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You are here: Home > Kona Coffee History

The History of Kona Coffee


The first coffee cuttings were planted in the Kona region of Hawaii Island over 180 years ago by Samuel Ruggles, a missionary who brought the cuttings from Oahu. The Arabica coffee trees found ideal growing conditions in the Kona region of Hawaii Island, the southernmost (and largest) of the Hawaiian Islands.

The 1800s were marked by large coffee plantations and imported Chinese and Native Hawaiian laborers. In the late 1800s, Japanese immigrants started to arrive and work the coffee fields. These farm worker jobs were far from easy: all Kona coffee was planted, pruned, harvested and processed by hand, as it still is today, in mountainous conditions. At about the turn of the century, the big plantations were divided into small, family-run farms. These small family farms of 3 to 5 acres are still the norm today for most of the Kona coffee farmers.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the Kona coffee farms were mostly run by 1st and 2nd generation Japanese immigrants. In fact, many of the farms in Kona today are run by the fifth generation of these immigrants. The Kona coffee business was by no means easy. Coffee, at that time, was more of a commodity (no Starbucks then) and the Kona coffee farmers’ profits or losses were tied to world commodity prices, with good years and bad years. A particularly good time for Kona coffee was during WWI when much of the coffee supplied to the Pacific forces originated from Kona, Hawaii.

Today the Kona coffee growing region is home to hundreds of small coffee plantations. These small plantations of 3 to 5 acres are still run like the coffee farms in the old days. The trees, some of which date back 100 years, are pruned and fertilized by hand. The coffee cherry (the ripe fruit which contains the coffee beans) is hand-picked and processed. The result is some of world’s finest gourmet coffee.