Hawaii Kona Extra Fancy Mauku Honaunau District Hawaii: Kona Extra Fancy, Mauku Honaunau District

Using a pour-over method we tried this coffee this morning. The tasting came from a "medium-roast" batch roasted over open flames and coals from maple wood in NE Vermont. The coffee did not have a smokey aroma and perhaps, just perhaps, had a very slight hint of smoke (perhaps because I was looking for it?) The coffee was very smooth, no acidity, and a wonderful flavor. I would highly recommend this coffee be roasted over an open wood fire and coals. The taste will not disappoint and they are very easy and consistent to roast.

I hand roasted it in a net over gas stove and roasted to just passed first crack. Rested the bean for 4 days. While I used V60 pour over, I first tried ground to water ratio of 1:17 and found that it yielded an overly rich cup. I then tried a 1:20 ground to water ratio and produced a very nutty and sweet cup. Very smooth and complex with great sweet lingering aftertaste. Highly recommend this bean! I have reordered two more pounds!

Great coffee, but may require you play with ground grain size and packing to get the best flavor out of it. My first cup was almost excessivly floral, with lightly packed grains. The second cup, with firmer packing (same roast batch and same grind of grains) produced more of the body and chocolate notes. Due to the packing, the second batch was also a longer brew. It was also a much better brew. The tasting was done side-by-side with a cup of brewed Kenya AA beans, with the same grind, and brewed by the same process (it is my standard for a very solid coffee). The side-by-side allowed me to better notice the earthy notes in the Kenya coffee as well. In my opinion this bean holds up well to a City+ roast, and retains the lighter elements which are normally desired to be preserved. The beans also seem to benefit from a longer "development phase" of the roast at the end. Otherwise, you lose body, and the lighter elements tend to dominate the flavor profile to the point it is "unbalanced". Like any good coffe, it may take a bit of playing with ideal grain size and brew time to expose the best character in a cup. I am just glad I hit it on the second cup, as this coffee runs at a more dear price. Keep in mind this coffee is not a true "high altitude" bean (600 Meters above sea level), as such, your roasting profile should be more similar to South American beans grown at lower altitudes. Additional roasting notes: These beans really puffed up on size during the roast process.

Roasting notes for: Kona Extra Fancy beans from Coffee Bean Corral. Roasting machine: Gene Cafe CBR101 2016 production model, stock. Measure 8 ounces or 227 Grams of green Kona Coffee and set aside. Place the empty roasting cyinder in the roaster, Pre-Heat Gene Cafe Roaster to 305 degrees F or 151 degrees C. Wait 5 minutes for the temperature to stabilize, and the chamber to uniformly warm up. Place unroasted beans in the roaster, dehydrate at 305 F for 8 Minutes. Stop the roaster, remove the beans and force cool them. While the beans cool, place the empty roasting cylinder back in the roaster. Set Roaster to 392 degrees F, or 200 degrees C. Allow to roaster to pre-heat for 12 minutes while beans cool. After waiting 12 minutes, zero and start timer, place the well-cooled beans in the roaster, roast at 392 F for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes at 392 F, raise the temperature to 460 degrees F, or 238 degrees C. Continue roasting. With this batch, first crack was heard at 10 minutes with the Kona Extra Fancy bean. Thirty seconds after first crack (10 minutes 30 seconds on a kitchen timer), lower the temperature to 450 degrees F, or 232 degrees C. Continue to roast until desired level of roast, For this roast, the Roast duration used was 13 minutes and 00 seconds (this does not include the time dehydration took, 8 minutes). The bean came out as a Full-City roast.

Roasting review 10/03/2023. Roasted over open campfire using maple hardwood in northern Vermont in old fashioned wire popcorn popper. Large beans generate very little chaff. Easy to roast to light, medium, or dark. The beans behaved identically as they did last year. Smell great while roasting (cannot say the same of all of the other beans I have roasted this year or in the previous years (see other reviews).

I purchased the Kona Extra Fancy to see how it roasted and tasted. I also purchased the Kona Peaberry as well. I used my Hive Roaster with my standard "new coffee" profile. I roasted it to just beyond City and it roasted beautifully. The bean looked great and were very uniform. How did it taste? Pretty good with a few floral notes. A smooth cup. I was pleased with the outcome. Which one of the Konas did I like the best, read my review of the Kona Peaberry.

For the first time ever trying Kona coffee I enjoyed it. Was a little disappointed that two of the 1 lb bags I ordered were short could not quite weigh a pound but other than that the coffee is not too bad

Roasted to medium. Just bought a sample bag but it was excellent.