Huge 50 lbs burlap sacks depicting The Kona Coffee and Tea Company’s donkey logo are unloaded into the coffee retail shop. Inside are thousands of green coffee beans – a strange site. But in order to become that familiar black-brown bean (aka drinkable), the coffee must be roasted. The grade to which the coffee is roasted will determine its flavor and caffeination in drink form.

Sort

Four types of coffee beans are: Peaberry, Extra-Fancy, Fancy, and Number One
*Peaberry, two naturally fused coffee beans, is the highest quality and rarest coffee bean

    Medium Roast Whole Bean: Extra Fancy

    Dark Roast Whole Bean: Fancy

    Medium Roast Ground: Number One

    Dark Roast Ground and French Roast: Number One

Roast

Once sorted, the coffee beans are ready for roasting. To preserve quality, roasting is done in small, 15 lb batches, one at a time.

• The batch is poured into a preheated roasting machine. Constantly churning, the beans are carefully roasted at temperatures reaching over 450°F. The roaster immediately drops in temperature when the beans begin to pop and “sing.”

    Medium Roast reaches 350°F (one pop)                                            

    Peaberry reaches 435°F (two pops)

    Dark Roast reaches 450°F (more than two pops)

    French Roast reaches 470°F (more than two pops)                             

• The lighter the roast, the more caffeine is retained; Medium Roast has the most and French Roast has the least amount of caffeine.

• After the beans have cooled to about 350°F, they can be removed from the roaster and packaged. Orders to be shipped (orders made via phone, internet, email, fax, or in-store) are always roasted immediately prior to shipment. The Kona Coffee and Tea Company takes pride in the hard work invested so only the finest quality 100% Kona Coffee is served.

Every morning, visitors to the coffee shop can watch - for free - coffee being roasted to supply the shop’s daily needs. It is a fascinating educational and aroma-pleasing experience.

Packaging

Roasted coffee is packaged in vacuum-sealed bags with special one-way valves. This special feature is especially useful for The Kona Coffee and Tea Company’s flavor coffees. Gold bags contain ground coffee, purple bags contain whole bean, and brown bags contain Malia ‘Ohana both ground and whole bean.