Coffee farming on the Big Isand Of Hawaii.
The best cup of coffee you can get comes straight from the farm. We are taking all of those coffee cherries and putting them in the pulping
machine. Each cherry has two coffee beans that need to be separated from the
red pulp. Sometimes, only one bean, they are called Peaberry.
We take the wet new coffee beans and dry them on racks. Sometimes depending on the weather they never dry and need to be put in a big dryer for a day to finish them off.
We like them to rest for a few months at this dry stage, parchment stage, in 100 pound coffee sacks. A machine will mill or grind off the parchment to make them green coffee beans.
They are now ready to roast. We
have a 10 pound roaster. Just like a big popcorn popper. It takes about 15 min.
to roast 10 pounds of green. You get about 8 pounds of roasted coffee
beans. During roasting, the temp reaches 400 F, the beans crack like popcorn. They stop cracking at 410 F. They are now coffee, you can make a cup, but we take it to 450 F and get a 2nd crack. We count to 10 into the 2nd crack and then stop them by dumping them into a cooling box. You now have a Kona Roast. It is best to let them rest for a day for all the oils to come out, then
grind and make a really fresh cup of coffee. Do not forget to use really good water.
Remember, the darker the roast, the less caffeine you will have.
ALOHA
