Most of what’s sold as “Kona coffee” in airport shops and hotel lobbies is a “Kona blend” that contains just 10% Kona beans by weight. The rest is cheaper commodity beans, and Hawaiʻi law allows it as long as the percentage appears on the label. Coffee labeled 100% Kona is a different product, grown only on the slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa between Kailua-Kona and Captain Cook. Expect to pay $40 to $70 per pound.
If you plan to bring coffee home, check the Kona percentage on the label before you look at the price. Three other Big Island coffees, Kaʻū, Puna, and Hāmākua, grow under similar conditions and often cost as little as $20 a pound.
Table of contents
To visit a working Kona coffee farm, start with our Kona Coffee Tours guide:
15 Best Kona Coffee Farm Tours: Free Tastings + $40 Deep Dives
Every Kona coffee farm tour ends in a free tasting. Six of the 15 farms are free; most paid tours run $20 to $50. Compare all 15 before you drive.
The history of Kona coffee
Don Francisco de Paula Marín, a horticultural experimenter who introduced many plant species to the islands, made the first recorded attempt to grow coffee in Hawaiʻi. His 1817 planting failed.
Samuel Ruggles succeeded in bringing coffee to Hawaiʻi in 1828. Over the next 150 years, coffee stayed a minor crop next to sugar. Kona coffee is now a specialty product that sells for $40 to $70 a pound.
This timeline draws on the book A Cup of Aloha. “A cup of Aloha”
- 1817: Don Francisco de Paula Marin brings the first coffee seedlings to Hawaiʻi, but the plants perish.
- 1828 – 1860: Samuel Ruggles plants the first coffee in Kona (1828). More and more coffee plantations open in the following decades, but in the 1850’s hard times begin due to lack of labor, bad weather, and pests. In 1860, coffee is all but gone from the Hawaiian islands.
- 1873: Henry N. Greenwell is honored at the World’s Fair in Vienna for the excellent Kona coffee. (Unrelated but interesting: this World’s Fair lost today’s equivalent of 170 million USD because of a devastating combination of the world’s first international financial crisis and Vienna’s last cholera epidemic.) [source]
- 1892: Hermann Widemann introduced the ‘Guatemalan’ coffee variety to Hawaiʻi from Guatemala. Today, growers call this variety “Kona Typica”, the variety growers prefer most in Hawaiʻi. Coffee production starts to pick up again.
- 1899: A severe drop in coffee prices again almost causing coffee to disappear from the islands.
- 1917-1918: World War I sharply increases the domestic demand for coffee, and a frost in Brazil destroys its coffee crops and causes a world shortage in coffee.
- 1929: Start of the Great Depression. Coffee prices plummet. In the decade after debts continue to rise and coffee prices continue to drop.
- 1941-1953: Both army purchases of Coffee as the US enters WWII and steadily increasing coffee prices after the war is over help Coffee on Hawaiʻi recover. This is supported by another frost in Brazil (1953) which yet again causes a worldwide coffee shortage.
- The 1960s: Hawaiʻi has record coffee harvests. The tourism industry starts to compete with the coffee plantations for labor.
- The 1970s: Low prices, high costs and a shortage of labor bring on the last great demise of coffee in Hawaiʻi.
- The 1980s: Coffee prices pick up again in the mid-seventies, and a new crop of coffee farmers rises. Kona coffee starts to sell as a “specialty coffee”, and demand for it grows.
- 1992: The 10% Kona coffee blend statute (HRS 486-120.6) was passed. This law allows blended coffee that contains only 10% Kona coffee to be labeled as “10% Kona coffee”. [Hawaiʻi coffee labeling rules]
That 10% minimum still applies today. It’s why most bags labeled “Kona coffee” at airport gift shops and souvenir stores contain only a small fraction of Kona beans. Hawaiʻi has since tightened the rules: as of July 2024 a blend must also disclose on the front label where the coffee was grown and the percentage from each source, and the Kona minimum is set to rise from 10% to 51% in 2027. If you’re buying coffee to take home, check the wording on the label: 100% Kona or Kona Blend.
