get the best Kona Coffee for the money we recommend 100% Kona Coffee only (no blends), whole bean (not pre-ground), and ideally coffee only 3-4 weeks from the date it was roasted.
Below we explore in detail the important role each variable plays in preventing a bad Kona Coffee experience. We also add a few suggestions to help you along on your journey to find the best Kona Coffee for the money. By the end, you should be on your way to being a well-informed Kona Coffee connoisseur with the confidence to make sure your next Kona Coffee experience is not only memorable, but perhaps even magical.
Imagine the following guideline categories as single notes on a piano; when played properly together they create a beautiful harmonic chord that shows why Kona Coffee is considered one of the best in the world. Alter any of these variables too much and more often than not you may be presented with a less-than-impressive experience…not to mention frustration over paying a premium for such an experience.
NO BLENDS - Look Closely for 100% Kona Coffee
The first variable and easily the most important is to make sure you source true 100% Kona Coffee. To offset the premium price demanded by good Kona Coffee, some suppliers have created a marketing tactic that blends 10% Kona Coffee with 90% average beans from cheaper locations. The result is something much more similar to the coffee your local 24-hour diner might serve and not even close to the flavor of the real thing.
The first indication is that the price will simply be too cheap. Look closely at the bag for the words “10% Kona Coffee” or “Blend” and avoid them. We recommend buying Kona Coffee online directly from a Hawaii roaster to ensure you are getting the best beans possible. Don’t be fooled by those blended products, great 100% Kona Coffee is a premium product and therefore will demand a premium price.
NO PRE-GROUND - Whole Bean Only
Why is grinding your coffee at home so important? The moment roasted coffee beans are ground the newly exposed surface area immediately begins to lose the volatile flavor compounds that make Kona coffee so special. Oxygen begins to interact with the ground coffee and will ultimately mute the coffee's pungency once brewed. Stored in ground form long enough and oxidation will ultimately take even the best coffee to a bland and boring realm.
The two most common types of grinders are Burr and Blade. There is a grinder for almost any budget and any of the methods you choose will provide far superior results than pre-ground coffee.
Burr
We recommend conical burr grinders hands-down for a repeatable, consistent grind. A uniform grind is important to ensure a consistent surface area that will allow for a repeatable extraction method during brewing. Burr grinders can range in price from several hundred dollars for an elegant push button, countertop model to $30-$40 for an acceptable hand crank model.
When choosing a burr grinder consider these scenarios;
Do you prefer to change your coffee origin often and don't mind a little physical effort in the morning? If so, we would recommend choosing a hand grinder. A highly rated hand grinder can be impressively efficient with relatively little crank effort. Also, since you only add the amount of beans you need for that brew session it's very easy to switch between different bean origins without needing to empty a large hopper.
Do you tend to drink the same coffee origin each day and are you simply interested in the absolute best grinder with as little effort as possible? For this scenario, we recommend one of the many countertop models. Although these models will most likely require a few hundred dollar investment, the ease and repeatability of a one-touch tabletop burr grinder is a luxury item many wouldn't live without.
Blade
Blade grinders are the old workhorses many people first think of when picturing coffee grinders. Over the years burr grinders have taken the lead as they address a few common challenges of blade grinders. Blade grinders can be relatively inexpensive at around $20 and we recommend them only in the scenario that a hand crank burr grinder is too much effort and a tabletop burr grinder is just too expensive.
One drawback of a blade grinder is that it tends to randomly cut the beans creating a non-uniform piece size. This is an issue because different piece sizes will have different surface areas which will result in an unpredictable extraction during brewing. The second drawback with blade grinders is that many are only equipped with a simple on/off function. Without a timer or method to easily tell when the desired grind has been achieved, a distracted user may create a grind that is too small or too large for their desired brew method.
*side note - Storage
Make sure to store your coffee sealed with as much air pushed out as possible. At Kona Roasted our bags are equipped with a zipper seal for this purpose. If your coffee bag is not equipped with a seal try storing your coffee in a ziplock bag. Keep out of direct sunlight and store at ambient temperature.
NO OLD COFFEE - 1-4 Weeks from Roast Date
Whole bean coffee is at its best one week to up to four weeks from the roast date. If stored properly however most consumers won't notice any dramatic difference up to 6-8 weeks from roasting. This however only applies to whole bean, once coffee beans are ground they should be consumed within minutes to hours not days.
Surprisingly coffee can be brewed too early after roasting. Immediately out of the roaster coffee needs time to rest before it will taste its best. During the roasting phase, carbon dioxide is released and can coat and surround the molecules responsible for releasing Kona Coffees' great flavor. If brewed too soon after roasting the results can be an under-extracted muted experience. After a few days, however, enough of the carbon dioxide has dissipated to allow the water to properly extract all the amazing flavors trapped within the beans.
Because of this ideal roast window we strongly recommend that the best Kona coffee is always sourced directly from the roaster rather than purchased off the shelf. Most high-quality roasters will pride themselves on freshly roasted beans and provide a roast date printed on the bag for reference.
*side note - Choose light to medium roast for your first experience
We recommend sourcing a light to medium roasted Kona Coffee first. At these lighter roast profiles, the unique flavor characteristics of Kona Coffee are more prevalent and much easier to distinguish. The darker the roast the more the unique origin flavor will be overshadowed by the char notes created from heavy roasting. Once you experience the unique Kona Coffee flavor profiles found in the light to medium roast levels we believe consumers find it much easier to appreciate and differentiate the more subtle differences found in dark roasted Hawaiian coffee.
Conclusion
We hope these suggestions will give you the tools and confidence needed to help make an informed Hawaii coffee buying decision, as well as keeping you and your friends from thinking that Kona Coffee is an overrated experience. 100% Kona Coffee is a premium product and with a little knowledge and the correct equipment, it will provide you with a premium experience. Try some today and find out for yourself why many believe it to be the best coffee in the world.