Pushing 50 - Hawaii News

Greed hits another industry. You guys settled for 10%, now you want a 400% increase. Take smaller bites. the food (or in this case coffee) will taste better and go down easier.

$100,000.00 for a study???????are we STUPID

Pure Kona coffee is the BEST coffee in the world.
Kona Blend is the WORSE coffee in the world.
Enough said.

people will pay for the good stuff but the growers should be ready because everyone might not win. just like expensive cars, clothing, wine, whatever, there is a high-end niche for everything, it's just about getting your product to the right market...

and anyone who enjoys good coffee will pay for it...there IS a difference...

On the mainland, I find "Kona" coffee at discount stores as well as markets. I always check, but not once in the last three years have I found any mention of the percentage of "Kona" coffee in the bag. Some bags say "Kona" blend, some just say "Kona" coffee. The 10% rule apparently does not apply off island. And at $5-7 dollars a bag, I am gonna guess it's maybe not pure Kona coffee.

Kona Coffee---The Best

Toe-Nail Hawaiian descendant and beneficiary of the alii who orchestrated the crime of the Mahele of 1848----Still Bad.

Go Green!

my in laws grow kona coffee and it is by far the best I have ever had. I live in Kau and there is some fine Kau coffees also. Don't sell yourself short, but I think you might have by the 10% Kona coffee deal. You let them put in big print KONA COFFEE, but that's not quite true it only has 10%. You should go back to all the folks that you sold the 10% and ask them for the other 40% difference which they inturn can take out of their profits. I think that sounds like a win win situation. You have to pay to play, and they obviously having been playing on your kindness and good coffee for a little to long.

Very appropo argument. 90% of the stupid tourists think "Kona Coffee" is "pure" or "100%". They don't read the fine print on the pgk.
"Kona Coffe" should be at least 51%.
"cuvee" in wines means a "blend".
So, mfgrs. can get around certain issues by proper labels...if the consumer knows what they mean.

Hardly anyone buys the 100% bags of the Kona coffee grinds at $7 or 8. This is just an attempt by a few growers taking away the $4 to $5. bag of coffee from the coffee drinkers. Being hooked on caffeine every day is one thing if this whether 10% or 51% why don't the coffee growers take to the retail side of the business too. Kona has grown into a retirement of people who can afford to retire and grow the coffee and are the ones who can't sell their 1lb bag of coffee at $25. so they want a law to sell their coffee. If the Kona coffee is that good to drink why can't they sell at $25 for a 1 lb bag of coffee online? No many coffee drinkers will pay for it. Local coffee drinkers will be forced to drink south american coffee even 100% with no kona blend and then the Kona coffee growers will feel the pinch of their greed. The coffee cooker/baggers are trying to sell to the tourist which is why they say the kona name sells the greater amount of coffee but the 100% bags usually remain on the shelf anyway. After a certain amount of time they have to go back to the warehouse and cut open and used as the 10% to be mixed with 90% of the south american coffee. Even the sumatran coffee or costa rican coffee is gaining in popularity. Kona farmer may have to move to the foreign countries and will need a visa to even visit the foreign countries. That 16% of the Kona coffee growers are the worst growers anyway. They are the wanna-bes of the Kona coffee industry. They are like the taro and ginger farmers who are constantly producing the off grade ginger and taro sold in the Hawaii supermarket because no one on the mainland will or can sell off grade products even if it comes fom Hawaii or Kona for that matter. Where is the free enterprise spirit?

I wish the Kona coffee farmers will also try to explain to the public/tourist why the same 100% kona coffee sells for $7 or %8 a bag in Hawaii and online website sells a 1 lb bag/container of kona coffee for $50 (?). Is there any reasoning? It is the individual looney person who went to kona who is the one trying to fool the public. People will just buy instant coffee. Sometimes, the truth should be told, coffee is rotting in warehouse and still being roasted and flavored to make it smell good. Caffeine is caffeine but the rotten coffee is still used at a 5% or 10% or 15% because of the money spent buying it. try smelling a bag of coffee grinds when you first open the bag. some of it smells rotten. This constant supply thing and kona coffee % stuff is the actual gauge of whether supply and demand is a real thing or just trying to fool the coffee drinkers hooked on caffeine. I hate being fooled by limiting the buyers choice, and forcing the coffee drinkers to buy their product. I get tired of going to the supermarket and finding only off grade ginger selling for $3 a pound too. I never see the 100% kona coffee on the shelf empty and is always full. Most coffe drinkers don't want to pay for it so why force us to buy it. Living in Hawaii and drinking Sumatran or Costa Rican or even Indonesian coffee will make living in Hawaii a pleasure. Drinking expensive 100 or 51%coffee with no choice is a crime in the market place.

I currently send about 40-50 bags of blended Kona and a small amount of 100% coffee to the mainland each year as gifts. Most of that goes at Christmas time.
If this group of growers prevails and manages to get the percentage required increased to 51%, that will signficantly increase the price. That will result in my sending far fewer bags to friends and family. If it gets to expensive I'll send macnuts instead.

Follow the money !!! Lion Coffee and other big roasters of blends donate thousands to Hawaii's politicians as well as donating "free" coffee to offices and fund raisers. If a poor Kona coffee farmer donates $10.00 to a person's campaign and Lion Coffee donates $2000.00--whose phone call do you think will be returned??? The corruption in Hawaiis politics runs very, very deep !! They only want to serve their own interests .!!

