email this pageWhat, I asked myself during several visits to Hawaii, is so great about Kona Coffee? Sure, it’s the only coffee grown in the United State, but I never thought it was very great.
Then I met John Langenstein, who lived and worked on his own coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii.
I walked around with John as he fussed over his “cherries” —that’s what they call young coffee beans—the way a French small vintner tends his grapes. And John explained that the “Kona” I’d tasted had only a small percentage of Kona in it.
Real Kona Coffee comes from a narrow, 30-mile corridor stretching through the mountain communities strewn along the flanks of Mauna Loa. Here, rich volcanic soil, an ideal elevation of between 1,600 and 2,500 feet, and a gentle climate make for perfect coffee-growing conditions.
“Most of the coffee you can buy in the Islands or elsewhere is actually a blend,” he explained, adding that the usual proportion is 10 percent Kona to other inferior coffees. That’s why you can find prices ranging from a few bucks for the diluted version to $25 to $40 for the pure thing. It is essential that what you buy is marked as “100 percent Kona Coffee.”
So I tasted the difference. Langenstein made me a cup off coffee—medium roast, in a French press—and I tried the real, unadulterated thing. It was the best cup of coffee I’d ever had.
Try it plain or, in the spirit of the St. Patrick’s Day holiday, in this recipe for Irish Kona Coffee.
Irish Kona Coffee
1/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, sugar, divided
1/2 cup, plus 2 tablespoons, Irish whiskey, divided
1 cup whipping cream
2. Beat 1 cup whipping cream with a mixer until light. Beat in 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 tablespoons Irish whiskey.
3. Pour coffee into mugs and spoon flavored cream on top. Serves 4.
Relish the American Table, March 4, 2007.
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