Kona's original coffee pioneers established a tradition of excellence that each new generation of coffee farmer aspires to uphold. Quality, Kona's industry standard, started with the introduction of the arabica variety of coffee noted for its superior flavor and typically reserved for gourmet labels. Grown elsewhere, the heartier robusta variety is considered inferior, producing high yields with twice the caffeine that sells at a much lower world market price.

Officially classified as a bush or shrub, coffee is referred to as a "tree." The first Kona coffee farmers often grew coffee trees that reached up to 20 feet-a difficult height to hand-harvest. To gather the prized red cherries, farmers used a naturally hook-shaped coffee branch with a rope tied to one end to pull down the tall limbs. Aptly-named kagi, Japanese for hook, farmers would step on the rope to hold the branch at a lower height, freeing both hands to pick coffee. Noted for their self-reliance and creativity, Kona coffee farmers used everything they possessed to develop their success and keep the industry thriving. Today, most coffee farmers prune their trees to seven or eight feet to keep them more manageable but even at these heights the kagi is still a useful tool.

Within the past 20 years a resurgence in Kona coffee farming has brought many new farmers, along with some new farming methods, to the district. One of the more interesting pruning methods now seen in Kona employs a trellis, commonly used in a vineyard. Coffee trees are trained to grow along the wires of the trellis, requiring years of meticulous pruning.

Coffee farmers also have proven the agricultural viability of grafting on nematode resistant stock, a very delicate process that requires a steady hand. In grafting, two different varieties of sapling coffee trees are bound together and planted as one. However, for the product to be considered Kona coffee, the fruit of the tree must be of the arabica type.

Each coffee farmer adds a new dimension to Kona coffee heritage, cultivating higher and higher standards that keep Kona coffee a gourmet product favored worldwide.