Why are Kona Coffee beans hand-picked?

All Kona Coffee is hand-picked. This means one person selectively picks the ripe coffee fruit, which we call cherry, due to its color. Every branch will have green (unripe), yellow (next stage of ripening), red (perfectly ripe), purple (ripe to slightly overripe), and then black (overripe).

We only want the red fruit, so we have to revisit each tree several times during harvest to pick only the ripe fruit, leaving the green and yellow to mature.

Note names: Coffee beans are the coffee fruit's seeds, which we roast. Coffee fruit is the green to red outer part containing the seeds and coffee beans.

Some places—not Hawaii—use machine harvesting, which strips the whole branch simultaneously—ripe, unripe, and overripe. As you'll read below, this will inevitably result in lower-quality roasted coffee.

The main reason why Kona Coffee beans are hand-picked is that we want the highest quality possible, which can only come through hand-picking.

1. Selective Harvesting

• Hand-picking allows workers to choose only the ripe cherries that have reached the optimal stage of maturity.
• Overripe or underripe cherries can negatively affect the flavor of the coffee, introducing sour or bitter notes.

2. Preserving the Coffee Plant

• Hand-picking is gentler on the coffee plant compared to mechanical harvesting, which can damage branches and reduce future yields.
• This method helps maintain the health and longevity of the coffee plant.

3. Higher Quality Control

• Workers can visually inspect each cherry as they pick it up, ensuring only the best cherries are harvested.
• Defective cherries, such as those affected by pests or disease, can be avoided, further enhancing the quality of the final product.

4. Better Flavor Profiles

• Coffee cherries picked at the proper ripeness produce beans with a more balanced and nuanced flavor profile.
• This is particularly critical for Kona coffees, where consumers expect complex, high-quality flavors.

While hand-picking is labor-intensive and time-consuming, it is indispensable for producing high-quality coffee, especially for Kona Coffee.