Where you been?

Where you been? was Originally Posted on March 12, 2006 by lavarock

So you wrote and asked what has been up? Sorry I have been away for a while, but sometimes the need to write, does not hit me J Let’s see where we left off.

My Mom was here for a nice visit. A friend and co-worker from the salt mines in Atlanta was here and gone. So were a few other friends.

As you might have read, a couple of large producers (businesses) decided that it made sense for them to bring in hundreds of new members to take over the Kona Coffee Council. They immediately stopped supporting some bills, which would require different criteria for calling Kona Coffee blends “Kona Coffee”. What a surprise since they all blend. So they brought in their own rubber-stamp group of Board members and began slowing down promoting 100% Kona Coffee. It is obvious why. Blenders take 10% Kona coffee, mix it with 90% foreign coffee, call it a “KONA blend” (rather than a Columbian blend with 10% Kona) and sell the 10% stuff for 1/3 the cost of 100% Kona. They complain that if they buy so much Kona (and it appears deceive the public so much to buy it) that if they are forced to put any more Kona in the bag, the Kona Coffee industry as we know it, will collapse in a cloud of dust!

A number of us farmers (and I use the term very loosely for myself) have started the Kona Coffee Farmers Association (KCFA) and will continue to fight for the small farmer and NOT for the big bad blenders. We support 100% Kona Coffee and not foreign products. We will continue to find ways for the public to identify the real thing. We have started a new website at http://KonaCoffeeFarmers.Org and will soon have downloadable membership applications and in just days should have online applications with credit card payments. We also will be adding more events we are involved in and much content about coffee and our farms, etc. I hope that you will bookmark the site and visit often.

To ensure that big bad companies cannot take us over, we have made some specific rules about who can become a voting member. They MUST be Kona Coffee Farmers who derive the majority of their coffee-related income from farming the land, NOT from processing coffee from others. Even then, we have limited proxies at times when members can vote. In an organization of some 250 members, it should not be allowed that one person brings in something like 135 new members and votes each proxy for them with a rubber-stamp! THAT is not representing the member’s wishes, but rather the wishes of that company. Boo on them and their gloating! They SAY they are for 100% Kona, but that also includes as little as 10% Kona in a larger bag!

So how does the public know what they are buying? The law says the coffee should be labeled properly. Just because the bag says KONA in big letters, it may be part of their company name. Look for words like “100% Kona Coffee” on the label, not some grand poo like I just saw on a bag “Roasted and packed in Kona”. THAT does not make it Kona Coffee. Also note the word BLEND on any label. Kona Farmers do NOT blend coffee from other farms into one bag, the same as you would not blend red and white wines together. Our group has a seal, which will soon start showing up on bags which ensures you are getting 100% Kona coffee. It is displayed on our website.

Here is an example of why you have to look for 100% Kona. The following is an actual Ebay ad that I attacked. They now use the word “Blend” in the ad because before they did not mention that it was not 100% Kona.

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You are bidding on an auction for one of the most delicious coffees found in the world… Hawaiian Kona Coffee!!

This coffee is known throughout the world for its delicious distinctive flavor.
Grown high in the Mountains of Hawaii in the lush tropical climate, these coffee beans have been sun ripened, hand picked, expertly graded and roasted in small batches to insure the highest possible standard of quality.

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So what got was 10% Kona and 90% non-Kona coffee. Oh the 10% was grown here, but see how deceptive the ads can be?

So now how does their ad read?

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This auction is for a 2-pound sealed bag of [company deleted] Kona Whole Bean Coffee – Gourmet Blend. These Kona coffee beans are raised on the Hawaiian volcanic slopes of the island of Hawaii, in Kona. A product of the [deleted] Estate [company] Coffee Plantation – the largest coffee plantation located in Kona. This quality gourmet blend of the Hawaiian Gold Coffee Company is being brought to you at an unbelievable bargain price.

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Please note that this person selling the coffee is a candy company and not the company who makes the coffee. Although their own label has major issues too.

So this company is the largest in the state (so they say) and you are still led to believe that the coffee is all from Kona, which would be legal to call it 100% Kona, yet nowhere they make that actual claim. The coffee also sells for less than ½ the price that real Kona goes for…

So you see? You have to read between the lines, until we farmers can get accurate labeling. The current label laws allow people to slide by.

I have no problem with people blending Kona with other coffees for the cost-conscious consumer. However, call the product what it is, 90% Columbian (or African or whatever country) with 10% Kona. If you went to a store and bought something called “ground sirloin” you would be disheartened if you later found it really was “ground sirloin – contains 90% pork”.

Anyway, you see the problems the farmers have when large companies can squash the ability of the farmers to trademark “Kona Coffee” and then bend and manipulate the laws to sell what many of us consider swill.

So the fight goes on. Aren’t you sorry that you asked? J

As for my farm, I have had one guy cutting trees for the past few weeks, off and on, between his other jobs. Then I recently hired some workers from a neighbor’s farm. The husband and wife team are making a real effort to finish cutting down the trash trees on my farm. Soon the bulldozers will also appear to clean an area for 5 acres of coffee.

I started a few plants on Thanksgiving day, but the planted parchment was a bit too deep and got watered a bit too aggressively, and only 10% sprouted. The full crop of perhaps 3000 plants should fare lots better!

We had quite a bit of a drought going here for a few months, but the last few days have made up for some of the dry weather. Over on Oahu and Kauai they have been drenched; some places receiving 18 inches of rain over a 2 to 3 day period! We were not so unlucky because much of that rain did not have a chance to water crops before washing many of them away.

In any event, I’m still painting parts of the house and trying to make headway outside. The neighborhood was alive with Kona Snow (the white cherry blossoms on the coffee trees). The mac nut trees were in bloom too. Now the mangos are starting to form and on some trees are quite large. I cut down a banana hand and have been enjoying the fruit (technically a berry). I don’t know the variety but think it might be a ladyfinger variety. They are quite pleasant tasting and low acid.

As for other finds, I was at the store the other day and bought a fruit drink (contains 3% fruit) but still quite good. It is a calamansi which is marketed as a sweet lime. It tastes like a cross between a lime and a mandarin orange. Of course, the “sweet” part appears to be due to the sweetness added later in the production J Here is a link to WikiPedia and surprise, a can by the same manufacturer I have been drinking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamansi and the photo of the actual fruit shows a market’s name in Honolulu.

See what you learn when you stop on by?

Speaking on “stopping on by”, if you want to try a bit of 100% Kona coffee, stop on by https://itskona.com

Thanks and until next time….