Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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few years ago, if you had asked most folks in the spe- cialty coffee world what they thought about the quality of Hawaii-grown coffees, you'd probably have received a snicker of derision. Until fairly recently, Kona was the king of the Hawaii coffee scene, and its high prices and often mediocre qual- ity were off-putting to coffee geeks (though many roasters still purchased it to fulfill holiday demand). It seems things are changing. Articles about Hawaii coffee are appearing in mainstream magazines and newspapers, and word of Pete Licata's barista accomplishments are spreading like wildfire (he was the 2011 USBC champion and placed second at the 2011 WBC, in both cases using an all-Hawaiian espresso blend). Also, the young region of Ka'u is turning heads with some of its coffee. All of a sudden, the tiny island chain is on the map of some serious roasters. The current Hawaii coffee industry is more dynamic and diverse than it has ever been. New farms are appear- ing regularly around the state. Interesting flavor profiles, previ- ously unknown to the islands, can be found by those willing to seek them out. While the recent arrival of the coffee berry borer, arguably coffee's most despised and difficult pest, has brought biological and financial challenges to Kona and Ka'u, both producers and consum- ers have maintained the excitement sur- rounding Hawaii. But how did this shift in Hawaiian coffee happen? How has this once- maligned industry found new favor in the eyes of consumers and roasters? sistent than coffee coming out of other origins. This earned Kona coffee a positive reputation and helped its price rise above that of the C-market. The advent of the Internet and the arrival of farmers from other professions brought on the emergence of estate farms. In these enterprises, the farmer maintains ownership of the coffee, oftentimes all the way through to the end of the roasting process. These farmers are not simply growing coffee cherry; they are processing, milling, storing, roasting and shipping coffee (or con- tracting someone to take care of these steps for them). For better or worse, intentional or accidental, this means that each farmer can create a different flavor profile. In Kona, the hundreds (200 to 300 by this author's estimate) of estate farms are generating all kinds of flavor profiles. Are they all extraordinary by a third- waver's standard? Of course not. But they aren't all terrible either. While some coffees are extraor- dinary and some are terrible, most, in fact, are aver- age. This prob- ably makes sense to most people on an intuitive level, as a lot of things work this way. For example, imagine a room filled with 300 men. If you pick one at random, he's likely to be of average height relative to everyone else in the room. However, in that room there will be some men who are particularly short or particularly tall. If you keep pick- RISING STAR: Located to the southeast of Kona, Hawaii's Ka'u region has recently been garnering awards for its quality coffees. HISTORY OF HOMOGENY For most of the 20th century, Kona was the only region in Hawaii growing coffee (though many regions grew it prior to 1900). It was Hawaii coffee. And until the 1980s, nearly all of Kona coffee grown was sold as cherry to a handful of processors. Consequently, Kona coffee was a homogenous blend of many small farms. The flavor profile was simple, clean and more con- ing men, you're likely to eventually discover one of those unusual heights. Now, instead of men and height, consider coffee and cup quality. If a coffee is randomly selected from Kona, there is a high probability of getting one that produces a mediocre brew. Considering that many coffees from Kona are higher priced than most other ori- gins (they sell for $20 to $40 per roasted pound, on average), it isn't too hard to see why coffee aficionados have long snubbed the region: Who wants to pay a seemingly exorbitant price for an average cup of coffee? However, some remarkable coffees do exist in Kona. Unfortunately, few of them have been discovered. More importantly, the ones that continued on page 32 freshcup.com January 2012 31 SHAWN STEIMAN