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Natural History
Coffee
(Coffea Arabica)
 Coffee, a native to tropical Africa, was widely cultivated and naturalized on all of the Hawaiian Islands by the mid-1800s. It is not known exactly when Arabian coffee was introduced to Hawaii. It is certain that it was probably brought here before December 30, 1817. On that day, Don Francisco de Paula Marin recorded in his journal (now lost) that he planted it that day. Marin was a Spaniard who arrived in the Islands in 1791 and became a favorite of the king and was well-loved by the people who called him "Manini." One of his many projects was the introduction of many valuable plants from around the world.
In 1825, coffee plants arrived at Kona on the British warship HMS Blonde, which had the duty of returning the bodies of Liholiho, King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu, who had died in London of measles during a state visit. Governor Boki, who was in charge of the funeral party, brought with him John Wilkinson, a gardener from England who had acquired coffee plants in Rio de Janeiro when the vessel put into that port for fresh supplies. Thirty of the plants that survived the five-month voyage around the Cape to the Hawaiian Islands were planted when the ship arrived at the end of May.
The coffee was planted in Governor Boki's plantation in Manoa Valley on Oahu. Although the plants were neglected after Wilkinson's death two years later, many grew to maturity and produced seed. From a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of Oahu and to the neighbor islands. Most of the coffee trees now growing in Hawaii owe their stock almost entirely to these plants introduced by Wilkinson and to seed from plants introduced shortly afterwards from the Philippines by a problematic English diplomat named Richard Charlton. (The plants grown by Marin had apparently died or been ignored as seed sources.)
In 1828 Reverend Samuel Ruggles started slips from Manoa Valley in the area above Kealakekua Bay that is now called Captain Cook at about the same time that Reverend James Goodrich planted slips in the Hilo area. Reverend Ruggles' plants in Kona thrived in the rich soil, relatively high elevation and the presence of the "coffee cloud," a common cloud cover that occurs in the afternoon. Soon the Reverend was able to share cuttings and slips from his plants.
At that time Hawaii's export economy consisted primarily of provisioning whaling vessels and trading ships, and the coffee had a ready market with the marines. Coffee was planted on several islands by hopeful planters, but it was the climate and soil on the Big Island that proved the most successful. More plantations were begun on the Big Island and, notably at Hanalei on Kauai.
The infant industry was even encouraged by a proclamation made on May 11, 1942, by Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III. He said, "The officers and people are hereby informed, however, that there is a new article which is very valuable, and that is Coffee. The people will do well to pay their land tax in coffee, rather than in swine, particularly in places well adapted to the growth of coffee." In the same proclamation the king advised, "And those persons who are in pursuit of wealth would do well at the present time by planting coffee. Those who raise coffee will find it the same to them as money. The price allowed for the present year will be five pounds to the dollar. But that price will not be permanent, it will fall at no distant period."
The entire coffee crop of the Hawaiian Islands was marketed locally until 1845 when 248 pounds of coffee were exported. This trade steadily increased until a shortage of labor in 1849 occurred due to the California Gold Rush.
In 1851 a fungus attacked the tree and a scale insect became common a few years later which further injured the plants by feeding on their sap. Once-thriving coffee fields were devastated. One planter from Kona reported that in 1858 he gathered 18,000 pounds of coffee from his fields. The following year, the crop was reduced to 12,000 pounds and the year after that he harvested only 5,000 pounds of coffee from the same fields. In 1861, the farmer was forced to buy coffee for his own consumption.
Difficulties like these forced many of the early growers to cut down their plantations and to replant their land to sugar cane. Still, some of the old plantations continued in existence and many new ones were begun from time to time in different regions. (Many of these were later abandoned for various reasons.) Only the Big Island's Kona coffee was of high enough quality to sell at a profit during gluts in world markets.
In the 19th century, most Americans bought coffee as green beans, which they roasted and ground at home. Ground roasted coffee was not packaged until during the Civil War and national distribution began in 1873, Vacuum packed coffee appeared in 1900. For many years the trend was to make coffee blends, mixtures of coffee from several parts of the world. For many years Kona coffee was swallowed up as part of blends roasted on mainland west coast. Only a small amount was roasted and packaged as a straight coffee. Coffee production had dropped dramatically by 1980 when a rising interest in gourmet coffee sparked sales of the highly aromatic Kona coffee.
Today Kona coffee has an international reputation as a mellow, smooth coffee lacking the acidity found in coffees grown at higher altitudes. It is known for its delicate, subtle bouquet. Almost the entire harvest comes from the upland towns of South Kona, from Holualoa in the north to Honaunau in the south.
