Quality Control

Growing Environment

Aerial view of a forested area with buildings partially obscured by mist.

On the leeward slopes of Hawaiʻi Island, Kona coffee grows in a rhythm shaped by the land itself. Sheltered by Hualālai and Mauna Loa, this side of the island enjoys calm mornings filled with warm sunshine, followed by the gentle arrival of afternoon clouds that drift up from the ocean and settle into the forest. These daily cycles—sun, mist, and light rainfall—create the steady conditions that have made Kona one of the most respected coffee regions in the world.

High above the coastline, at 3,200 feet elevation, Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation sits within the cool embrace of the Kona cloud forest. Here, lower temperatures, volcanic soil, and consistent moisture slow the maturation of each coffee cherry, allowing sugars and complexity to develop naturally on the branch. While many coffee farms in Hawaiʻi grow closer to sea level, our elevation places us among the highest-grown coffees in the islands—an environment that helps shape the depth, clarity, and character found in every cup of 100% Kona coffee we produce.

Picking

Many parts of the world use machines to pick coffee trees. These machines essentially strip all the coffee beans—ripe, unripe & rotten—from the trees all at the same time. Machine harvesting guarantees lower quality coffee.

At the Mountain Thunder farm, and, indeed, at all Kona coffee farms, all the coffee cherry (the red coffee fruit that contains the beans) is hand-picked. Skilled pickers will only pick the red, ripe fruit and leave the unripe fruit for a later picking. Many coffee farms will go through several rounds of picking from August to December.

Processing

Red and green coffee cherries on a conveyor belt

We take great care when processing our picked coffee fruit. The first step is to remove the coffee fruit skin, which leaves the coffee beans. These beans are then cleaned to remove the sticky coating and then dried on large shade-covered drying decks until they meet a precise moisture content. The beans are then milled to remove the parchment-like coating. These steps are very labor-intensive, but they all offer multiple opportunities to remove “bad” beans. Most Kona coffee farmers follow a similar process.

Mountain Thunder has two more steps: 1) sorting/grading the beans and 2) color sorting to remove any beans that might affect the taste negatively.

The grading process runs the green beans over different size screens to assure uniform size beans are roasted together. Many farms roast big and small beans together—ungraded coffee—which can make the roast uneven and the taste affected by off-grade, low-quality beans.Mountain Thunder uses a Satake optical color sorter on all coffee beans prior to roasting. This machine scans every bean and shoots a puff of air to remove black, white, yellow and brown beans. These beans will affect the taste of the coffee, so we remove them prior to roasting. It cannot be emphasized enough that this step is key to making sure every bean that goes to our Master Roaster will contribute to quality.

Roasting

Scoop of coffee beans being poured onto a surface

Many people have noticed that a lot of the commercial coffee they drink at coffee shops and buy at the supermarket is over-roasted, and, as a result bitter. This is an old trick of coffee roasters: over-roast low-quality and poorly processed coffee to mask the poor and uneven quality.

At Mountain Thunder, we use small-batch roasting, with each roast overseen by a highly-experienced Roast Master. This attention to quality and bringing out the best in each coffee bean is only possible with the small-batch roasting of similarly sourced coffee.

Packaging

Our freshly roasted beans are quickly sealed in specially-designed coffee bags. Many bags of coffee you see at the store are sealed, air-tight and placed on the store shelf where they may sit for long periods of time.

The Mountain Thunder coffee bags have a valve that allows the oxygen to flush from the bag, keeping the coffee fresher and flavorful.

Freshness

Mountain Thunder 100% Kona Coffee" bags, showcasing various varieties of the product