Don't Buy 10% Kona Coffee

     I recently returned from an origin trip to Kona, Hawaii, traveling with my friends from the Fire Roasted Coffee Company.  Considering the trouble that farmers are experiencing there with the borer beetle that is destroying crops and delaying shipments, it got me thinking about Kona coffee.Read: My Kona Hawaii Trip ReportRead: What Is Decimating Kona Coffee Crops?Coffee grown in Kona, Hawaii is some of the most prized and expensive in the world.  It costs approximately three times what "regular" coffee costs.  Clever marketers who want to sell a coffee with name power, but are confined to a certain selling price, have introduced blends that include a small amount of Kona beans.  Depending on where you live, you will see these coffees with names like "10% Kona" or "Kona blend".[ad#Google Adsense - use me]They would have you believe that you are getting something premium.  You are not.  Do not buy 10% Kona coffee.     First, if it's 10% Kona coffee, that means it's 90% filler.  Most vendors of this coffee won't be able to tell you what's in the 90% filler.  In fact, you can be sure that the filler itself is of less quality than regular coffee.  Why?  Because the 10% of the blend that's Kona cost them triple, but they sell the blend at the same price as regular coffee, and presumably for the same profit.  Do some rough math, and whatever they are using for filler is costing them less than 80% of what regular coffee costs.  So the bottom line is that it's not good.Second, the 10% of the blend that is Kona is not sufficient to give you any semblance of Kona coffee.  Ask a coffee farmer and he'll tell you that one bad coffee bean can spoil the entire lot that it's in.  Blending is a science, carried out to perfection by local roasters to suit their tastes and those of their customers.  A cup of coffee that is one-tenth Kona beans bears little to no semblance to a cup of Kona coffee, for which you must pay a premium to enjoy for real.    So, why does this coffee exist at all?  So that marketers at Jack in the Box can sell you a "Kona Blend" coffee that doesn't cost you $4, while giving you the impression that you're drinking Kona coffee (or what would likely cost $8/cup at Starbucks).  So that coffee companies that sell into grocery stores can put "Kona coffee" on the shelf at the regular sticker price for coffee. For the same price as what you pay for "Kona Blend" coffee, get yourself a coffee from Central America or Africa or any of the well-known coffee-growing regions of the world.  For that, you'll get a genuinely good coffee, instead of an imitation premium coffee.Read: The World of Coffee - International CoffeeOr if you want to enjoy real Kona coffee, and I certainly suggest you try it at least once, be prepared to pay approximately $40 for a pound of it.  You won't be disappointed in the coffee, but I leave it up to you to decide if that is too expensive for you to enjoy a great and unique cup of coffee at home.