From Bean To My Cup - The Breakdown Of Our Process

When you are enjoying your delicious cup of coffee, knowing how the beans travel from the farm to your cup can make it even better. At Wings of the Morning, we take pride in our careful process that Combines traditional farming with a focus on sustainability. Let us show you how our coffee beans go from being carefully grown to becoming the gourmet Kona coffee you love.

Step 1: Picking

Our gourmet Kona coffee journey starts with handpicking our coffee cherries to make sure you get only the best ones. We do this by carefully checking each cherry and only picking it when it's perfectly ripe, ensuring you get the best beans. Many large-scale operations use mechanical harvesters, meaning that their coffee often has more under-ripe beans than our handpicked coffee, as handpicking can lower the number of under-ripe beans ending up in your by up to 30%. The result of handpicking the coffee cherries is a richer, smoother-tasting coffee.

Step 2: Wet Milling

Once harvested, the red cover or pulp on the cherry is removed by a simple procedure called wet milling, and the beans, beige in color at this point, are covered with water and left to soak in a fermentation tank for 12 to 14 hours. Naturally occurring bacteria cause fermentation, which loosens the sticky covering on the newly milled beans. The coffee beans are then agitated with hand tools to remove the sticky substance. This step is important for developing the beans' flavor and getting them ready to dry, and if we miss this step, it can change the taste of your coffee.

Step 3: Drying

At this stage, the coffee is called parchment. It’s rinsed in fresh water and put out on a Hoshidana, a traditional Japanese-style deck, to dry in the sun. Here the beans are spread evenly and raked repeatedly to accomplish uniform drying. Depending on the amount of coffee coming into the mill at any one time, a particular lot may be pushed off the deck into a mechanical dryer to finish. When dried to 9-12% moisture content, the parchment is then put into a burlap sack and placed in moisture-controlled storage. Parchment is very stable, and if the storage facilities are adequate, it can be held for many years without loss of quality.

Step 4: Dry Milling

The beige husk on the beans is ground off in a machine, and the resulting greenish gray beans, now called ‘green coffee,’ are weighed and sorted. Size and weight determine the grade and market value of the coffee. By taking our time with this process, we make sure each batch of coffee beans is top-notch so you can enjoy a delicious, well-balanced cup of gourmet Kona coffee every time.

Step 5: Roasting

Roasting is where the magic really happens, turning the green coffee beans into the delicious beans you love. We chose a medium-dark roast for our beans, which really brings out the unique flavors of gourmet Kona coffee. It's all about getting the temperature and timing just right. By roasting in small batches, we can boost the flavor profile by up to 25% compared to big industrial roasters. Over-roasting can burn the beans and hide all those delicate, high-quality flavors we work so hard to achieve, so we are sure to watch the beans carefully in this stage.

Step 6: Packaging

Now it’s time to package up our gourmet Kona coffee ready for you. After our gourmet coffee is roasted, it’s packed in heat-sealed mylar/foil bags with one-way valves. Coffee continues to release gas after it is roasted, thus the wonderful aroma. The valve releases the pressure built up in the bag, preventing it from rupturing. It also prevents the entry of oxygen into the sealed bag, which helps to keep your coffee fresh for much longer. 

Step 7: Enjoy

Now, it's time to enjoy your gourmet Kona coffee. Whether you want a pour-over, French press, or espresso, you will enjoy each sip more, knowing the care that went into every step. Experience the taste of Wings of the Morning Kona Coffee. Visit our online store to grab some of our 100% Kona coffee, handpicked and made the old-fashioned way for top-notch quality. Give yourself a coffee upgrade today!