Kona Coffee Cherry Picked at Peak Ripeness Produce Premium Gourmet Coffee

Fruit of the Coffee Plant Is Hand-Picked at Peak Ripeness

A key factor in producing top quality specialty coffee is picking the fruit at peak ripeness. Virtually all Kona coffee cherry are picked by hand to ensure that only ripe red berries are picked.

The five layers of a Kona coffee cherry (fruit), are the Skin, Pulp, Mucilage, Parchment, Silverskin, and the Bean.

Here is a brief descripton of Kona coffee cherry and a breakdown of the anatomy of this prized fruit that produces the specialty Kona coffee loved all around the world.

Cherry/Fruit-The fruit, or berry of a Kona coffee plant is known as a cherry. A Kona coffee cherry is about 6/10-inch (1.5 cm) long.

The Kona coffee cherry is green when it first appears on the coffee tree, eventually ripening to yellow, crimson, and then dark red/black after about 8 months.

The coffee fruit is considered ripe when you can squeeze it gently and the seed will easily fall out of the fruit. This occurs just before the outside of the fruit becomes monochromatic, or fully red. There are also varieties that turn yellow when they are ripe.

The outer layers of a Kona coffee cherry are the skin and the pulp.

Skin-This is the very outermost layer of the Kona coffee cherry.

Pulp-Within the skin of the Kona coffee cherry is the fruity pulp, which has a slightly bitter taste though it does have some sugars in it as well as some caffeine.

Some people like to use the dried skin and pulp of the Kona coffee cherry to make a tea.

Mucilage-Beneath the skin and pulp of a Kona coffee cherry, but outside of the seed and parchment, is the mucilage-this is a sticky liquid layer with some caffeeine and lots of sugar.

The process of removing the Kona coffee cherry’s outer flesh and the mucilagionous pulp is known as pulping. The goal of pulping is to separate the Kona coffee beans from the pulp.

Pulping of Kona coffee is done with a machine called a pulper which has rough rollers that break up and loosen the cherry’s outer skin. Pulping of Kona coffee cherry usually takes place within the first day after the cherry are hand-picked by Kona coffee farmers.

Parchment/Pergamino-This is the stiff and white, papery-thin skin (membrane) that forms a protective layer around the Kona coffee bean.

The parchment is often left on the dried coffee bean when it is sent to the roasters. This is done in order to take advantage of the parchment’s protection. The term parchment is also used to refer to the beans in general at this stage of the processing.

Silverskin-This is a very fine layer surrounding and adhering tightly to the prized Kona coffee bean.

The silverskin layer is sometimes polished off by processors who sell whole green Kona coffee beans. Other Kona coffee processors leave the silverskin on the bean since it will come off naturally as chaff during the roasting process.

The process of removing the parchment and thin silverskin beneath is called milling. This is accomplished with machines known as hullers, which mill off the parchment and also polish the Kona coffee beans.

Seed/Bean-At the center of the Kona coffee cherry is the seed, or coffee bean. Once the Kona coffee cherry has been pulped and milled, and the seed of the Kona coffee cherry is dried and ready for roasting, it has a bluish-green color and is known as a green Kona coffee bean.

Grades of Kona Coffee Beans

If there are two seeds (half-beans) inside a Kona coffee cherry they are known as Type I.

If there is just one single coffee bean inside a Kona coffee cherry, this is a botanical anomaly known as Type II, also calledKona Peaberry.

Grades of Type II Kona coffee include Peaberry Prime and Peaberry Number One.

Kona Peaberry gourmet coffee beans are the rarest type of Kona coffee, usually comprising only about one to eight percent of any particular farmer’s crop.

Kona Peaberry beans are sorted out from the other Kona coffee beans and sold separately, and for a higher price, because they have a higher density and a more concentrated, robust flavor with a smooth consistency, rich aroma, and lower acidic content than non-Peaberry Kona coffee beans.

One reason that Kona Peaberry coffee beans are considered “the champagne of Kona coffee” may be that the Kona Peaberry coffee beans get more nutrients from the coffee tree while developing within the Kona coffee cherry.

The green Kona coffee beans are sorted, processed, and eventually roasted, which turns them brown and prepares them for grinding.

Now the Kona coffee beans are finally ready to be brewed into one of the world’s finest specialty Kona coffee-revered around the globe as one of the world’s finest premium coffees!

Kona Coffee-The Harvest Season

Kona coffee trees bloom from January to May, producing small, white, and sweet-smelling flowers that are known as Kona snow. The fragrant blossoms soon give way to green coffee berries that begin appearing in April, and these Kona coffee cherry ripen during the fall/winter months.

The meticulous hand-picking of ripe, red Kona coffee fruit at peak maturity begins around the end of August when they start to ripen. The long Kona coffee harvest season then continues over the next several months, perhaps until February, as the Kona coffee farmers constantly revisit the coffee fields to pick only the ripest red cherries.