Bitter News

Bitter News was Originally Posted on September 28, 2012 by lavarock

According to Reuters, coffee blenders are quietly changing to more bitter and cheaper robusta beans than the more expensive and smoother arabica beans. Some consumers might not notice the taste difference anf for then, great, but I’ll bet that the price will not change; thus getting worse coffee at the same price.

Based upon industry reports, these changes have been in the channel for a while and look not to be temporary.

Recently here in Hawaii, blenders fought and won, to have the State inspection and grading program removedand now the blenders and processors can grade the coffee themselves! Imagine getting a drivers license without taking a test or hiring an electrician to wire a new house and not having an inpection done to ensure the work meets code. “We can let the electrician inspect his own work, since he has read the code…”.

One way to ensure that you get what you are paying for is the label. If the label says “100% Arabica” then at least you know the beans are not cheap robusta. Almost exclusively. robusta is from non-US countries. I think there is a smattering of robusta grown in Hawaii (the only US coffee producing area), but people would be crazy to plant robusta here when they could grow arabica in its place and have a better tasting and more expensive coffee. Besides, Hawaii is a very small part of the worlds coffee production.

Thus, if you want a smooth coffee, grown in the US, make sure that it is 100% arabica Hawaii.

I only grow Kona arabica here and I say that I have very little available at the moment.

I have a smattering of 100% Kona from two neighbors that I can roast for people. However, I also am picking and processing my own farms coffee as I speak. As soon as this is posted it is a bit of lunch and then out to pick more coffee. I expect t ohave some of my farms coffee available in a couple weeks. It needs to sit a short while, then be roasted. I will announce availablity here first, because I know a few of you have been waiting for a while. However, if you really need some Kona now, go to ItsKona.Com and order my Kona Sunset. It also is an award-winning Kona from my neighbors farm.