Coffee Comes to PACIFIC

April 15, 2009 | By admin In Coffee, coffee mix |

1. New Guinea
Coffee labeled New Guinea usually comes from Papua New Guinea, which occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. These coffees are grown in peasant patches and small plantations throughout the rugged mountain highlands. The best New Guinea coffee is estate- or plantation-grown. In general, New Guinea is a low-key version of the great Indonesian coffees: not as full-bodied as the best Sumatra, less acidy and aromatic than the best Celebes, but a comfortably rich cup. Coffee marketed as Arona seems to be the currently preferred New Guinea coffee among specialty roasters.
2. Hawaii
Kona, the largest island of the Hawaiian chain, produces the most famous and the most traditional of Hawaiian coffees. Coffee has been grown in smaller quantities elsewhere on the islands since the early days of European settlement, but encouraged by the impending closure of sugar and pineapple plantations and the tourism-induced popularity of Hawaiian coffee, large commercial concerns now have established plantations on the islands of Kauai and Molokai.
Kona coffee appeared to be on the way to becoming a luxurious memory. A tourist-inflated economy, low coffee prices, and an aging population of grower-landowners appeared to be conspiring to doom the Kona coffee industry. In addition, local schools no longer timed their vacations to coincide with coffee-picking season. But that was before the coffee price hikes of 1977, before a flood of tourists began carrying the romance of Kona coffee back to their kitchens, and before a new generation of small, quality-oriented coffee producers appeared to consolidate and capitalize on the revival. That revival is now in full swing. Whether it has produced a better Kona coffee or simply more of it is still subject to debate, but the tourists are happy and the little coffee towns are humming again.
In the process Kona has become a bit pricey, perhaps too pricey when compared with some of the world’s great and undervalued coffees, such as the best Sumatran, Guatemalan, and Kenyan. Furthermore, its cost has created an equivalent to the Jamaican Blue Mountain syndrome: We now have commercial roasters producing Kona style coffee, Kona blend coffee, and coffee vaguely labeled Kona that probably consists in large part of Central American beans. In 1991 most “Kona Blend” coffees sold in Hawaii contained at most 5 percent actual Kona. Proposed regulations up the minimum percentage required by law to 51 percent.
Kona is a unique and valuable American phenomenon, and at its most authentic is medium-bodied, fairly acidy, with some subtle winey tones, very richly flavored, and overwhelmingly aromatic when fresh. If you like to tantalize yourself with coffee fragrance before you drink, or find Indonesian coffees too rich, African coffees too winey, and Central and South American coffees too sharp, Kona may be the coffee for you.

The best grade is extra fancy, followed by fancy and number one grades. There are many excellent small estates in the Kona district; generally the coffee they produce is both better and more interesting than the Kona coffees that are pooled and sold generically.