Kona coffee is a high-quality, unique tasting coffee that is immensely popular. The coffee comes from the volcanic slopes of Kona, Hawaii. The tropical climate and the soil play a role in giving the coffee its unique taste. Only coffee grown in this specific region can be considered authentic Kona.
Its availability in the Kona coffee K cups format makes it more convenient. Let’s take a look at the best options available and see the best K cup to buy.
Best Kona Coffee K Cups To Try In 2020
- SF Bay Coffee Kona Blend
- Blue Horse 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve K Cups
- Caza Trail Coffee, Kona Blend
- Cameron’s Coffee Single Serve Pods, Kona Blend
- Barrie House Hawaiian Kona Hapa Single Serve Coffee Pods
- Don Francisco’s Kona Blend
- 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve Cups By Hualalai Estate
- Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC, Organic Hawaiian 100% Kona Coffee Pods
- Magnum Coffee K-Cups, Kona Blend
- Happy Belly Kona Blend
Editor’s Choice: Blue Horse 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve K Cups
Blue Horse 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve K Cups are an excellent specimen of the goodness of Kona coffee. Fragrant and delicious, this coffee highlights the flavors that make Kona so special.
The company doesn’t just rely on the appeal of Kona to highlight its sales. They take great care in the proper handling of the beans and the process that brings them to the consumer.
10 K Cups Of Note For Kona Coffee Goodness
1. SF Bay Coffee Kona Blend
SF Bay Coffee Kona Blend is a very balanced mix of Kona coffee with coffees sourced from Central America. The masterful blend not just manages to preserve the taste of Kona coffee, it highlights its uniqueness.
The famed sweet, juicy flavor of the Kona beans makes a big appearance here. I wouldn’t have expected a blend to work as well, but this one manages to beat expectations.
Another interesting aspect is that SF Bay uses OneCup K cups for its packaging. These are fully biodegradable K cups by virtue of being commercially compostable. The cups aren’t made from plastic, instead, they use plant-based materials for the ring and filter.
K Cup Highlights
- Blend of Kona and Central American coffee
- K Cup used is commercially compostable
- Certified Kosher beans
- Medium Roast
2. Blue Horse 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve K Cups
These K Cups deserve a special mention as the editor’s choice for this category. Also, they’re pretty awesome overall gourmet coffee K cups. These 100% Kona coffee K cups provide excellent flavor and taste of the famed coffee growing region.
Blue Horse coffee comes from a family-owned farm. The beans are carefully hand-picked, sun-dried, and rainwater-washed before they find their way into a K cup. They don’t use any herbicide or pesticide on the coffee plants.
Good coffee, good business practices, and attention to detail? Sign me up!
K Cup Highlights
- 100% Kona coffee grown in Hawaii
- Free from herbicides and pesticides
- Excellent taste, flavor, and aroma
- Full city roast (medium-dark roast)
3. Caza Trail Coffee, Kona Blend
This blend mixes Kona coffee with Latin American beans for a deep, satisfying taste. Reveling in tropical goodness, Caza Trail Coffee, Kona Blend brews a satisfying K cup. The highlight of this brew is its vibrant acidity, delicate body, and floral aroma.
While I enjoy the taste and flavor here, the aroma is really what deserves special attention. This is an excellent blend. The most notable aspect perhaps is that it brings the price of Kona coffee down to that of “regular” K cups.
It may not be 100% Kona, but it is a pretty good and affordable blend to enjoy gourmet coffee. The cups are compatible with Keurig 1.0 and 2.0 systems. However, there have been sporadic and somewhat rare reports of Keurig 2.0 systems failing to recognize these K cups.
K Cup Highlights
- Excellent and affordable Kona blend
- Medium roast coffee
- Vibrant acidity, floral body, and delicate aroma
- Certified Kosher
4. Cameron’s Coffee Single Serve Pods, Kona Blend
Cameron’s Coffee Single Serve Pods, Kona Blend puts together Kona and other Hawaiian coffees. The excellent blend is a bright and flavorful K cup that succeeds in highlighting the presence of specialty grade coffee.
The K cups used here are commercially compostable. Cameron’s calls them EcoPods since they’re a better alternative to plastic. Another advantage of these (and similar) compostable pods is that the mesh filter works better than conventional plastic-based filters in handling coffee.
I wouldn’t call this light roast blend cheap, but these flavorful pods do present a good value for money.
K Cup Highlights
- Fully biodegradable and commercially compostable pod
- Blend of Kona and other Hawaiian coffees
- Light roast
- Flavorful and aromatic
5. Barrie House Hawaiian Kona Hapa Single Serve Coffee Pods
Barrie House Hawaiian Kona Hapa Single Serve Coffee Pods is a blend of Kona and other Hawaiian coffee. The medium roast coffee brews a complex and flavorful cup with fruity and delicate tones.
These K cups also take an environmentally friendly touch. The lid is aluminum and recyclable. The plastic K cup too is made from recyclable plastic and is based on patented Revcup technology. There are plenty of certifications to go along with this coffee, including USDA Organic, Rainforest Alliance, and Fair Trade.
