WHY IS KONA COFFEE SO EXPENSIVE? - EXPLAINED

Whenever I am in our Kona shop, I often ask, “Why is Kona coffee so expensive!?

Kona coffee is one of the few coffees grown in the United States. It grows on the slopes of the Hualalai and Mauna Loa volcanoes on the Big Island of Hawaii. The sun in the morning, the rain in the afternoon, the perfect elevation, and the abundant volcanic soil make this glass perfect in my opinion! Am I biased? Well... maybe a little. Kona coffee was the only coffee served in our house when we were growing up.

 The main reason it is expensive is because of the labor cost. Kona coffee is selected by our growers for most of the year. Since only red cherries are picked, we have to pick the same tree several times during the picking season. The grains are then divided into varieties (pending evaluation). The bigger the seed, the better the quality. The coffee is then dried, roasted and fully packaged by us in our Kona shop.

In most countries, coffee is machine-picked by shaking the coffee tree and mixing undercooked and undercooked coffee beans in various sizes, which usually results in an acidic cup of coffee. Picking a mechanical order costs 3 cents per pound, in Kona it costs 75-85 cents per kilogram of hand-picked coffee.

 Another is the presence of Kona coffee. It only makes up about 1% of the coffee worldwide. This is a crazy rare item! Over the last 5 years, there has been an infection of the Coffee Cherry Borer which has damaged many Kona coffee plantations (this is a completely different post). This brings back many farms, including us. Due to limited supplies, many companies make a blend of 10% Kona and 90% random coffee beans from around the world. But we were left with 100% service.

 I'm not very good at math right now, but I'll break it down so you can see how much you pay for a glass of Kona from us. I'll be using my favorite signature for a personal backup. Here at KMC we use 1 tablespoon per cup of coffee. Many cafes use 2 tablespoons, but trust me, we are strong! So if you use 1 tablespoon per 6-ounce cup, you get 32 ​​1-pound cups of coffee! Buy Kona coffee online at socialbrew.us