Bay View Coffee Farm

 

Figure 1:  Ross and Dan at the Bay View entrance.

Figure 2:  Left to Right:  Harry, Ryan, Dan, and Sheriff Bob enjoy Kona Coffee in the morning 

Virtual Tour:  The Coffee Making Process

The type of coffee tree grown at Bay View Farm is the Arrabica Pacifica (Figure 3).  They are only found in Kona and in the Caribbean.  The trees are able to grow over 30 feet in height, but are kept at 7 to 8 feet.  The red cherries are hand picked from the tree six months out of the year and sent to the Pulper.

Figure 3:  Pat and Ryan in the Arrabica Pacifica Coffee Trees


Figure 4:  Red coffee cherries in the Pulper

The red coffee cherries are picked from the Tree and brought to the Pulper (above in Figure 4).  The Pulper uses water to squish the actual coffee bean from the cherry.

After the beans have been separated from the cherry, they are set out to dry in the sun (Figure 5).  However, there are still three layers of the bean to be removed before the beans can be graded, and coffee can be produced.
After the beans have been dried, the parchment skin must be removed, followed by the silver skin (Figure 6).  The final result is the green coffee bean that now must be graded and sorted.
Figure 5:  Plantation worker drying the beans in the field.


Figure 6:  Left to Right:  Bean with parchment skin, bean with silver skin, green bean

 After all the skin has been removed, each been has to be graded.  Beans are graded by size and number of scratches (or imperfections).  As beans get larger and have less scratches, their grade is higher.  This is all done with the Grading Machine pictured in Figure 7.  

Figure 7:  Our tour guide Leinali explaining the Grading Machine
The Grading Machine sorts the beans into 6 different grades.  Extra Fancy is the highest grade.  It has only 0 - 3 defects per 800 beans!  Extra Fancy is followed by Pea, Fancy, #1, Mother, and Prime grades.  The next step is to sort each grade even more.  This is done with the Fine Tuning Machine (Figure 8).  The beans are placed in the machine and as it shakes.  The best beans fall down to the right while the others stay up on the left.  The owner of the Bay View Coffee Farm is the only person that runs this machine. Finally, the sorted beans are put into 100 lbs. bags and are ready for shipment (Figure 9).  The largest buyer of these beans is Superior Coffees and Foods in Chicago.  The beans still have to be roasted before they can be used.  This is done by separate firms after they have been shipped from Kona.  Bay View Farm has a small roaster on the grounds that is just for making coffee for the workers, guests, and sales in the Gift Shop.

Figure 8:  The Fine Tuning Machine

Figure 9:  100 lbs. bags of coffee ready for shipment.

Figure 10:  After roasting, the final product my look something like this.  These are one pound bags of Bay View's Extra Fancy Coffees.
 

 

Link to Bay View Coffee Farm

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