Whew!

Whew! was Originally Posted on August 18, 2013 by lavarock

Three days in a row I ended up going to town. Each trip is like 25 miles round trip and I get 15 mpg. You can see how that is NOT cost effective.

I had purchased a weed wacker blade the first trip and the workers pretty much destroyed that the first day they used it. I use a blade because the weeds and brush are so thick. The blades are $22 each. The last blad I used lasted months, but these guys found lots of rocks to bump up against.

So the second day I went up and bought blades at 2 places, but the place I got the original blade was closed already. Turns out the new blades won’t fit. I also got money from the ATM because generally you pay pickers at the end of the day because some of those people will be working elsewhere the next day. This particular family/group working for me, does not currently use a “foreman” whom I can pay. He would then dole out the money to each person, but would have to have access to change, etc. I thought I had plenty of small bills at home and didn’t want to stop at convenience stores to get change so just headed home.

Then Friday I headed back into town to get change at the bank, return the wrong blades and get the right ones. I also was going to stop by the Tax Office to get some info for a friend who is moving to the islands. I got to the tax office and realized it was “Admissions/Statehood” day and all state offices are closed. So was my bank whose sign said something about an “all day training session”.

As I was at the furthest location from the house, I got a call from the pickers that they were done and awaiting payment. It would be 45 minutes minimum for me to find a bank open and get home. When I finally rushed here, I found they were sitting under a tree having lunch and had not yet moved the full bags of coffee cherry to the road for me to weigh them. Sigh!

I weighed and transferred the beans to new bags and they loaded them in the truck. Paid, they headed off into the sunset (strange, because it was like 2pm).

I started processing the cherry and finally finished yesterday. This is the first picking and I can expect more of the same in a couple weeks.

I built a temporary drying area that works pretty well, but I want to build a permanent deck with roof. That will keep me from having to run out and cover the beans when it starts to rain. I expect that deck can be built after January, but that will be after I need it for this season.

I may have to enlarge the drying area as I have more coffee than I have space to dry. Once the beans are dry they can be stored.

The process is as follows:

We pick the coffee cherry and immediately process it. Using a pulper we remove the skin and discard that. What is left is a wet, mucilage covered bean that looks like a peanut.

We soak those beans and when the mucilage is off, set the beans out to dry. The beans are tested for moisture content and when dry enough can be bagged for temporary storage. The beans at this point look like peanuts with a light colored covering (like the covering on a peanut). This “parchment” will be removed before roasting.

We call the beans covered with parchment, “parchment” and coffee people understand that we are talking about the covered beans and not the covering. That covering COULD be processed into parchment paper.

Parchment beans can be stored for quite some time, as long as conditions are right.

Parchment is later sent to be milled, the process which removes the parchment covering leaving a green coffee bean. Green beans can be stored but not as long as parchment.

The green beans are then sent to a roaster. Home enthusiasts have used hot top popcorn poppers, fry pans, ovens and home roasters to roast coffee. I have a home roaster and also send larger orders into town to be roasted.

The roasting process extracts moisture from the beans and brings sugars and other items to the surface where they caramelize. As the beans roast, they reach what we call “1st crack” where they actually make a cracking noise and expand some, not as dramatically as popcorn. As the caramelizing takes place the beans will reach another crack (we call this 2n’d crack). These beans will begin to exude oil and can become quite oily. If the beans get much more heat, they burn and that is a classic Starbucks roast, dark. As you go from a medium to dark roast and beyond, you begin to lose the ability to taste the origin of the beans and taste more of the roast (carbon). Think of the difference between a rare steak and one that is well done. The well done steak tastes like carbon.

As soon as the beans are roasted, they should be ground if desired and bagged. I use bags with one-way valves which allow the gasses to escape but oxygen not to get back into the bag. They are then ready to ship.

People ask me how quickly they should use the coffee (or save it for a “special occasion”). The brightness of the coffee begins to diminish right after roasting, so don’t save freshly roasted coffee for long.

I’m also asked if coffee should be put in the refrigerator or freezer. I suggest neither! Put beans or ground in an airtight container that is not clear (keep sunlight out). People laugh when I tell them truthfully, if you have so much coffee that you cannot use in a few weeks, then you bought too much coffee or are not drinking it fast enough.

From the moment the cherry is ripe, it is picked, processed, stored roasted, bagged and shipped to get to you in the best condition possible. There is nothing we can do to improve the coffee, it will only deteriorate. We try to minimize that for you.

Kona coffee is a smooth Arabica coffee that should not be bitter or have an after taste. The roast level and fineness of grind will determine how much coffee extraction will appear in the cup. I have a customer who likes the “cinnamon” roast. This is not a flavoring rather the beans are roasted very light (blonde) so that they take on a cinnamon color.

Generally, Kona and other Hawaiian coffees that are 100% are not adulterated with flavors. What you may see on island or in stores is a “BLEND” that also contains flavoring. Blends are generally 10% coffee and 90% cheap foreign coffee. Some stores have been selling “Kona Coffee” which was a blend and contained less than 10% Kona. The only reason blends are available today is because the coffee is inferior and has to be blended to make it taste better, or in the case of Kona blends, they tell you there is Kona in the bag, but throw in 90% filler to make a massive profit. They refuse to tell you where the 90% comes from because they don’t want you to know how cheaply they are making it.

What countries might they be buying from? Viet Nam, Indonesia, India, China, whatever is cheapest. “Nestle said it will massively boost its coffee buying in Yunnan from 10,000 tonnes of beans in the 2010-11 growing season to 70,000 tonnes in the 2012-13 season. Starbucks said its coffee buying from the region has increased by more than 20 times since it started buying Yunnan beans in 2007.” (http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1209822/nestle-grows-china-coffee-investment).

My guess is that they will not proudly say “Product of China” on the cans.

My coffee proudly is grown, picked, processed, roasted, bagged and shipped from Hawaii. A product of the U.S.A.

I could charge a lot more for my coffee (some farmers charge $45 a pound for some beans), I have tried to keep costs down and offer customers a real deal.