Harvesting of Keopu Coffee's organic Kona coffee cherry usually begins in late August and continues on through the first months of the new year. After the coffee cherry is carefully hand picked, the next step in producing our Kona coffee involves removing the outer skin of the fruit, known as "pulping".
Keopu Coffee has our own pulping machine (Pulping equipment from J.M. Estrada, Eco-Mill Model 1000,) and drying facility, where we are able to carefully tend to our cherry and provide the utmost in quality control.
Next the organic Kona coffee must be soaked over night to create a fermentation process which removes the small amount of fruit that surrounds the actual Kona coffee bean. After fermentation, the Kona coffee must be dried, which can be done in several different ways.
All Keopu Coffee's organic Kona coffee beans are sun dried on a large drying deck, which is the most energy efficient and natural way of drying Kona coffee.
Once the desired moisture content of the drying, organic, Kona coffee beans is reached, the coffee is ready for dry milling. Dry milling removes the final layer known as the "hull" from around the coffee bean, and you are left with "green" coffee beans, named for its grayish green color. Roasting is the final step in the production of whole bean coffee, and this is done by using a coffee roasting machine that cooks the beans at anywhere between 400 and 500 degrees Fahrenheit for a desired length of time depending on how dark or light you prefer your roast to be.