Hawaii is far more than a feast for the eyes: Its rich, volcanic soil and cool, mountain climate renders it one of the choicest spots in the world to grow coffee. That the 50th state does, producing seven to nine million pounds of the prized crop per year and earning accolades around the globe for the taste its beans deliver.
Coffee beans drying in the sun at a Big Island Coffee Plantation. And high above a Maui coffee Farm in the central valley.
Descendants of those beans arrived in the Hawaiian Islands when Don Francisco de Paula Marín—an émigré who served as a physician and interpreter for Kamehameha the Great—cultivated coffee on his estate near Pearl Harbor. The year was 1813.
And yet, coffee didn’t take root, so to speak, until a young missionary by the name of Samuel Ruggles took cuttings from Boki’s garden and planted them on the slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa on the Big Island.
Visiting and Experiencing Hawaii Coffee Today
Kona isn’t the only hotspot in Hawaii for coffee, either. Over the years, the crop has been transformed into an artisan product, with 900 farms spread across all of the major islands. While each island offers superb seed-to-cup joe—from the light-bodied Peaberry at Molokai’s Coffees of Hawaii Estate and Farm to the tiny Mokka beans making Maui coffee famous to the bright Poipu Estate espresso roast at the Garden Isle’s Kauai Coffee Company—two Hawaiian coffee experiences stand out from the rest.
Some of the many popular Hawaiian Coffees ready for brewing!
Holualoa’s Hula Daddy, a 30-acre boutique farm, helmed by a husband-and-wife team, that offers seven varieties of coffee and lets you sample as many brews as you’d like on their coffee plantation tour. Each type is memorable, but it’s their “Kona Sweet”—ranked the sixth-best cup of coffee in the world by the industry guide Coffee Reviews—that’ll have you saying “sublime.” Call (808) 327-9744 for a private tour.
Father and son enjoy a cup of joe among a variety of Hawaii plantation crops. And a coffee tree with bright, beautiful cherries in Maui, Hawaii.
Captain Cook’s Kona Coffee Living History Farm, meanwhile, transports visitors back in time. Run by the Kona Historical Society, and the only living history coffee farm in the U.S., the interactive tour allows guests to stroll the 5.5-acre orchard, learn how to pick coffee, observe farmers using the kuriba and hoshinda to mill and dry coffee, visit a 1920s farmhouse, and meet the progeny of the “Kona Nightingales”—donkeys that were once depended on to haul coffee. With costumed interpreters demonstrating cultural traditions and agricultural tasks, and a cup of 100% Kona coffee in hand, you’ll leave the farm with a greater appreciation of Boki’s vision—and of Hawaii coffee’s storied past. Call (808) 323-3222 to schedule your visit.
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