Coast attended the Hawaii Coffee Association Third Annual Conference on Kauai, June 18-20, 1998. See our slide shows of the conference and of the Kauai Coffee plantation and mill. Get the scoop on Kona coffee grades. See our report on the competition, and take a coffee farm tour in this Report from Kona . Also, check out these Postcards from the Kona Coast to get one person's take on life on a Kona coffee farm.
T here are several steps involved in processing coffee beans.
As shown here, it starts with the flowering of the coffee trees. The flowers later drop off and the green coffee cherries appear on the trees. When the cherries mature they become bright red and ready to pick. T he red coffee cherries are picked from the trees and packed in burlap bags of up to 100 lb. each. T he seeds fall from the pulper into a barrel of water, from whence they are transferred to a large holding tank for 12-24 hours of fermentation.