Mark Twain says it so eloquently, "Kona Coffee has
a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call
it by what name you please" 1866, Letters from Hawaii. His
judgment holds firm today. The Hawaiian Islands, with their warm,
moist South Seas’ climate and rich volcanic soil, are the
only place in the U.S. where coffee grows and thrives.
Location
The site is stunning from the air, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, two
of the volcanic mountains that form the Big Island of Hawaii,
thrust up from out of the ocean, godlike in their grandeur. Along
the
southwestern slopes of the Mauna Loa hidden somewhere in all
the volcanic mountaintops’ lava and greenery, is a coffee
lovers paradise - The Kona Coffee Belt. There a group of farms
for more
than a century have hand cultivated small crops of gourmet beans
that are among the most treasured in the world.
The Aloha Spirit
The Kona Coffee Belt is sparsely populated and home to many immigrants,
Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Samoans and "Haoles", the
term used to refer to Caucasians with roots deep in Hawaiian soil,
all third and fourth generation coffee farmers with extraordinary
stories. It seems among the residents, no matter their ethnic origins,
they all know each other and work together in perfect harmony,
sharing one common bond - their passion for Kona Coffee. For
the farmers it is more than coffee, it is a way of life. The "Aloha
Spirit" is captured in the passion for meticulous painstaking
work, growing, cultivating and processing Kona Coffee. The
Kona Coffee belt, marked 180 on the highway map, is home to
more than
500 farms, most of which are 3 to 5 acres with modest facilities
and equipment. These farms total approximately 2000 acres of
planted coffee, which annually yields 2 million pounds of beans.
Brazil,
on the other hand, accounts for more than 1 billion pounds
of beans per year.
"
Sustainable coffee" refers to whether or not the workers involved
in the coffee processes can sustain a living based on
their coffee wages. Sustainable coffees have recently captured
the
attention of the world coffee market because of their humanity.
This primarily
refers to coffee grown in third-world countries. Because Kona
coffee is grown in America and closely governed by the Department
of Agriculture,
the coffee is automatically considered sustainable although
it does not officially require that label.
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