K Cup Highlights
- Blend of Kona and other Hawaiian coffee
- Medium roast
- Complex and flavorful cup of coffee
- Recyclable plastic cup and aluminum lid, compostable filter
- Certifications USDA Organic, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance
6. Don Francisco’s Kona Blend
Don Francisco’s Kona Blend includes 10% Kona coffee mixed with other coffees. The premium blend has an excellent taste with fruity taste notes and floral aroma. This well-priced premium coffee in a medium roast is worth enjoying.
They’ve also been careful on the environmental front. The plastic used for these K cups is recyclable. One big problem with recyclable plastic K cups is that they’re rarely recycled, even if the user disposes of them properly. To get around this problem, Don Francisco’s has partnered with Terracycle.
There are additional steps involved here, but there’s a good chance your K cup actually gets recycled. Rather than throwing them into the garbage where the cups have low chances of being recycled, you can mail them free of charge to Terracycle. The company will then recycle these K cups.
K Cup Highlights
- Excellent blend using Kona coffee
- Medium roast with a good flavor and aroma profile
- Recyclable cup with functional recycling program
7. 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve Cups By Hualalai Estate
A medium-dark roast with the intention of being bold, this 100% Kona coffee will brew a strong K cup. It stays flavorful, without touching on the bitter side. Sure, this won’t nearly be the strongest K cup on offer, but it manages to be sensational and satisfying.
The name of the coffee comes straight from the coffee growing region. This 100% Kona Coffee comes from the slopes of Kona’s Hualalai Volcano. The gourmet coffee is packed in #5 recyclable plastic K cups in an attempt to be more environmentally friendly.
K Cup Highlights
- Medium dark roast
- 100% Kona coffee
- K cup made from recyclable #5 plastic
- Great taste and flavor
See pricing and buying options
8. Fresh Roasted Coffee LLC, Organic Hawaiian 100% Kona Coffee Pods
These organic coffee K cups by Fresh roasted Coffee LLC highlight their quality and origins pretty well. The gourmet coffee presents its unique and exemplary taste in this medium roast coffee. It works wonders on the palate with its sweet and spicy notes. What doesn’t work as well, is the value for money. Even for Kona coffee, these pods seem to be somewhat expensive.
The ingredient of these pods is 100% Kona Coffee. Related certifications include USDA organic and Kosher.
K Cup Highlights
- Medium roast coffee
- 100% Kona coffee
- Good taste and flavor
- Questionable value for money
9. Magnum Coffee K-Cups, Kona Blend
Magnum Coffee K-Cups, Kona Blend tries to put on a more affordable option for Kona coffee. According to their claim, the coffee is sourced from “top 10 percent farms in the world”. I’d say they haven’t quite succeeded on the “affordable” front.
Creating a blend should either pull down costs or enhance flavor. The coffee is good, but it doesn’t stand that well on either of these requirements. The value for money equation here is questionable. However, the blend itself is fairly good and enjoyable for lovers of quality coffee.
K Cup Highlights
- Blend of Kona and other coffees
- Questionable value for money
- Good taste and flavor
10. Happy Belly Kona Blend
Happy Belly Kona Blend is an enjoyable budget option for Kona coffee blend. The gourmet Kona coffee is put together with other select coffees from around the world and added to these K cups. The taste and aroma here are acceptable and even good. However, the key element remains to be budget-friendly and it succeeds very well at that.
K Cup Highlights
- Budget option
- Blend of Kona and other coffees
- Medium roast
- Happy belly is an Amazon brand
The Choices To Make While Buying Kona Coffee Pods
What Is 100% Kona Coffee?
Kona coffee is a well-known and expensive product. There are plenty of unscrupulous businesses that use the name Kona coffee, without actually including the coffee. Others may use the name for their coffee blends, which include only a minuscule amount of Kona coffee, if any at all.
Since only the coffee grown in the Kona region of Hawaii can be considered authentic Kona coffee, the regional government has been taking steps to ensure quality. A major step in that direction is the “100% Kona Coffee certification.”
The certification is intended to fight off duplicates and keep Kona coffee untainted as a brand. It’s also important not to confuse coffee grown in other areas of Hawaii as Kona. Though Kona coffee is necessarily from Hawaii, not all Hawaiian coffee is Kona.
Hawaiian isles Kona coffee K cups are in high demand. The coffee, however, is expensive. So, many brands use blends to bring down the costs to be more manageable. This also helps the coffee appeal to a wider audience.
Getting A Better Look At Kona Coffee Blends
Plenty of Kona coffee blends are available in the market. It’s a great way to reduce cost, yet retain the quality and flavor of the famed coffee. While the exact amount of Kona coffee depends on individual companies, there should at least be 10% Kona coffee to be considered a Kona blend.
Staying with the terminology is important as well. Many companies advertise their blends as 100% Kona coffee blend. This is often a play on perception. Remember that this specific statement applies only to the amount of Kona coffee used in the blend, not the entire contents.
Picking The K Cup For Your Kona Coffee Enjoyment
There are plenty of Kona coffee K cups available in a variety of options. As a customer, you can pretty much take your pick from budget to sophisticated gourmet options. My recommendation here is the Blue Horse 100% Kona Coffee Single Serve. Another interesting choice is the SF Bay Coffee Kona Blend. If a budget option is what you’re considering, take a look at the Happy Belly Kona Blend.