Mountain Thunder Organic Coffee Farm

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, January 8, 2008

 

The Mountain Thunder Coffee "hut" looks much the same as it does in the video from Discovery Channel. We were greeted with fresh free coffee, and a showing of their spot on the Discovery Channel. The bean sorters, and much of the processing is done in the large green building behind the hut. This location is the only one in the region that sorts it's beans into 8 levels of grades (most only go up to 6). This location is also up on the mountainside, in the rainforest just outside of Kona, where growing conditions for coffee are more ideal than down in the Kona valley.

 

These geese are part of the organic cycle, by being producers of fertilizer for the coffee, along with LOTS of donkeys.

 

A sample coffee plant. Full touring through the fields is not permitted due to the risk of damage to the crops.

 

Close-up of a couple coffee berries. We were able to pull some of these right off the plant and chew on them-- delicious sweet flavor. The bugs go for the leaves, as seen here, but let the berries alone. Apparantly the caffeine in the berries are a natural deterrent to pests.

 

Jeremy sips on his second (or third?) cup of Mountain Thunder coffee as he watches a fresh batch of coffee beans pour out of the roaster.

 

I can only begin to describe the smell of these beans, fresh from the roaster, as... heavenly!!

 

This cage holds non-native iguanas that have been captured in the coffee fields. This kitty finds it to be a nice napping spot as well!

 

Mountain Thunder Coffee website

 

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