Kona Coffee Harvest Season
Hawaii Coffee is often an unrecognized and complex agriculture product growing in the US, and many people we talk to haven’t even heard of Kona Coffee. And yet, Hawaii holds a special place in the specialty coffee world, as one of the most expensive coffees available, making it critical for Kona Coffee farmers to maintain some of the highest quality standards. We invite you to follow along with us on our journey harvesting 100% Kona coffee on our small boutique coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii.
In the specialty coffee industry, quality is key. Aside from plant and soil health, maintaining the highest quality of the coffee bean starts with only fully ripe cherry being picked. If we are going to be competitive in the specialty coffee industry, it is paramount that Monarch Coffee Farm continues to strive for excellence by continuing to selectively harvesting our coffee trees by hand.
To get the best quality we must grow the best quality and only hand-pick premium ripe coffee. This ensures we are starting with cherries that are as good as they can possibly be. We avoid selecting immature, overripe, and raisin (which are cherries that dried on the tree) which are of inferior quality.
When the coffee cherry has matured, we know it is fully ripe and ready for picking when it is glossy and red in color. This is after the cherry has turned from green to slightly red and then into its fully ripe color. We can also test the fruit’s readiness to harvest if the seeds (the bean inside the coffee cherry) can be squeezed out by hand. If the fruit is hard and the seed cannot be squeezed out, it is unripe and not ready to be harvested.
Here on our coffee farm, the coffee harvest season usually starts with fruit ripening in August and runs into late December with late September to early November being our busiest time. Coffee fruit on a tree does not mature all at once. It is cyclical just like our flowering season. Therefore we can expect 6-8 rounds of picking in any one season with 10-14 days in between each picking. At the peak of harvest, our picking crew gathers between 400-600 pounds of coffee per day.
The entire process of achieving clean high-quality coffee requires keen attention to detail and a committed team of passionate individuals working together, striving to produce a memorable coffee to be experienced.
We hope you’ll join us next month as we chat more about harvesting Kona Coffee.
