Coffee was first introduced to the island of Hawai’i in the 1820s and here it found its niche.  The rich volcanic soil combined with an ideal balance of sun and rain  made the Kona coast the perfect place to grow coffee. Not only did these conditions make coffee growing easy, it was soon discovered that the beans produced in Kona were so superior in quality and flavor that they became known the world over as the best.  Since that time coffee become firmly rooted in the soil and in culture of the Big Island as well.

      It is believed that coffee was originally found in Ethiopia.  However, credit is owed to the people of the Arabian peninsula for brewing up the first cup of coffee from the fruit of the Coffea Arabica plant almost 1000 years ago.  Coffee became an important crop in Hawai’i in the 1890s when the world market price for coffee rose dramatically.  The first coffee farms were huge plantations.  When the coffee prices fell not 20 years later, these huge plantations dissolved into small five-acre parcels that landowners leased out to tenant farmers.  The tenant farmers were immigrants who had come to Hawai’i to work in the sugar cane industry.  They were an ethnically diverse group but the majority were Japanese and Filipino.  The coffee growing lands were isolated and on rough terrain.  The farming of the coffee was could be intense and tedious.  The heavy bags of coffee were maneuvered around the coffee land by donkeys and this is why donkeys remain a revered object of Kona cultural worship.  These early coffee farmers are often referred to as pioneers.  Many of the farms have remained in the same family for generations and the majority of Kona coffee remains the product of these small family farms. 

    The market for coffee has always been volatile and still is today.  However, the demand for gourmet coffee gives Kona Coffee the edge because there simply is not a finer coffee in the world.

COMING SOON!!