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I was surprised to find out that the first area in the Islands that coffee was grown is Manoa Valley on O'ahu. I wonder if it never took hold there because it sucked? I imagine that land eventually had more value to build a home on than to grow stuff.
I just had some Ka'u coffee at Barney (?)'s place off the Belt Road about a mile past Waiohinu. For those of you, like me, who like really dark roast coffee, he has a roast called "Ebony" that's beyond Dark. He commented that it's funny that he daily sees a lot of Ka'u coffee being trucked in the direction of Kona! He also sells a small selection of organic fruits and his organic, dehydrated (not roasted) Mac nuts are quite tasty! They retain their sweetness. His place isn't called "Barney's", but I forget the name of the farm/road that it's named for. You'll see his signs, one is a large coffee cup profile, and his shelter.
There's also Moa Ula (Red Rooster) coffee, aka John Bull Coffee, grown by Lisa, who is usually at the Volcano Farmers Mkt. They grow near Pahala. She's often at her roadside gazebo just past the 49 MM on the Belt Road south of Volcano.
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For anyone that is interested, one of the best ways to roast your beans at home, enough for one pot at a time, is with a wearever popcorn pumper. You know, one of those air poppers. A friend of mine turned me on to it. He owns a coffee roasting plant here in Monroe Wa. He also introduced me to white coffee. It has a pleasant, nutty flavour. If you roast it yourself, in your popper, watch for the beans to change from grey-green to a very light yellow-tan color. He claims it has a little more caffeine than darker roasts. WARNING !!
Do not grind these beans in your home burr grinder, they will destroy it. They are as hard as rocks. Either use one of those cheap coffee/spice blade grinders, or a commercial burr grinder. Enjoy.
Little Bill
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What is a "burr grinder"?
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Pepper grinders are a form of burr grinder.... usually 2 offset gear looking wheels that grind between their angled ridged (burr) plates.
Can old fashioned manual burr grinders handle 'pop-roasted' coffee?
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The " white roasted beans " are very, very hard. I was warned before hand that they would probably destroy my expensive burr grinder. He was right, in less than 5 seconds, the drive gear was toothless. I`m not sure if a hand cranked grinder would hold up. Probably will if the gears that drive the burrs are made of metal. The burrs should be able to handle the hard beans.
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General ? about a coffee tree.
Is it taking average tree space? High maintenance or nothing special?
I am trying to determine what to grow on my small lot.
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Regarding burr grinders, Zassenhaus seems to be the standard of the old manual conical burr grinders. This German-made grinder is like the one that Kevin Costner's character, John Dunbar(?), in "Dances with Wolves" used when making coffee for the Souix leaders. "Conical" refers to the cone shape of the grooved grinding surface and "burr" refers to cogs in the moving part of the grinder. Conical burr grinders, motorized or manual, are used for their ability to deliver a consistent grind. A blade grinder will give you fine and coarse grounds. A consistent grind is especially important if you use a French Press which will allow the fine grounds to get past the screen, resulting in muddy coffee. Consistently ground coffee should deliver the most even extraction of coffee out of your grind.
On a side note, I've bought into the AeroPress coffee method (from the Stanford engineer who developed the Aerobie version of the Frisbee). It basically uses water of a lower temp than boiling to make a nice tasting cup of coffee. It keeps fine grounds from your mug by using a circular filter (which can be re-used for at least 30 mugs of coffee). It only makes 1-2 mugs of coffee (depending on how large your mugs are). It cleans up easily which makes it a convenient travel brewer. (I have a portable burr grinder for travel.)
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The hard part of growing your own coffee seems to be processing the fruits to get clean beans. We harvested a heavily laden cattura coffee tree and it took a lot of time to squish the pulp off the bean and I'm not sure we got the thin skin around the bean off all of them. Is there a reasonably priced machine or place that will do the processing? Minimum batch sizes?
Pete
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Thats the ticket....If one could find a reasonably priced machine that can mill the coffee bean....there would be alot more people growing coffee on this island for themselves.
The big coffee growers have these milling machines...but they probably wouldn't use them for small backyard growers...and if they did.... the price charged would make your coffee more expensive then buying it in the store.
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stillhope, they are small more like a bush, come in dwarf sizes. but it takes ALOT of beans to harvest. if you have a small lot might do better with other things or grow some of the teas? if your a tea drinker too. they are rather a pretty plant though... maybe a hedge?
