To read previous part Hedgehog in the Fog. Hawaii, part 06
This day wasn't just rainy and gloomy... It also was a bit sleepy (not a surprise). And we thought it was a great reason to stop for a coffee. In a very special place. So on our way back we just made a turn and stopped for a steaming cup of coffee... and something else ;)
There are a few coffee companies on Hawaii islands. Kauai Coffee is the only company that grows coffee on Kauai Island. And it is also the biggest american coffee company as well. They have a very big orchard close to the coast line of Kauai (3,100 acres). You can drive along this orchard for at least half an hour and they grow 4 millions of the Arabica coffee trees there. 4 millions trees! It's more that the people are living in most of the American cities :-) !
After we drove through the endless rows of the trees, we stopped near the visitor center. That was amazing! We were surrounded by thousands of
blossoming coffee trees... The air around the Estate was filled with a Jasmine-like scent. The delicate white flowers looked astonishing and we felt a bit of dizziness once we opened the car doors...
We were so eager to start exploring so we just passed the visitor center / store and stepped on the paved trail... The trail was nice and meandered, running between trees and you can enjoy the orchard and learn how the coffee berries become the best coffee :-) All you need, just follow the steaming coffee cup engraving on the trail and read the posters you can find here and there. So simple...
I never knew, the coffee flowers have such a nice and pleasant scent and I had no idea the flowers were running all way along the branches of the trees. I can imagine how nice these trees are going to look at fall time, when the ripe red cherries are going to contrast with still green leaves. Definitely we need to visit Hawaii at least one more time to see this :-)
Kauai Coffee grows coffee only from 1987. Average lifespan time for the tree is 40-50 years, but some trees become ill or damaged. And also the company still increases the plantation and for all these cases they are having a nursery where they grow plants for expansion and replacement. They care for them for 3-4 years and plant them in orchards where they begin bearing quality coffee cherries at age 4-5 years. By the way, each mature coffee tree will produce approximately one pound of roasted coffee per harvest (1 pound by 4 millions trees equals 4 million pounds of coffee! Annually!).
To grow nice coffee you need a lot of water. Mount Waialeale, located near the center of Kauai, is noted as being the wettest spot on earth. Over 480 inches of rain falls there each year. Kauai Coffee utilizes this water power right there on the Estate. They run Estate completely on hydroelectricity from abundant rainfall. They used recycled water for wet milling of the coffee cherries and for drip irrigation systems. Water reaches the coffee trees via 2,400 miles of drip tubing. This efficient, energy-saving system deliverers over 28 million gallons of pristine water and fertilizer to the trees every day. 28 million gallons - it is enough for 1.7 billion cup of espresso :-)
When fall arrives, the big team uses the same technologies used to pick blueberries for coffee picking. The Korvan harvester (made in the USA) utilizes hundreds of 18-inches fiberglass spindles which shake the ripe coffee cherries off of the trees' branches. The crew harvest nearly half a million pounds of coffee cherries per day!
Harvested cherries need to be washed, sorted, pulped and cleaned. You can see a miniature version of the Wet Plant in the next two pictures. In order to separate the ripe cherries and get the highest quality seeds for coffee, the cherries are immersed in water. Over-ripe cherries rise to the top and are then separated, "pulped" and used as fertilizer in the orchards. The heavier "ripes" and "greens" sink to the bottom and are transported via water to the production lines for further separation and processing. Once the beans are pulped and separated, they are classified by size and density. Here they also remove the skin and fleshy fruit from each cherry to get to those delicious beans.
Traditionally, coffee beans are dried in the sun on patios like this one. This process typically takes several days and the Kauai Coffee would have to hire every man, woman and child on Kauai to rake and dry the amount of coffee they grow! To speed the process they use large, vertical dryers that circulate warm air through the beans, and the coffee is ready to mill within 24 to 36 hours.
And now you can see other types of coffee they grow together with Hawaii Agriculture Research Center and the College of Tropical Agriculture at the University of Hawaii. It's taller and has bigger leaves and cherries. The small orchard on the side is home for alternative coffee varieties not currently commercially farmed in the state. By planting these trees in the same environmental conditions they will gain information of tree vigor, resistance to the elements and disease, yield potential and cup quality. They use the results of this research to plan the future planting.
Finally we completed our self-guided tour and stopped next to a big bush of sugar cane. Originally this plantation was one of the oldest and the biggest sugar cane plantations on Kauai, and only in 1987 they turned into planting the coffee trees.
Now there are five different types of Arabica coffee grown on the farm. Three of them are from Brazil, one is Guatemalan and the famous Blue Mountain is from Jamaica. You can find any type of the coffee you like by brand Kauai Coffee...
Finally we spent some time in the visitor center, drinking some fresh brewed coffee and looking for different old stuff you can find there. By the way, did you know, the longer you roast the coffee the less caffeine it has? Dark roast has more body and medium roast has more caffeine...
That was partially a museum, partially a gift shop and we found some interesting pieces there and learned even more about coffee and coffee culture here, in Hawaii.
Sure we bought a bag of fresh coffee, in fact two... One small and one big, which we still have in our kitchen ;)
Pictures were taken on April 21, 2013.
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