Kona Coffee FAQs-Roasting, Sourcing, and Shipping
Find answers to common questions about our 100% Kona coffees, roasting schedule, shipping times, and sourcing practices.
Hawaiʻi Kaʻū Malolactic Honey
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Roasting Wednesdays.
*Please note: all items in your cart will roast and ship together.
Tasting Notes
Floral, Grape and berry aromas lead into a sweet and complex dessert-like cup. Notes of Rose, Blackberry, plumeria, and milk chocolate. with a tart acidity and creamy mouthfeel.
Background Info
Leo Norberte is one of the original coffee growers in the Ka‘ū region of Hawai‘i Island. Born in the Philippines he began working for the C. Brewer Sugar Plantation in Pahala as a young man. When the sugar plantations shut its doors in 1996 they offered there former employees land leases to try planting coffee on. A handful such as Leo tried there hand at it with 10 acres in the clouds rest area just west of the town of Pāhala. Leo's JN Coffee Farms now span 50 acres on different plots near Pāhala.
We have consistently found Red Bourbon to produce excellent cups in Ka‘ū and Kona, exhibiting more acidity, a fuller mouthfeel and more complex cup than the commonly grown Typica variety. Few farms have more than a few trees of this variety. While the vast majority of his land is dedicated to the Typica variety, we were thrilled to learn Leo recently planted a plot of Red Bourbon at 1800ft elevation 2021 was the first harvest of these trees and we have been purchasing the cherry from this field to apply our processing methods on since.
For the Malolactic Honey process, first the cherries were sorted with a WECO optical cherry sorting machine to remove green and brown cherries. Then we inoculate the cherries with both yeasts and malolactic bacteria. The Cherries are fermented in anaerobic conditions for about a week, then pulped and dried as a Honey.
The goal with this coffee was to create a cup profile with the intensity of a natural in a parchment dried coffee. In theory at least, the Malolactic bacteria should be producing diacetyl, which can help improve the mouthfeel, to be more buttery and rounded, While also converting any malic acid to Lactic acid. One of the yeast strains included also produces lactic acid from sugars helping to create a bright cup with a clean, tart acidity.
The combination of Malolactic bacteria and yeasts strains used should in theory have some synergistic effects on production of certain esters that contribute to fruity and floral aromas
What Is 100% Kona Coffee?
100% Kona coffee refers to coffee grown exclusively in the Kona district of Hawai‘i Island — a small, volcanic region
along the western slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa. The combination of mineral-rich soil, afternoon cloud cover, and gentle trade winds produces one of the world’s most distinctive coffee terroirs.
To be labeled “100% Kona Coffee,” every bean must be grown within the Kona district and meet strict Hawai‘i grading quality standards. Kona coffee can be made from different arabica varieties, but Kona Typica — a heirloom lineage — remains the region’s most common and traditional cultivar.
If you’d like to explore more Kona coffees, you can browse the full collection here: Browse the Kona Coffee Collection .
About Kona Coffee
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Kona coffee grows on the volcanic slopes of Hawai‘i Island, where mineral-rich soil, afternoon cloud cover, and slow cherry maturation create a naturally sweet and balanced cup. Our Kona Classic Medium is sourced from high-elevation farms and hand-harvested for clarity, smoothness, and elegant sweetness.
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Yes — this roast is Authentic Kona coffee made exclusively from North Kona district-grown coffees, never blended. Our Kona coffees comes from small farms at the highest altitudes in the region.
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Medium roasts highlight Kona’s signature profile: gentle sweetness, soft citrus, toasted almond, and milk chocolate. The result is a balanced, approachable cup ideal for everyday brewing.
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This coffee shines in pour-over, drip, and French press. Use filtered water just off the boil and a medium grind for maximum clarity and sweetness. If you are looking for a Hawaiian coffee for espresso use we recommend our Hawai‘i Island Blend
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Kona is the highest labor cost coffee region in the world. Wages for farm workers here are 15-20x higher than almost all other coffee producing countries. Limited and expensive land, hand-picking, and high production costs create a naturally small supply each year — especially from high-elevation farms like those we partner with.
Company & Facility
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We roast and fulfill all of our coffee orders in Hilo, Hawai'i.
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We roast in small batches using a Diedrich IR12 roasting machine.
Satisfaction Guaranteed
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We source an array of the top specialty coffees worldwide that appeal to an array of different palates.
If at any point you have difficulty brewing, or just appreciating one of our roasted coffees, no problem. Shoot us an email within 5 days of receiving your coffee and we'll help you find the correct brew settings for your coffee, or give you a credit (minus actual shipping costs) on your next purchase. Yep, we're a Satisfaction Guarantee coffee company!
Please note, our Satisfaction Guarantee only applies to U.S. orders of roasted coffees, and you must contact us within 5 days of receiving the coffees. Credits do not include actual shipping fees, which may be different from posted shipping fees.
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We roast and ship on Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
Coffees
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Our commitment to you is to serve exceptional, fresh-roasted coffees. And part of being exceptional means roasting before the flavors inherent in the green bean begin to fade, which happens over time.
Like apples and pumpkins, coffee is a seasonal agricultural product and each country has a different harvesting cycle in which coffees are at their peak. If we were to insist on serving a single origin all year long, the flavors in that coffee would be noticeably better one half of the year over the other. So the reason you no longer see that coffee you loved is because the optimal season has passed. For more on seasonality in coffees, see this blog post here.
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Hopefully so. If it was a popular product or we receive customer requests, we will make every attempt to bring it back. However, please note that coffees from a certain producer may not taste the same year after year.
If you loved a coffee and no longer see it listed, shoot us an email and ask us what is similar. We’d be happy to provide a personal recommendation.
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We aim for balance and completeness along with differentiation and distinction. You shouldn't need to be a professional coffee taster to tell the coffees a part, so, when we’re selecting coffees, we want them to be distinct from each other.
We avoid ”one-trick pony” type coffees, such as Ethiopians with great aroma but no body or acidity, or coffees with good aroma and acidity but lacking sweetness. These elements, which are often reflections of the growing conditions, are harmonized through good roasting.
And, obviously, defects — even subtle defects — influence our selection. Since we live and work at origin, we’re sensitive to coffee defects like “past crop”, pulpy, and naturals that border on over-ferment. With naturals, we’ll only carry these when great examples are available.
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Our perspective on roasting is similar: we seek balance and distinction. To expect that a coffee is “best” when roasted to some pre-determined degree (i.e. only light roasting or only dark roasting) is analogous to thinking that each person would look best in the same outfit, or each coffee should be grown in the same way. We believe it’s our job to discover the roast degree which best highlights outstanding qualities in each coffee.
