Cupping Notes on Mountain Thunder’s Coffee:
American - Floral, medium body, complex with grapefruit notes.
Vienna - Nutty along with a sweet fruitiness.
French - Having a lighter body and featuring a bittersweet chocolatiness.
Espresso - Smokey with caramel notes.
Black and Tan - A full body, with fruity orange notes.
Organic - A smooth light body
1) Which roast is the best?
- This is strictly a personal preference. Just as many people have their individual taste for how a steak should be prepared, coffee drinkers have a different preference on a roast level they enjoy most.
2) How long does the roasting process take?
- Depending on the roast being made, our average roasting will take 14-16 min.
3) What does it take to become a roastmaster?
- Like many professions, there are schools, apprentice programs and of course, years of hands-on experience.
4) How do you know when the roast if finished?
- There are many factors that determine when a roast is completed. We watch the
temperature, time, and color of the coffee bean. As well as look for indications of
oil and increase in the coffee bean size.
5) What is your most popular roast of coffee?
- Most of our guests enjoy our Vienna (medium) the most as it offers a very pleasant nuttiness and has a smooth, fruity finish.
Roasting Levels of Coffee
There are four roasts that we offer at Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation. We call the first American (light), which ends at 410*F and takes around 14 minutes of roasting. The American offers a sweet acidity in flavor with cinnamon after notes. Our second roast is the Vienna (medium), ending at 430*F around 15 minutes into the roasting process. This is the most popular roast as it offers a pleasant nuttiness with a very smooth and balanced after taste. Our third roast is the French (medium dark), ending at 450*F taking about 16 minutes to finish. This provides a stronger flavor including more of a smokiness that many desire. And finally, we have an Espresso (dark) roast which is removed about 30 seconds after the French is completed at 460*F. This is the boldest roast that we offer, coupled with an enjoyable bittersweet chocolate flavor that has become popular.
From a Roastmaster’s Eyes
We provide a hands-on roasting experience with one of our roaster masters up at Mountain Thunder. You will have the opportunity to learn from start to finish, all that goes into making your delicious cup of 100% Kona Coffee. Your coffee is crafted to your personal taste and labeled with your own custom packaging to share with your friends and family or to enjoy on your own for mornings to come. Taking this tour will give you a new appreciation for the complex process needed to create the perfect cup of coffee.
How are Private Reserve and Premium Coffees Different?
It is the quality of the coffee bean. Private Reserve and Premium coffee are made from the same sized coffee beans but differ in density. Extra Fancy, Fancy and Number 1 sized beans are blended together and separated by density. The densest beans from the mixture are sold as Private Reserve coffee which is our highest quality of non-organic coffee. While coffee beans that are slightly less dense from the same batch of beans become our Premium grade, having a bit more of an acidic or bitter after taste dependent on the roast selected, this is something that most coffee drinkers may not detect while it is subtle … particularly if you add cream or sugar to your coffee.
What is Peaberry and How is it Different?
Peaberry is a coffee bean which was an accident of nature during the pollination of the coffee flower, resulting in one bean developing instead of two. They are typically smaller with the tendency to be smoother when brewed, having less acidity and bitterness, while having a bit more caffeine.
When to Buy Espresso Roast … in what drinks is it used?
Did you know that most customers that buy Espresso Roast do not use an Espresso machine? Many people prefer the stronger, dark, rich aroma and taste of Espresso and use brew by drip, pour-over, or French press.
If you have an espresso machine, our espresso roast is a perfect option for you. It has a very smooth finish along with strong, rich flavor. The espresso machine can magnify the richness while the body of the coffee will thicken due to the coffee oil. As a result, you will get an aromatic and bold cup of espresso.
A shot of espresso is found to be the base for most coffee drinks, including but limited to; café lattes, cappuccinos, café macchiatos, mochas, flat whites, and café americanos.
CO2 Decaf Process - Why is it Superior to Swiss Water?
