Ka‘ū Coffee Festival: Celebrating a Crop that Brought Hope and Success

By Fern Gavelek

Ten years ago, a group of folks were sitting on the lānai (porch) gazing out at healthy rows of Ka‘ū coffee trees laden with cherries. Beaming with pride and optimistic for the future, the neighboring Ka‘ū coffee farmers decided they needed a way to share their story, from adversity to success.

The adversity started with the demise of Hawai‘iʻs sugar industry, which resulted in C. Brewer and Company closing the Ka‘ū sugar mill in 1996, after the districtʻs 135-year dependence on sugarcane. As displaced sugar workers, they faced unemployment with few job prospects in a rural area far away from the job centers of Hilo, Kona, and the Kohala Coast. Ka‘ū residents are known for their resiliency and these folks were no different—they wanted to figure out a way to pay their bills and stay in Ka‘ū, so they decided to reinvent themselves and try farming coffee. With the help of the federal Rural Economic Transition Assistance-Hawaii (RETA-H) program, they got busy learning how to grow coffee and start a business—indeed an industry.

Former sugar company cane haulers, office workers and mechanics learned the business of growing and selling coffee, while toiling in the fields to grow it. The first harvests brought in little income, even with the affordable leases, as farmers competed against Kona coffee and other established Hawai‘i brands. Several years into it, some frustrated growers gave up and deserted their plantings, letting tall grass cover their crops. Others, with tenacity and cooperation, worked toward building a reputable coffee brand and growing a successful Ka‘ū crop, while moving forward with hope for a prosperous future.

Fast forward to 2008. The group that had gathered on the lānai, reflecting on their eventual success, felt it was time to celebrate their distinctive Ka‘ū coffee and the people and place that made it so special.

They decided the platform would be the inaugural Ka‘ū Coffee Festival, a weekend celebration that debuted in 2009 with farm tours, a coffee college, and a ho‘olaule‘a (celebration/festival) chock-full of coffee booths with samplings served by friendly Ka‘ū coffee farmers. Over the years, the festival has grown to multiple days of activities—mostly coffee-related, though some others joyously showcase the uniqueness of Ka‘ū. This year’s rendition marks the festival’s 10th anniversary and is April 21, 27, 29, and May 2, 4–6.

Coffee and Ka‘ū

Coffee came to Ka‘ū in the mid-1890s. According to Merle Becker of Aikane Plantation, located between Nā‘ālehu and Pāhala, her great-grandfather, “Papa” J.C. Searle, planted coffee there in 1894; its popularity is documented in old newspaper articles. Keiki from Searle’s trees are grown at Aikane, which also operates a cattle ranch and is the location of the festival’s Coffee & Cattle Day on May 4. The festivities include a hayride and delicious barbecue.

In the early days, coffee could not compete with the more-profitable sugarcane. However, conditions were right to grow coffee in the rambling Ka‘ū District that covers 922 square miles. Larger than any Hawaiian island except the very island it sits on, the Ka‘ū District basically covers the southern quarter of Hawai‘i County. It includes Ocean View near its northwestern boundary and part of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park at its northeast end, plus Ka Lae (South Point), Nā‘ālehu, Wai‘ōhinu, coffee-rich Pāhala, and Punalu‘u in between. The area’s nearly 600,000 acres is largely a mix of conservation and agricultural lands offering coffee’s needed elevation of between 1,000 to 2,300 feet with a balance of sun, clouds, and rain—plus deep, rich volcanic soil.

A century later, displaced sugar workers planted coffee on mainly five-acre Ka‘ū plots leased by C. Brewer. The new farmers formed the Ka‘ū Coffee Growers Cooperative to help navigate the growing and marketing of coffee and provide the means for group purchases. C. Brewer sold the coffee farms in 2006 to Ka‘u Farm and Ranch, which purchased 2,000 acres and nearly 40 tenant farms. Chris Manfredi, managing partner of Ka‘u Farm and Ranch, saw the challenges facing the tenant coffee farmers and rolled up his sleeves to help address them.

Building the Ka‘ū Coffee Brand

Chris Manfredi, a Long Island, New York native who has perennially served as the festival organizer since its inception, says the biggest difficulty for Ka‘ū coffee was, and still is, brand name recognition.

“When producing coffee in the shadow of Kona, which is well-known for high-quality coffee, it’s hard to establish a new brand,” he emphasizes.

To build Ka‘ū’s coffee and its image, he visited with growers to best understand their challenges while identifying what was and wasn’t working.

Tackling the inconsistency of quality, Chris worked with consultants to help farmers understand “how what they did on the farm and during processing affected coffee flavor.” He says some needed help and some were doing really well. He offered training by inviting experienced coffee experts to help the growers—a tradition that continues today with the festival’s annual coffee college.

“When you’re trying to land a market, you have to have a quantity of high-quality coffee or it’s hard to service the market well,” Chris explains. “It’s very expensive to produce coffee in Hawai‘i and if you don’t have the ultra-premium quality that earns a high price, you won’t survive.”

To get Ka‘ū coffee on the map, Chris entered 15 of his tenant farms in the 2007 Special Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) cupping contest. He says it was to get a baseline, to see how Ka‘ū coffee ranked with others, and it was with no preparation or help from industry experts. Against these odds, Ka‘ū earned two top 10 rankings, sixth and ninth, while vying with 120 entries from around the globe.

“By this time, some growers had become discouraged and had abandoned the farms they started a decade earlier,” recalls Chris. “Many of the buyers then were not giving Ka‘ū the respect it deserved, nor the price necessary to keep the industry going.”

