Kona, meaning "on the dry side of the land", can only be grown in the Kona districts of Hawaii, and are typically centred on Mount Hulalai and Muana Loa. Although grown from what was a Brazilian sapling brought to Hawaii by Samuel Reverend Ruggles in the early 19th Century, Kona is now world famous for its distinctive taste, which it acquires from the unique Hawaiian Archipelago.

Typically, coffee is not conducive to growing in any weather and needs its own particular weather pattern in order to both grow and produce the special blend of taste and aroma that makes it popular among coffee lovers the world over. Insofar as Kona goes, being in the unique geographic location that it is fortunately gives it the ideal blend of weather to produce all of these elements.

Although highly regarded the world over, it is cultivated in a fairly small amount each year - with only about 2 million pounds grown annually. However, each pound of Kona coffee is loving tended on one of 600 farms, with the average size of a farm being no more than 5 acres, with a small loving workforce tending to the coffee bean crop. Also, unlike coffee growers and harvesters elsewhere, Kona coffee farmers typically still harvest their crop by hand, with few Kona coffee farmers resorting to machine to harvest their crop. The reason why most Kona coffee farmers prefer to harvest their crop by hand is because they believe this loving and tender action adds to the quality of the coffee bean that so enriches the coffee drinking experience that each Kona coffee taster feels when they first experience the delight of having a cup of coffee made from the unique coffee beans of Kona province Hawaii.

Kona coffee is not to be confused then with Kona blended coffee, as the two are not the same. Strictly speaking, in order to be called "Kona coffee" the coffee bean has to be grown and harvested in Kona district. However, given the popularity of it and the general limitations on growing the crop, a number of coffee wholesalers have resorted to selling them in blended form. More often than not, the blended form of is a mixture of either a Brazilian or Columbian (as two of the world's biggest coffee producers) bean with the Kona bean itself.

Although Hawaii itself has restrictions on the ratio of blending permitted in order to still constitute a Kona blended, other place do not have such quality control restrictions. As a result, if you want to ensure that you maximise your drinking experience, you need to make sure that specifically drink coffee with a coffee bean grown in the Kona districts of Hawaii.