Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
that originally came from Ethiopia, via Brazil
and then Oahu. While Maui has recently
revived its coffee farming too, it's Kona's
rich volcanic soil—you're actually on the
lower slopes of Mauna Loa—that has con-
sistently produced Hawaii's finest beans.
Kona's coffee industry began in 1828,
launched by American missionary Samuel
Ruggles. At first a few large growers domi-
nated the area, but after they switched to
more lucrative sugar crops in the early
1900s, several small tenant farmers took
over (principally the Japanese immigrants
who'd already been working the large
farms for years). Some 600 coffee farms
are crowded along this coast nowadays;
most are small, family-run operations. (For
many years, local schools ran from Dec-
Aug so that children could be free during
the Sept coffee harvest.) Springtime is
lovely here, with the hillsides spangled
with white blossoms (“Kona snow”), but
autumn is the best time to visit, as the
scent of roasting coffee beans permeates
the air along the coast.
Several estates offer guided tours and
coffee tastings to drop-in visitors (with the
expectation, of course, that you'll then
buy some pricey, farm-fresh Kona beans
to take home). If you've tasted Kona coffee
and weren't too impressed, don't dismiss
it: Coffee is often labeled “Kona” even if it
contains only 10% genuine Kona beans.
The taste of unblended premium Kona cof-
fee should restore your faith, especially if
you drink it right on the lush coast where
it's grown.
Just south of Lailua-Kona in the small
town of Holualoa, one of the largest
estates, the 400-acre (160-hectare)
Kona
Blue Sky Coffee Company
(76-973A
Hualalai Rd.;
&
808/322-1700
) is just
off Hwy. 180; the same owners run the
Holualoa Coffee Company's
Kona Lea
Plantation
(77-6261 Mamalahoa Hwy./
Hwy 180;
&
808/322-9937
), where you
can tour organically farmed coffee
orchards as well as a mill and roasting
operation that serves 100 other local
farms.
Farther south in Kealakekua, after
Mamalahoa Hwy. merges with Hwy. 11,
you can tour the 35-acre (14-hectare)
Greenwell Farms
(81-6581 Mamalahoa
Hwy.;
&
808/323-2862
), still operated by
descendants of Henry Nicholas Greenwell,
an early pioneer in Kona coffee exporting.
For more historical perspective, continue
south to the village of Captain Cook and
the
Kona Coffee Living History Farm
(82-6199 Mamalahoa Hwy.;
&
808/323-
2006;
www.konahistorical.org), a 5
1
⁄
2
-acre
(2.2-hectare) homestead where costumed
guides lead tours of a 1920s-era farm-
house, century-old coffee and macadamia
nut orchards, the
kuriba
(processing mill),
hoshidana
(drying roofs), and a traditional
Japanese bathhouse. Attached to one of
the larger mills, the
Royal Kona Coffee
Museum
(83-5427 Mamalahoa Hwy.;
&
808/328-2511
) is little more than a gal-
lery displaying photos of the old planta-
tions, but free samples of Kona coffee and
rum cake are offered. Before you leave
Captain Cook, branch off on impossibly
squiggly Napoopoo Road, which leads
down to Kealakekua Bay, to try roasting
beans yourself at the Ueshima Coffee
Company's
Espresso Bar and Roastery
(82-5810 Napoopoo Rd.).
(
Kona (9
1
⁄
2
miles/15km).
L
$$$
Holualoa Inn,
76-5932 Mamala-
hoa Hwy. (
&
800/392-1812
or 808/324-
1121; www.holualoainn.com). $$
Areca
Palms Estate Bed & Breakfast,
off Hwy.
11, South Kona (
&
800/545-4390
or 808/323-
2276; www.konabedandbreakfast.com).