However, Chris says the success of the SCAA cupping inspired some farmers to get back into growing coffee and boosted those who had stuck with it.

“It created a sense of hope and pride that Ka‘ū coffee had a chance to succeed,” he continues. “We were then determined to create the Ka‘ū coffee brand.”

Ka‘ū coffee has won multiple SCAA awards since, plus accolades at the statewide Hawaii Coffee Association cupping and Roasters Guild Coffees competitions, and from Coffee Review. It gained recognition within the food and beverage industry starting in 2007, when Hawaii Regional Cuisine founder Chef Alan Wong started serving the brew at his restaurants.

In addition, Ka‘ū coffee is sold today through Starbucksʻ prestigious Reserve program, which says on its website, “is the complete and total commitment to the immersive experience of coffee craft and the ongoing pursuit of the world’s rarest, most exalted, most sought-after, small-lot coffees.”

Chris says Ka‘ū coffee will be highlighted at the new Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Shanghai and that inclusion “with the best coffees in the world is a giant step forward in solving our name recognition hurdles with prospective roasters and buyers.”

Festival Evolves to Promote Brand, Community

In addition to Chris, festival founders include Trinidad “Trini” Marques of Ali‘i Hawaiian Hula Hands Coffee, Gloria Camba of Ka‘ū Royal Coffee, Lorie Obra of Rusty’s Hawaiian Coffee, Julia Neal of the Ka‘ū Calendar and Brenda Iokepa-Moses, formerly of C. Brewer and Ka‘u Farm and Ranch and now with Ka‘ū Mahi—current landowner of the tenant farms.

Manfredi credits all the Ka‘ū coffee farmers for joining forces to put on the festival. “We all work together; everyone contributes in a role in which they are comfortable,” he explains. “It’s all about them growing and building their strengths.”

Farmers contribute in countless ways, setting up the tents for the day-long ho‘olaue‘a, donating prizes for the beauty pageant, and cooking for the visiting industry professionals who teach at the coffee college. “From a volunteer perspective, the Ka‘ū community service nonprofit O Ka‘ū Kākou has made executing the festival many times easier,” notes Chris.

A main festival participant is the Ka‘ū Coffee Mill, which hosts the Ka‘ū Coffee Recipe Contest on April 29, the Ka‘ū Mountain Water System Hike and Stargazing atop Mt. Makanau on May 4, plus one of the farm tours during the ho‘olaule‘a on May 5. Owner Edmund C. Olson also has sponsored scholarships for the Miss Ka‘ū Coffee Pageant, this year on April 21, which is now overseen by Trini. Pāhala Plantation Cottages, a former sugar company manager’s estate, hosts the lively music jam for the Pā‘ina Open House on April 27. While some of these events donʻt specifically highlight coffee, they showcase landmarks and activities that are unique to Ka‘ū.

The festival culminates with two days of java jumpinʻ festivities and education sprawling inside and out of the Pāhala Community Center. The ho‘olaule‘a on Saturday, May 5 showcases local farmers offering coffee sampling and sales, food booths presented by local nonprofits, the barista-guided Ka‘ū Coffee Experience pouring samples of different Ka‘ū coffees prepared in a variety of ways, farm tours, arts and crafts sales, keiki fun, and non-stop island music and hula by local hālau (schools).

Also on tap Saturday are agricultural-themed booths, including the ever-popular Ka‘ū Coffee Growers Cooperative station, with its tasty Filipino food and friendly games for keiki and adults. President Gloria Camba says the 56-member co-op recently secured a USDA Socially Disadvantaged Groups Grant to fund consultants and training in a variety of areas including quality control, the creation of e-commerce websites, company branding and quantitative research to identify possible market areas.

The Sunday coffee college hosts notable industry experts to help farmers with their challenges of soil improvement, pest management, processing, roasting, packaging and marketing. A reverse trade mission, the college brings serious specialty coffee industry professionals to Ka‘ū to interface with local growers while teaching them what they need to know. Presentation topics vary annually and are tailored to immediate issues addressing growers. Case in point is one of last year’s presentations.

“Some farmers had purchased new equipment from a manufacturer and were getting mixed results,” remembers Chris. “So, we brought in the manufacturer to provide needed training.”

Chris is proud of how the college has evolved over the years; attendance is strong and so are the connections made. “The Ka‘ū Coffee Festival celebrates where we have been and helps plot the course for the future,” he adds.

Lorie Obra muses, “I am proud of what Ka‘ū coffee has become, and most importantly, of the dedicated farmers who kept going when it was hard. This festival reminds us of how far we’ve come. And we’re not done yet! We’re still growing.” ❖

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For more information: kaucoffeefestival.com
Facebook: Kau Coffee Festival
Twitter/Instagram: Kau Coffee Fest

2018 Ka‘ū Coffee Festival Activities
Miss Ka‘ū Coffee Pageant, Saturday, April 21
Pā‘ina Open House, Friday, April 27
Ka‘ū Coffee Recipe Contest, Sunday, April 29
Ka‘ū Mountain Water System Hike, Wednesday, May 2
Ka‘ū Valley Farm Tour, Thursday, May 3
Ka‘ū Coffee & Cattle Day, Friday, Friday, May 4
Ka‘ū Stargazing, Friday, May 4
Ka‘ū Coffee Ho‘olaule‘a, Saturday, May 5
Ka‘ū Coffee College, Sunday, May 6

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