Deals In The New Year
Deals In The New Year was Originally Posted on December 31, 2012 by lavarock
Here is a secret that creates a deal for you.
Kona Coffee has grades, similar to meat and other products. It should then be obvious that the grade can determine the base price of that cup of coffee.
To grade coffee, the coffee is picked, processed and dried. It is then graded based upon a few criteria. I will defer to our Wikipedia article for the grades, rather than try to explain them myself.
Kona coffee beans are classified according to seed. Type I beans consist of two beans per cherry, flat on one side, oval on the other. Type II beans consist of one round bean per cherry, otherwise known as peaberries. Further grading of these two types of beans depends on size, moisture content, purity of bean type, and size. The grades of type I Kona coffee are ‘Kona Extra Fancy’, ‘Kona Fancy’, ‘Kona Number 1′, ‘Kona Select’, and ‘Kona Prime’. The grades of type II Kona coffee are ‘Peaberry Number 1′ and ‘Peaberry Prime’. Also, a lower grade of coffee, called ‘Number 3′ can not legally be labeled as “Kona”.
Generally, we charge more for peaberry because it is rare and people are willing to pay extra for the flavor.
On the type I beans, the beans would first be separated by size into perhaps all categories. Then the grades are inspected and evaluated by numbers of defects. Here are the specs for Extra fancy:
Extra Fancy
So as you can see, it there are more than 8 imperfections per 300 grams the beans cannot be called Extra Fancy and would be downgraded.
The lower grades change from numbers of imperfections to percentage of imperfections.
Grading is also used because it makes sense that equal-sized beans will roast in a similar way to similar-sized meatballs cook – evenly.
Grading used to be performed by the state government, but cost-cutting has eliminated that division.
Some farms process their own beans and don’t professionally grade, rather they may manually separate beans by size and cull out any obvious imperfections.
A farm might just process the coffee, remove obvious imperfections and sell the coffee as Estate. It might include everything from Extra Fancy on down and also include the expensive Peaberry. It might not roast as evenly as a single grade, but the normal coffee drinker may not notice any difference in their cup. This coffee might be priced lower than other Kona Coffees.
Here is another secret. If the beans get downgraded enough, they cannot be classified “Kona” or “Kauai” or “Maui” or other location specific name, but can be called “Hawaii” or “Hawaiian” coffee. This name could also be used for coffee that does come from various location-specific areas but has been combined. This would not be a common practice because location-specific coffees bring more income by themselves and would not be able to bring as much by being combined with other locations. Thus a “Hawaiian” coffee name would more than likely be a location-specific coffee that did not meet grade.
I have “Hawaiian” coffee listed on my website. It was grown in the Kona District, thus was “Kona Coffee” until it didn’t make the stringent grading criteria and thus is offered at a reduced price. It can’t be called “Kona” even though it was grown here.
It might not have the absolute “Wow” factor that people expect from a top-grade Kona, yet is still a great coffee at a more affordable price. I liken it to a slightly irregular jacket bought at a discount mall.
So there you go, a way to save money that may not be obvious. Now I have to go try to create another label.
Look for “Hawaiian Coffee” at ItsKona.Com.