October, 2005
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| John Langenstein and coffee berries |
Take a drive any time of year through the verdant uplands on the West Coast
of the Big Island of Hawaii and you can’t help but notice a distinctive aroma
wafting through the fresh tropical air—the smell of roasting coffee. That aroma
simply means you’re in the heart of a region famous for a signature gourmet
product that brings sighs of delight to connoisseurs around the world: Kona
coffee. It’s only here, concentrated in a narrow corridor stretching about 30
miles between the mountain communities of Holualoa and Honaunau on the flanks of
Mauna Loa, that this highly-prized coffee is produced. This is the Kona coffee
“belt,” as it’s known, where a combination of factors makes for superb coffee
growing conditions: rich volcanic soil, an ideal elevation of about 1,100 feet
and a gentle climate—the coffee plants are kissed by morning sun and caressed by
afternoon rain showers.Everything about this mountainside area on the Kona
coast seems so coincidentally perfect for growing fine coffee that one grower
calls it “God’s gift to the coffee bean.” The grower is John Langenstein, owner
of Langenstein Farm in the fertile Honaunau area overlooking Kealakekua Bay in
South Kona. Coffee—the word comes from the Turkish kavhe- has been grown on this
coast for more than 150 years, originally transplanted from Guatemalan stock.
The plant itself is actually a member of the gardenia family and when the trees,
which resemble large bushes with whip-like branches bloom, they are covered with
small fragrant white flowers. This happens eight or 10 times a year, resulting
in mountainsides of brilliant white blossoms which the locals call “Kona snow.”
Hawaii produces the only American coffee and some is grown on all the Islands
except Lanai. But Kona is the king, grown on farms called “estates.”
Langenstein’s Kona coffee farm is one of about 40 or so estates found in the
coffee belt, most of which are on the small side, from two to eight acres. The
coffee grown on Langenstein’s estate farm is comparable in many ways to fine
wine grapes grown on small estates in California and elsewhere. It is a labor
intensive crop, requiring hand picking (no mechanization here!) and a
traditional meticulous and time-consuming processing to bring out the complex
taste. Indeed, the words used to describe the best Kona coffee sound exactly
those used for the finest wines: ultrasmooth, low acidity, creamy head,
multi-dimensional, silky, full-bodied, rich aroma, even “winy.”
The Kona
coffee produced by Mr. Langenstein is like a fine wine, and he has worked hard
to make it exceptional in every way. You might call him an accidental grower,
because when he arrived on this coast from the San Francisco Bay area in 1975
and bought his overgrown property, he didn’t know it once was a coffee
plantation. But he discovered 90- year old coffee trees and, knowing that old
vines make better wine, he thought the beans from these vintage trees might make
good coffee. They didn’t—they made great coffee. From that moment on, he became
a man with a passion, to make the best Kona coffee on this coast and share it
with the rest of the world.
With an extensive background in the food and wine
industry and a former owner of a successful catering business, Langenstein knows
what culinary quality is all about. In the case of Kona coffee, this first means
selling a product that is 100% Kona coffee. Langenstein explains that most of
the “Kona Coffee” you can buy in the Islands or elsewhere is actually a blend:
usually just 10% Kona coffee mixed with 90% vastly cheaper and inferior foreign
coffees. These blends, unfortunately, can still call themselves “Kona” coffee;
so when the typical consumer purchases this product, it tastes nothing at all
like the real thing.
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Like all great food products of the world, there is no
substitute for the authentic, 100% genuine article. But even between the 100%
Kona coffee produced by the various estates here, the quality can vary
substantially, depending on the grade of beans, the care used in the processing
and many other factors. Mr. Langenstein has invested so much of his blood, sweat
and tears into his farm in the last three decades, that he treats each crop,
practically every bean like precious children. He oversees the many steps of the
arduous processing to ensure that quality is there from the first red bean on
the tree to the final dark, rich product. Just so you know, these steps include
picking, pulping (removing the bean from the red outer covering), drying the
beans on a special outdoor platform, grinding the parchment off the beans,
sorting and grading and finally, roasting. Langenstein actually ages most of his
beans in the parchment stage for two months; he believes this mellows the coffee
and brings out flavors the same as storage in oak barrels helps mature wine.
Mr. Langenstein’s diligence in producing a superior coffee has come to the
attention of food and wine publications, even the New York Times. You’ll find
his 100% Kona coffee served in some of the Islands’ five-star restaurants and
hotels, including Alan Wong’s, the Halekulani, Manele Bay and the Fairmont
Orchid. Some people visit his farm, where he’s happy to take visitors on a tour.
But the way most folks get to enjoy his Kona coffee is by simply ordering from
his internet website, whose name is, well just what you’d expect it to be for
someone so passionate about a coffee from Paradise—www.kona-coffee.com.
To assure clients that his coffee is 100% Kona coffee, he personally signs each
fresh-roasted bag of coffee beans he ships out. He says it shows that all the
beans are true Kona, hand-picked at optimum ripeness and processed and roasted
to the individual order. He offers three roasts, by the way: a lighter medium
roast, a full-body Vienna roast and a darker French Roast. He urges you to drink
his coffee straight—no added milk or sugar— to experience the extraordinary
flavor of this world class coffee.
Yes, you pay more for Langenstein Farm 100%
Estate Kona Coffee than the coffee you’ve been drinking. But you won’t mind. One
cup and you’ll know what God meant real coffee should taste like.