Why Kona Is a Specialty Coffee
Specialty coffee differs from commodity coffee in the beans, the growing conditions, and how the cherries are processed.
Five growing conditions that set Kona apart
Good coffee needs these growing conditions, and Kona has them all:
- Lots of sunshine and temperatures around 70°F, but certainly not below 55°F.
- Protection from an overdose of sun by either cloud cover or shade
- Altitude! How high a coffee plant grows has a large influence on the taste of its beans. The elevations at which Kona coffee is grown (up to ~3000 feet) give the coffee a very mild taste.
- Lots of rain, regularly.
- Good soil drainage. Coffee plants don’t like to have their roots standing in the water.
The slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualālai have porous, mineral-rich volcanic soil, sunny mornings, afternoon cloud or rain, little wind, and mild nights.
Why Kona Coffee Costs $40 to $70 a Pound
Kona coffee is expensive mostly because of labor. Picking coffee by hand is slow work, and a farm worker in Hawaiʻi earns far more than one in Guatemala or Ethiopia.
As one Big Island coffee farmer explains, getting the beans off the trees alone costs $8 / lb. Add other farming costs such as land use, fertilizers, and maintenance, and you can easily reach around $14 / lb. That price doesn’t include his labor, marketing, electricity or gas for roasting, bags, a website, taxes, the farm mortgage, and the rest. Add it all up, and 100% Kona Coffee costs between $40 and $70 a pound.
Three Other Big Island Coffees: Kaʻū, Puna, and Hāmākua
Kona coffee makes up about 95% of all coffee grown on the Big Island. The other 5% is mostly beans grown in Kaʻū, Puna and along the Hāmākua coast. There is even some coffee grown on the other Hawaiian islands. Each of these coffees has its own taste, much like beers and wines.
These three don’t have Kona’s long history or its marketing, so they are less known and cost as little as $20 a pound. You can find the beans at farmers markets (in Kona, Volcano, Waimea or Hilo), in local shops, or online.
The table below compares the four main Big Island coffees.
| Coffee | Price per lb (100%) | Flavor profile | Competition record | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kona | $40–$70 | Mild, smooth, low acidity | Long-established prestige; top finishes in US specialty coffee | Farm direct, online |
| Kaʻū | ~$25–$45 | Floral, aromatic, smooth finish | Multiple top-10 finishes at SCA conventions | Kaʻū Coffee Mill, Silver Cloud farm, some online retailers |
| Puna | ~$20–$38 | Full-bodied, nutty, heavy | Scored 96/100 on Coffee Review (2016) | Sharky’s Coffee Farm; some online retailer |
| Hāmākua | ~$30–$60 | Deep, chocolaty finish | Smaller competition history; quality varies by farm | Farm direct; Hog Heaven Coffee |
Kaʻū coffee
Kaʻū coffee has a floral, aromatic profile with a smooth finish. It has won top-ten placements at the Specialty Coffee Association convention and is far less known than Kona, so the price stays down.
If you’re curious about these Hawaiian beans but not on the islands, you can order them online, for example from the Kau Coffee Mill or the Silver Cloud coffee farm. There is even a Kaʻū coffee festival on the Big Island every May.
Puna coffee
Puna has grown coffee since the mid-1800s, when 6,000 acres of it grew in the district. With the rise of sugar cane the coffee disappeared from Puna, and today more than 125 acres of coffee grow there again. Puna coffee is full-bodied with nutty overtones, comparable to a medium-roast mocha when roasted to that level.
If you’re not on the Big Island, Sharky’s coffee ships from its online shop.
Hāmākua coffee
The Hāmākua coast has rolling hills and scenic drives along Highway 19. The tropical slopes of Mauna Loa used to be sugar cane country and are slowly turning into coffee country. Most coffee farms on the Hāmākua coast are small (5 to 7 acres on average) and the berries are hand picked. Hāmākua coffee has a deep flavor with a chocolaty-smooth finish.
What Is Kona Peaberry Coffee?
