Incredible Taste With Kona Blend Coffee
If you're a coffee lover looking for some exciting flavors, try a combination of worlds. Kona blend coffee mixes delicious imported coffees like Brazilian and Colombian with at least ten percent of Kona coffee. The result makes for a delightful, rich flavor. Now available through diverse retailers, they are very affordable and have been rising in popularity.
Kona coffee is a much sought after type of coffee and accordingly, one of the most pricey, unfortunately for most coffee lovers. Its worldwide reputation developed thanks to its romantic location in the Kona districts, situated in exotic Hawaii.
Kona has a number of things going for it, in terms of favorable coffee growing conditions. One of the greatest advantages of its location is the abundance of minerals in the rare volcanic soil. Secondly, the cloud cover in the afternoons and mild nights contribute to make the perfect setting for growing coffee.
However, coffee isn't native to Kona, Hawaii. First from Brazilian cuttings, it was brought over in the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1900, it had become a well established crop in the region. It was first grown on large plantations, which were broken into smaller farms in time. The average farm size now is about five acres. The first workers of the crops were primarily Japanese who'd come over to work sugarcane plantations. In addition to Japanese, many Europeans, continental Americans and Filipinos joined in the tradition of family Kona farms.
The process for growing coffee in Kona is quite involved. The plants start blooming in early spring, even as early as February. In the late summer to early winter the berries are harvested and sent to the pulper to remove the skin, which is recycled and used to fertilize farms. Stripped of their skin, only the beans remain and they are fermented, cleaned and dried. To prevent mildew, the beans are raked while drying. Finally, they are graded according to their weight and size.
In addition to Kona coffee, the blends also include Brazilian and Colombian coffees. Brazil is the biggest coffee producer on the globe, and they've got their craft down to a science. Most Brazilian coffee is Arabica coffee, which you'll find in coffee shops and in the more high end types of coffee. In specialty shops, you'll find types like Santos Brazils and Estate Brazils. Colombian coffee is also used in the blends and is acclaimed throughout the world for its high quality and unique flavor.
Pure Kona coffee in Hawaii comes with a "One hundred percent Kona" label. Labels are required to have the percentage of Kona coffee, so for instance, a blend might be labeled as "ten percent Kona". The blends are quite popular however, because not only are they affordable but their flavors are rich and unusual. There is some controversy however because outside Hawaii, labels indicating the percentage of Kona are not mandated. This means people can be conflating flavors of non-Kona coffee with Kona coffee. However, this doesn't change the simple fact that people like the flavor and the prices of these blends.
If you want the best of many worlds, go with Kona coffee blends. They are more affordable and combine the richness of some of the most popular coffees and experience of the best growers around the globe.
Get the inside skinny on the richness, affordability and fabulous taste of Kona coffee now in our comprehensive Kona Blend overview on http://www.konablend.net
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Tags: coffee, Kona Blend Coffee, kona coffeeSeptember 09 2010 | coffee | No Comments »