Kona’s coffee growing environment and conditions
Kona is the perfect coffee growing environment in the United States and arguably, in the world. Kona combines the exacting combination of sun, soil, shade and water that coffee trees thrive in.
Coffee is an extremely temperamental crop, but coffee trees take perfectly to sunny mornings cloudy, rainy and humid afternoons.
In Kona, if it doesn’t rain in the afternoon, it is usually shady. In addition, mild nights with no freezing make for ideal coffee growing conditions. Due to this unique location and weather pattern, coffee thrives in the Kona region. The rocky terrain, temperatures, average rainfall and frost-free environment are a combination that is unmatched in the world. Thus it is conducive to growing one of the most sought-after coffees by gourmets everywhere.
Kona is home to about 600-700 independent coffee farms, most of them small and family owned. In 1997 the total Kona coffee acreage was 2,290 acres and green coffee production just over 2 million pounds. In comparison, coffee planted today in Kona equals about 3,500 acres. Producing approximately 3.8 million pounds a year. Still just a blip in comparison to the world coffee market.