Mmmmm Kona Coffee
 

Trader Joe's sells more than orchids. I don't buy much there so I don't look through all the aisles often. They used to have only Kona "blend" coffee. Who knows what that means? This time I found 100% Kona coffee. Enjoying a cup now!

I've been drinking pumpkin spice coffee. Lucky you, though! :)

It has to be 100% Kona!

Taken from wikipedia:

Kona blends
Because of the rarity and price of Kona coffee, some retailers sell "Kona Blends". These are not a combination of different Kona coffees, but a blend of Kona and Colombian, Brazilian, or other foreign coffees. Usually they contain only the minimum required 10% Kona coffee and 90% cheaper imported beans.

Current Hawaiian law requires blends to state only the percentage of Kona coffee on the label but not any other coffee origins. There is no matching Federal law. Some retailers use terms such as 'Kona Roast' or 'Kona Style'. To be considered authentic Kona coffee, the state of Hawaii's labeling laws require the prominent display of the words "100% Kona Coffee".

I wrote my message while brewing it. I ground it finely and used my 3-piece hexagonal espresso maker. I know what Kona is supposed to taste like.

It was yukky. Too acidic, too bitter, too burnt.

I'm going to try some with the drip method. If that's no good, it's back to mail-ordering from The Coffee Shack.

Trader Joe has coffee from all over the world. I've had from Malawi, Tanzania amongst others. And I feel good helping out the less fortunate with my daily fix. And the coffee is good too.

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Do you drink it with sugar?

No, that was the taste black. I added sugar and cream after that. Still very acidic.

If the acid, burnt and bitter is too strong, make cold brew. It doesn't give you the hot brew aroma but gets rid of the acid and mellows the burnt and bitter.

I looked at a job in Kona in about 1991. The coffee! 100% Kona is truly amazing. And the Big Island is so different from the others, and so wonderful.

Big Island is best!!

How do you make coffee in the US?

I have become a big fan of cold brew in the past year. Strong coffee flavor, high caffeine content, with lower bitterness and acidity. You just have to plan ahead at least a few hours. So much coffee actually gets burned in roasting because they're trying for a dark roast without precise enough control of time and temp and even heat. Cold brew makes it more palatable.

Still enjoying a cup of coffee while watering.

Even better with a N.E. wind blowing the smell of salt and seaweed. This is my plant beverage of course.

Until recently most people probably used an electric drip machine, for 2-12 cups. Most people buy pre-ground coffee. A fair number grind pre-roasted beans.

A large electric percolater machine is often used for parties and larger gatherings. They make 25-50 cups.

A lot of people use instant coffee. Truly.

A few people buy large, expensive Italian or French multi-function espresso makers.

It is possible to find small stovetop espresso makers, the 3-piece screw-together kind. Not many people here make espresso at home. It is also possible to find a proper long-handled Turkish coffee pot.

Café de olla is popular in Mexico and among some people here. Ground coffee is added to boiling water, and the pot removed from the heat just before it boils again.

The single-pod machines have taken over, because we're so lazy as a country. The coffee produced probably costs 4 or 5 times what drip coffee costs. They produce increased amounts of trash. But I notice so many people who say they are greens use these things.

The real ground coffee is extremely strong and easy to get addicted to and to build up the toxic levels for heart troubles or even overdose etc.

But it depends on how many cups a day you drink.

About 12 mugs a day is where I sit or stand as the case maybe.

My only vice in life is coffee.

Coffee. After reading this, I had to use my electric drip machine and make myself some coffee with my pre-ground beans. Yep, I use the plebeian method to get my fix. Sometimes (gasp), I even use instant! :)

I had a keurig for a while but my regular coffee maker coffee is much better in flavor and I did not like the wastefulness of it.

I do wish I had the ambition to make myself a more decent cup (or three) but the truth is, it is not going to happen, not when I stumble blindly into the kitchen, half-asleep. It is all that I can do to find the filter, measure out the coffee and remember to plug it in and turn it on. :|

Here we do it using different methods and, according the one used, the grinds vary in size.
Here, I can't give you an exact number, but I estimate more than 80% of the people drink as expresso, in coffee houses after a meal or at home using small expresso machines. But even using a good machine, it's considered an art to produce a good coffee to drink: the flavour, the foam, the temp, the type of cup, etc. They all contribute to a good coffee.

I made some with the drip method. Much better.

Hi folks,

Want really good coffee?
Want really fresh coffee?
Want coffee that is roasted properly, instead of too dark to hide the inferior bean and the supposed varietal differences?
Want to truly discern the differences from coffee regions around the world?
Want to have fun?
Want all this for $6 - $7lb? (not 100% Kona though!)
Want to take a teeny break from our orchids?!

then...roast your own coffee. I have been doing this for 10+ years. Search for Sweet Marias coffee, then look for the Behmor coffee roaster. Other roasters are available too. I have had great luck with the Behmor. The SM site also has a wealth of knowledge about coffee and roasting.

NO affiliation with these companies.

Hope I can convince at least one of you.

-Joe

I agree with you completely. I have friends who roast their own, and it's incredible. Sadly, I can't find somebody who will keep me, so I have to work, and I don't have time to roast my coffee.

An easy way to improve coffee immensely is to brew with ro or distilled water.