About Us
Mr. Bean Kona Coffee is a family owned farm located on the slope of Mt. Hualalai at the 1200 ft. elevation; ideally situated for producing the best-tasting Kona coffee. Rich volcanic soil, sunny mornings, and rain-misted afternoons nourish and pamper our beans, giving them their unique character. Discriminating coffee lovers can enjoy and serve this rare coffee to their guests for less than twenty-five cents per cup.
There's a gentle slope to the orchard that aides in drainage and soil retention. Our original orchard of prized Arabica trees was started with the saplings from the wild coffee that existed on the farm for many years. Interestingly, the saplings are located on the site of an abandoned cattle trail. In the old days cattle were raised up the mountain, and then driven down to Kailua bay where waiting ships took them to market. The fact that our plant stock comes from a cattle trail may explain the vitality of our trees!
Producing premium artesian coffee is a lot of work. Each cherry is hand-picked at just the right time. Coffee does not ripen evenly, and we must make multiple passes through the orchard during harvest.
The buzz starts in January, and what a buzz it is. Thousands of bees descend on the orchard, the air is scented with a hint of gardenia.the flowering has commenced. "Kona snow" is the term used to describe the coffee orchard in bloom. It looks as if a light snow has fallen on the trees!
Our neighbor on the makai (ocean) side of the farm keeps special bee hives. You can hear the buzz, a happy buzz, as the flowered orchard becomes alive with pollinating bees. We experience multiple flowerings triggered by good heavy Kona rain showers.
We pick our cherries at just the right time, only the red ones, and pulp them the same day.
Pulping squeezes the bean (see "Hello Mr. Bean" below) out of the red juicy outer layer. We visually inspect the results and carefully remove lesser quality beans. Precise fermentation and rinsing in pure Hawaiian water is followed by drying on our custom made rack drying system, that lets the Kona sun and Hualalai Mountain breezes work their magic!
During the drying process, each batch is carefully monitored for moisture content. At just the right moment this "parchment" is stored in special containers that ensure that moisture will not exceed ideal levels, regardless of changes in ambient humidity.
When it's time to roast, we personally mill the parchment, again in small batches, to remove the parchment and silver skin, revealing a green bean. These are then sorted and graded.
The art of roasting is performed by only the most experienced roasters of 100% Kona Coffee. The aroma of roasting is intoxicating, (close your eyes and think of chocolate with a hint of flowers). We immediately package your fresh-roasted 100% Kona coffee in special bags with one-way valves that allow gases to release, without letting air in. And then we ship directly to you!
When we picked our first ripe cherries from our hand-cultivated trees, we knew we had something special. Inspecting that luscious cherry we exclaimed, "Hello, Mr. Bean!"
We sampled the results: "Wow, this coffee is exceptional, this coffee has character!" Our product had named itself! So say hi to Mr. Bean Kona Coffee, "The Coffee With Character!"
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P.O. Box 519, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 96745 · (888) 802-8204
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