The altitude where Kona coffee grows best is between 1,200 to 2,000 feet. (Elsewhere in the world, coffee grows up to 6,000 feet.) Kauai has harvested its first commercial crop in over 100 years and coffee production on Kauai is expected to increase steadily as its young orchards mature. Experiments with coffee-growing are also being developed on Maui and on Molokai.
The coffee plant is a fast-growing, decorative, evergreen shrub or small tree that is related to the gardenia and the tiare. The tree grows to about 15 - 25 feet. The leaves are oval, thin and glossy green with wavy edges. The fragrant, white flowers grow in thick clusters and make a showy display, particularly in a field of coffee trees.
Each flower has five petals. About seven months after the flowers are pollinated, they develop into golden oblong to globose berry-like fruit that vary from half to three-quarters inch in length. They are fleshy, red and shiny and somewhat sweet when ripe. Each berry contains one or two large seeds or "coffee beans."
Coffee trees flower at different times of the year, depending on the area. In Kona the trees flower in March and April. They fruit in the fall and being bearing fruits after three or four years. On the same island, in the Hamakua District, the peak flowering season is in July and August. These plants fruit mostly in early spring.
Usually the commercial plants are profitable for 30 years in Hawaii, but the plants can continue to bear fruit for 80 years if they are properly maintained. In Hawaii, coffee trees are pruned to facilitate berry picking.
Coffee trees must be hand-picked several times a year as not all of the berries ripen at once. The berries grow in clusters on a branch and each berry must be picked when it is exactly ripe. Unripe cherries add a biter flavor while overripe cherries may ferment. Each branch must be picked over three times or more. No satisfactory alternative to the problem of costly hand picking has been found, which accounts for the high price of the coffee.
The harvesting season begins in August. Coffee farmers at the lowest elevations may finish harvesting by December while those at the 1000 foot level might harvest into March.
In Kona, where most coffee farms are small family operations, the children were used to help with harvesting. Kona schools used to take vacation from September to November instead of in the summer. The Dept. of Education and non-coffee families in Kona took a dim view of this. In 1970, the school year was switched to a normal school year. This created another difficulty for the coffee farmers in getting in the harvest.
Kona coffee is sold both as "100 percent pure Kona coffee" and as a blend with other coffees. It takes about 500 pounds of coffee fruits to produce 100 pounds of roasted coffee beans. It takes 1,000 coffee beans to make 1 pound of coffee.
Each coffee tree takes about one year to produce one pound of coffee beans. Processing the green beans takes expertise and, if done improperly, will detract from the final product. The cleaned and dried beans are shipped to the manufacturers where they are roasted blended and then packaged.
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Arts & Culture
 Hosmer Grove
About three-quarters of a mile before the entrance of the Haleakala National Park headquarters is a forest of introduced trees called Hosmer Grove which features a half-mile looping nature trail that begins at the campgrounds. The forest was planted in 1910 by Ralph S. Hosmer, the first superintendent of forestry for the Territory of Hawaii.
For ten years, from 1904 to 1914, Hosmer was Hawaii's head forester. He planned many of the present forest-reserve boundaries in the islands and he experimented with many exotic species of trees in this grove and several others on different islands.
Attempts at different kinds of farming and other agricultural pursuits changed the landscape forever. By 1900, the cutting of native forest land had so denuded Hawaiian hills that there was real public concern about conditions in the precious watershed areas providing drinking water to a growing population as well as irrigation for the huge fields of sugar that were taking over large parts of the islands.
Part of Hosmer's job was the reforestation of the hillsides. It was decided that the native trees that had been removed from the forest did not grow fast enough to be effective in the reforestation project and the plan was to try foreign trees instead.
Hosmer planted 86 exotic species in the Grove. Of those only about 20 species survived. They include deodar from India, Japanese sugi, Douglas fir and various pines from the mainland United States, and eucalyptus from Australia.
The trees do make a pretty forest park, however, and the park illustrates the dilemma of the struggle between native plants and introduced species in Hawaii. The dense aromatic forest of introduced trees along the first half of the trail contrasts sharply with the smaller trees of the more open native plant community. The National Park Service, whose goals include preservation of Haleakala's native plants and animals, keeps the non-native trees from escaping into the wild and continues to encourage the re-growth of native plants on the surrounding slopes..
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Braddah-Nics Lexicon
Kapuaiwa Royal Coconut Grove - Molokai