When shopping around for coffee you’ll sometimes see peaberry beans on offer. Peaberry beans cost more than regular coffee beans.
A peaberry is a single, rounded coffee bean. Normally coffee beans grow two to a fruit. These two beans compete for space and flatten out in the middle, much like the two halves of a peanut. In about 5% of all coffee beans only one of the two seeds in the fruit is fertilized. When that happens, the single seed grows to fill the whole fruit and develops into a larger, rounder bean.
These peaberry beans roast differently from the normal coffee beans, so farms sort them out before roasting. According to coffee folklore, peaberry beans taste better because of their higher bean density, which improves heat transfer during roasting. Folklore also says their rounder shape rolls around the roasting chamber more easily, for a more even roast.
Kona Peaberry (the term you’ll see on bags) usually costs 20 to 30 percent more than standard 100% Kona. Peaberry beans make up only about 5% of each harvest, so they’re separated and sold as a premium product. If you’re already spending $50 a pound, it’s the best-roasting version of the same coffee.
Roasted peaberry coffee beans. Notice how rounded the beans are! Image credit: Ragesoss – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
How to buy Kona Coffee (and avoid the blends)
Only coffee grown on the slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa, in the north and south Kona districts, can legally be called “Kona coffee”. It is sold either in blends that carry as little as 10% Kona beans, or in pricier 100% Kona Coffee bags.
The Kona Blends cost less but are mostly filler beans. For coffee to take home, buy 100% Kona. The simplest way to be sure of what you’re getting is to buy direct from a farm.
A full bag of Kona Coffee beans. Credit: Christopher Michel – Growing Kona Coffee, CC BY 2.0, Link
What the Label Says: 100% Kona vs. Blends
You can buy Kona beans at farms and in supermarkets around the Big Island. Watch for “Kona Blends”. By law these contain at least 10% Kona coffee, so they are cheaper than 100% Kona, but they taste mostly like the filler beans that make up the rest.
Confusing, often misleading marketing makes it easy to mistake a blend for 100% Kona. Hawaiʻi law requires a blend to state its Kona percentage on the label, and since 2024 it must also show where the coffee was grown. Look for the words “100% Kona Coffee”, and read the packaging before you buy so you don’t get home to a surprise.
You’ll also find ‘Kona Roast’ and ‘Kona Style’ coffee for sale. The main differences between all those “Kona coffees” are:
- Kona Roast: is not a protected term and can be made from any kind of coffee bean. Most likely contains 0% Kona coffee.
- Kona Style: same as the Kona Roast, probably has nothing to do with Kona coffee if no explicit mention (10% or 100% Kona coffee) is made on the package.
- Kona Blend: is by law required to contain at least 10% Kona coffee.
- 100% Kona Coffee: contains only Kona coffee beans.
If you’re ordering online rather than buying at a farm, the same rules apply: look for “100% Kona Coffee” on the label and buy direct from a named farm where possible. Farm websites ship directly.
Kona Coffee Farm Tours and the annual festival
To see how Kona coffee is made, visit a farm. Kona has hundreds of them, and many run tours: you walk the orchard, then tour the processing area and taste what the farm produces. Some tours are free (buy a bag in the shop if so), and most ask you to book ahead.
Read more about our 15 favorite Kona Coffee Tours.
The Kona Coffee Cultural Festival
The Kona Coffee Cultural Festival runs for 10 days each November, usually in the first two weeks of the month. It has been going since 1970, one of the longer-running food festivals in the state, and in 2026 it runs November 6 to 15.
The Cupping Competition is the festival’s judging round. Farms enter their beans and judges score them blind on aroma, acidity, body, and finish. You can taste the difference between farms side by side there, and the winners are often smaller operations without wide retail distribution.
The festival runs other events too. Farm and Mill Tours open up farms that don’t otherwise run public tastings. The International Lantern Parade moves through Kailua-Kona and draws a mix of locals and visitors. The Holualoa Coffee and Art Stroll is more casual, with open studios and pop-up vendors along the main street.
For the current year’s schedule and ticket information, see their website.