The truth of the matter is misuse of the Kona label. 90 beans from Kenya plus 10 beans from Kona in a package should be labeled Kenyan Coffee. The feds have a truth in labeling law where the major ingredients are listed in descending order...why not have truth in coffee labeling.??? Call it Hawaii Blend, Volcano Blend, Surfer Blend or anything else. Keep away from putting "Kona" on an inferior product.

To Hawaii 50, don't lump all tourist as stupid. We only bought true Hawaiian coffee to bring home with us. And we did check to see what the percentage was of the blend. WE can read..... Believe me, the ones that had only 10% we quickly put down. And I still get 100% Hawaiian coffee from your wonderful islands. I really think some of you on the Islands have a pretty nasty outlook for others. Not much Aloha there...

Regardless of Mr. Wayman's comments about consumers "it's their favorite coffee",.... Coffee drinkers are far, FAR more sophisticated now than they were 20 or 40 years ago. Most coffee drinkers don't know WHAT they are drinking. But many more DO know, nowadays.

Offer a unique and wonderful product, and people who want the best will be willing to pay more for it.

It is shortsighted for a Coffee producer,(of ALL people), to NOT want to sell the best at a Premium price. What is his market? Tourists? As we ALL know: Tourists will Buy Anything!

two cents wrote:

I wish the Kona coffee farmers will also try to explain to the public/tourist why the same 100% kona coffee sells for $7 or %8 a bag in Hawaii and online website sells a 1 lb bag/container of kona coffee for $50 (?). Is there any reasoning? It is the individual looney person who went to kona who is the one trying to fool the public. People will just buy instant coffee. Sometimes, the truth should be told, coffee is rotting in warehouse and still being roasted and flavored to make it smell good. Caffeine is caffeine but the rotten coffee is still used at a 5% or 10% or 15% because of the money spent buying it. try smelling a bag of coffee grinds when you first open the bag. some of it smells rotten. This constant supply thing and kona coffee % stuff is the actual gauge of whether supply and demand is a real thing or just trying to fool the coffee drinkers hooked on caffeine. I hate being fooled by limiting the buyers choice, and forcing the coffee drinkers to buy their product. I get tired of going to the supermarket and finding only off grade ginger selling for $3 a pound too. I never see the 100% kona coffee on the shelf empty and is always full. Most coffe drinkers don't want to pay for it so why force us to buy it. Living in Hawaii and drinking Sumatran or Costa Rican or even Indonesian coffee will make living in Hawaii a pleasure. Drinking expensive 100 or 51%coffee with no choice is a crime in the market place.

Apparently you don't buy any 100% Kona coffee, even in Hawaii. Green beans run $12 to $30 a pound, even to those who live in the islands. That $5-$8 a pound "Kona" is not 100% Kona!! I know. I buy and roast my own coffee. You NEVER find Kona beans for less that $12-$13 a pound,.... and even then you either pay postage or have to DRIVE to Kona and up a mountain to get it.

Kona coffee is arabica coffee. It's grown on the slopes of Kona much like the arabica's that are grown in Brazil, Indonesia (Sumatra), Columbia, Costa Rica, ect...
Similar high altitudes and volcanic soil contribute to the higher quality profile.
That said, it's the experience of a good roast master that produces superior coffee. Cheap 100% Kona coffee is sold in local markets @$6 bag...
Try it, it tastes like bad coffee because they use inferior Kona coffee beans that is purchased cheap by that particular coffee company who purchased the green coffee from these same farmers.
It was probably "off grade" the lowest grade of Kona. The next is no.3, prime, Kona Grove no. 1, fancy, extra fancy and Peaberry.
Funny thing, these farmers products do not list on their 100% Kona coffee bags that they sell, what grade is in the bag??? Charging a high price just because it says Kona is more disengenious that a 10% Kona blend. They should watch what they are trying to brew on this subject.

Now that I had my first cup of coffee. which I bought at Costco. This kirkland coffee is 32oz. organic blend, roasted by starbucks and USDA organic, $20. Looking for the source of the coffee beans there was none. Back to the bunch of growers who are the retired ones or so. Get with the competition and market and make/grow a product that you can sell. Don't ask the lawmakers to make a bad law to subsidise you. You haoles are contributing to the screwed up economy like all the other screwed up subsidised USA companies that won't compete on the world market. The original growers of the kona coffee used this as a way of life in Kona. And provided a good product. The coffee contest you have each year doesn't reflect the growers at all but your associates and the judging isn't a true scale of the coffee grown in Kona. This bunch of loser can't force coffee roaster to buy their coffee at their price they want to dictate. It has to be an open market that dictates the price. When the time comes that I in Hawaii can't drink kona grown coffee because of the world demand, I'll be just as happy with sumatran grown organic beans which is better because of the vibrations from the growers in places other than this bunch of Kona wanna-bes. Coffee is getting expensive and even McDonald won't even use the kona beans. I can only drink coffee at home because of this rip-off.

and to continue, I won't purchase those $4 cup of coffee at Mcdonalds or Starbuck's $5 cups either. Lest I run myself broke and homeless.