PROCESSING

How do we get from the ripe cherry just picked to that roasted coffee in the bag??

1. Selective Hand-Picking:
   • All Kona coffee, as well as all Hawaiian coffee, is picked by hand in most regions from July to December.  Good and consistent pickers are hard to find! Here at Makana we only pick ripe, red cherries, which is necessary to reach the rating of Specialty coffee, which is a result of a high enough score if/when tested by the Specialty Coffee Association standards.  NOT all Kona coffee qualifies for Specialty coffee rating, as not all farms use only ripe, red cherries, which will affect the flavor of the coffee in your cup.  It’s good to know your farm/farmer and what they value and how they process their crop.  
2. Processing Methods:
   • Washed (Wet):
     • Almost all coffee in the world, including Kona coffee, is wet-processed, where beans are separated from the fruit pulp in a machine, fermented, and then washed/rinsed thoroughly. This produces a clean and bright flavor profile, and allows the beans to dry more easily with less tendency to grow mold.  This is how we process our Makana coffee.
   • Honey
     • Between the washed and natural processes, honey is where the cherries are pulped to remove the flesh, but not fermented in water.  It is dried with the sticky mucilage still on the bean.  This requires more careful attention to frequent raking during drying so mold doesn’t occur. .Its benefits are a sweeter end result in the cup, since it dries in the sweet, sticky natural mucus.  

• Natural (Dry):
• • This is much less common, but used by some artisanal producers. The entire coffee cherry is dried in the sun before the beans are extracted, imparting fruity notes to the coffee.  This is the most labor intensive as it is the most at risk to acquire mold if not dried in warm and dry conditions.  It is also much more expensive because of the intensive labor and unique, sweet flavors.