We find Carbon Dioxide in the air that we breathe. During the decaffeination process, the CO2 is contained under heat and pressure to pass through the coffee beans causing the molecules to be mobile. After a few hours, some of the caffeine is extracted so that when the CO2 is removed the caffeine molecules are also taken out. Roasting the coffee afterward will draw out the flavor naturally found in the beans and leave you with a better-tasting decaffeinated cup.
We have found the CO2 method to be a better option when decaffeinating because it doesn’t strip the flavor of the coffee as the Swiss Water method does. Leaving us with a better-tasting cup of coffee with 97% of the caffeine removed.
About Mountain Thunder’s 100% Kona Peaberry
Coffee connoisseurs have told us that Mountain Thunder’s 100% Kona Peaberry Coffee may be the ultimate in gourmet Kona Coffee.
Comprising only 3-5% of the entire Kona Coffee crop, peaberries are the rarest of beans.
Peaberry are round-shaped coffee beans, unlike 95% of coffee beans, which have a flat side. Peaberries form when one of the seeds in the coffee fruit, the “cherry,” does not fertilize, leaving one bean inside the fruit. Thus, all of the coffee fruit’s sugars and nutrition concentrate in one bean rather than the usual two.
Kona Peaberry Coffee provides a slightly lighter body and sweeter taste profile than our Private Reserve and Premium Kona Coffees. Our Peaberry demonstrates a more complex taste profile with less acidity.
Kona Peaberry is always in short supply due to the high demand among coffee aficionados and a restricted supply.
Mountain Thunder’s 100% Kona Peaberry is always in short supply due to the high demand among coffee aficionados and a restricted supply.
The Best of 100% Kona Peaberry Coffee…Our Process
Because of the different shape, size, and density, we have created unique roasting profiles ideal for our peaberry coffee beans. This attention to sorting and roasting makes Mountain Thunder’s 100% Kona Peaberry the “best of the best” or, as some connoisseurs have said, “the champagne of Kona Coffees.”
Mountain Thunder’s 100% Kona Peaberry Coffee starts its journey to your cup from the famous Kona Coffee Belt on the Big Island of Hawaii. Our 100% Kona Coffees are grown in an area that is only 26 miles long by 3 miles wide … providing ideal volcanic soil, cool mountain weather, abundant rain, and higher elevations for growing the finest coffee in the world. Then, at the height of ripeness, our pickers select only the fully ripe coffee cherry and handpick each fruit. Within 24 hours we begin processing the coffee fruit in our own mill, removing the fruit pulp and beginning the drying process.
After our 100% Kona Coffee has reached the proper moisture content, we age it for a few months in our temperature and humidity-controlled warehouse. This “resting” period helps bring out our famous Mountain Thunder 100% Kona Coffee aroma and flavor.
When our dried coffee is ready, we process it in our own dry mill, removing the parchment layer to expose the green coffee bean. Next, we sort our green coffee by size, density, and color. These are important quality steps that allow Mountain Thunder to provide only “the best of the best” 100% Kona Coffees for you. Finally, our RoastMaster roasts our Mountain Thunder coffee daily to assure that we ship the freshest coffees from our farm direct to you.
From our mill, the green coffee beans are returned to our temperature and humidity-controlled warehouse right here on our Cloud Forest Farm adjacent to our roastery. When we receive your order, we will freshly roast your coffee. It is packaged in multi-layer bags that will not allow any moisture to intrude. Immediately after your roasted coffee is accurately weighed and the bag is ready to be sealed … we pump food-grade nitrogen gas into the bag to “flush” out the majority of the air. This forces most of the oxygen, which would cause aroma and flavor to degrade, out of the bag …. All this happens less than a second before the bag is heat-sealed, assuring you the best 100% Kona Coffee you can buy.
All Mountain Thunder 100% Kona Coffees are hygienically sealed in our custom-designed bags. Regardless of the size of the bag, you order … there will be a one-way valve that allows air inside the bag to escape while not permitting any outside air or moisture to enter the bag. This valve allows Mountain Thunder to package your 100% Kona Coffee sooner after roasting, maximizing that famous aroma and flavor.
