As you can well imagine, at the SCAA Exhibition thee is a lot to see. Many hundreds of booths to see and filter while trying to decide which are best to visit for my readers as well as myself. Most of the time I am searching out but every now and then someone comes looking for me. That was the case when John Langenstein of the Koa Coffee Plantation stopped by the Hottop booth.

      Generally I do not review coffees because I am not trained at cupping. I am not one of the people who can taste a coffee and tell you how many defect beans went into the cup (there are some who can taste one or two bad beans in a cup!). I am not one of the people who can always recognize the subtle blueberry, cherry, oaky or other flavors that can come through in an espresso. On the other hand, I have made and tasted enough bad espresso, and had a few top-tier shots that I know the difference between them.

      John dropped by the booth because he wanted to share the fact that he had recently developed and was now selling the first, 100% American grown espresso blend! Those in the know will realize what that means. There is only one state where coffee is grown in the United States, and that is Hawaii. *1

      Kona coffee is highly prized by a lot of coffee drinkers. Not only because it is grown in the United States and thus a point of nationalistic pride, but also because it is truly a quality coffee. The demand for this coffee coupled with higher labor rates in Hawaii than in most coffee-growing regions and a limited supply makes this coffee more expensive than most. Green Koa http://www.koacoffee.com/greenkona.html sells for $13 to $24 a pound with various roasted offerings selling for $18 to $35 a pound.

      So why did John drop by the Hottop Booth? He not only wanted to share with me the news about the Koa Plantation's coffees and was interested in my opinion, but also because this 100% American Espresso Blend was developed using a Hottop Coffee Roaster as the sample roaster!

      While there are companies selling "Kona Blends," the coffee offered by the Koa Coffee Plantation are all 100% Kona coffee. If you have been buying Kona and it does not say "100% Kona" then what you are getting is assuredly a blend. Where and how it is blended is another story since it is illegal to bring green coffee into Hawaii. The bottom line is if you want Kona coffee and you are paying a premium price for it, be sure that you are getting your money's worth. Look for something that states, "100% Kona" on the label.

      So how do you develop an espresso blend using one coffee? The blend is post-roast blended to create a depth of taste not available with a single origin roast. Because of that, the Koa Espresso is only available roasted.

      So what is it about Kona coffees that make them so special? They produce a smooth, rich, and mellow cup of coffee that is a delight. Balanced and smooth, with their first sip many coffee drinkers make Kona their number-one choice when it comes to coffee. It is safe to say that if you are drinking coffee that is 100% Kona, odds are you have never had a bad cup.

      I was given an 8 ounce (1/2 pound bag) of the Espresso Roast to sample and review. As I mentioned above, I am no expert in this area, but I will say that every pull was as you would expect from a Kona coffee- smooth, delicious and rich. Every pull was well balanced and worked straight as well as in milk.

      The other roasted sample I received was an 8 ounce bag of Kona Grande Domaine Single Estate http://www.koacoffee.com/kona-grandedomaine.html . This limited edition blend of Extra Fancy, Fancy, Number 1 and Peaberry beans of Kona grown on the ten acres Koa estate. I tried this as espresso as well as in my Aeropress (my preferred brewing method after espresso) and it was delicious.

      I also received two samples of their green coffee. The first was a sample of Kona Extra Fancy. These beans are carefully sorted which is quite evident just looking at the bag of green. I roasted about 220 grams to just the first few clicks of second and then let them rest for about two days.

      The first cups were made with the Aeropress, and the coffee was just as you would expect from the best Kona— smooth, delicious. I then used them as 50% with my house blend of espresso and although I used this for cappas, I tasted it straight and it was smooth and mellow. The next morning I made two cappas with 100% Kona. While these beans lack the sort of range of tastes that many other varietals posses, it would be a very easy matter to become a Kona devotee, even when used for a single origin espresso. If you like a smooth, rich cup of coffee, Kona is hard to beat. As a green bean, a pound of this coffee sells for $18.50

      The second batch of green I roasted was their Kaui Extra Fancy. I am sipping a cup I made with the Aeropress as I write these final paragraphs, and it is taking me longer than expected to finish this review because of how delicious this coffee when brewed in the Aeropress. My current experience is that this coffee is better in the Aeropress than as an espresso— at least for this roasted batch from my Hottop. With only the small sample I received I am not able to do a number of different roasts to find what suits me best, but I will say that if this was the only coffee I would ever have for drip and press I would be a very happy coffee drinker!

      My overall impression is best described thusly... You may remember me mentioning a friend who helped me out with some transportation and I thanked him with a batch of fresh roasted, Hawaiian Kona which I had been saving in green for a special occasion. He won't be seeing any of my Koa Plantation coffee!

      Shipping for a pound cost $7.50 by US Priority Mail and three pounds for $14.35 at the time of this writing. Roasted Koa coffee is available in ˝, 1, and 5 pound bags, and green is available in 1, 5, and 10 pound bags.

*1 Coffee is also grown in Puerto Rico, but that is a possession and not a state.