Tag: coffee beans

August 19, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Kona Coffee

Kona Coffee on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Greenwell Farms

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Kona coffee is the market name for a variety of coffee (Coffea arabica) cultivated on the slopes of Mount Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii. This coffee has developed a reputation that has made it one of the most expensive and sought-after coffees in the world. Only coffee from the Kona Districts can be legally described as "Kona". The Kona weather pattern of bright sunny mornings, humid rainy afternoons and mild nights creates favorable coffee growing conditions.

There are approximately 800 Kona coffee farms, with an average farm size of less than 5 acres (20,000 m2).

Kona coffee blooms in February and March. Small white flowers cover the tree and are known as Kona Snow. In April, green berries begin to appear on the trees. By late August, red fruit, called "cherry" because of the resemblance of the ripe berry to a cherry fruit, start to ripen for picking. Each tree will be hand-picked several times between August and January, and provides around 20-30 pounds of cherry.

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July 20, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

James Dole, Pineapple King

By SCOTT STODDARD,
INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

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Dole landed in Hawaii in 1899, started Hawaiian Pineapple Co. two years later and was pounding out 2 million cases of the canned fruit by 1923.

James Dole was 22 when he set out for Hawaii in 1899.

He had little experience in business or farming.

In his arsenal were an agriculture degree from Harvard, a modest sum of cash and hopes of prospering from the territory’s efforts to diversify its sugar-dependent economy.

But his arrival at Honolulu in November that year wasn’t auspicious.

Attempts by farmers to grow coffee beans, rubber, vegetables and fruit had failed, and the town was placed in quarantine for six months due to bubonic plague. Dole waited out the plague at the home of his cousin Sanford Dole, who was soon to become Hawaii’s first governor.

By August 1900, James was ready to act. He bought a 64-acre farm in Wahiawa, near Honolulu.

And he tried growing crops before settling on the fruit that would make him famous: pineapple.

“After some experimentation, I concluded that the land was better adapted to pineapples than to peas, pigs or potatoes,” he said in the Harvard class of 1899’s 25th reunion report in 1924.

His Hawaiian Pineapple Co. was incorporated in December 1901.

Dole’s bold aim: Sell pineapples to every store in America.

At the time, few Americans were familiar with pineapples. The fruit was delicate and difficult to ship from the tropical areas where they grew. Efforts to distribute pineapples in cans had also failed.

“Back at the turn of the century it wasn’t a product that many people had tasted,” Dole spokesman Marty Ordman told IBD. “Jim Dole was really the one that brought it to the masses.”

But success didn’t come easy.

Read the complete article . . .

November 14, 2006 Legislative Snippets

Hawaii-grown roasted or instant coffee; labeling requirements

?486-120.6 Hawaii-grown roasted or instant coffee; labeling requirements.
Electronic File Date: 11/14/2006
(a) In addition to all other labeling requirements, the identity statement used for labeling or advertising roasted or instant coffee produced in whole or in part from Hawaii-grown green coffee beans shall meet the following requirements:

(1) For roasted or instant coffee that contains one hundred per cent Hawaii-grown coffee by weight the identity statement shall consist of either:

(A) The geographic origin of the Hawaii-grown coffee, in coffee consisting of beans from only one geographic origin, followed by the word ?Coffee?; provided that the geographic origin may be immediately preceded by the term ?100%?; or

(B) The per cent coffee by weight of one of the Hawaii-grown coffees, used in coffee consisting of beans from several geographic origins, followed by the geographic origin of the weight-specified coffee and the terms ?Coffee? and ?All Hawaiian?;

(2) For roasted or instant coffee consisting of a blend of one or more Hawaii-grown coffees and coffee not grown in Hawaii, the per cent coffee by weight of one of the Hawaii-grown coffees used in the blend, followed by the geographic origin of the weight-specified coffee and the term ?Coffee Blend?; and

(3) Each word or character in the identity statement shall be of the same type size and shall be contiguous. The smallest letter or character of the identity statement on packages of sixteen ounces or less net weight shall be at least one and one-half times the type size required under federal law for the statement of net weight or three-sixteenths of an inch in height, whichever is smaller. The smallest letter or character of the identity statement on packages of greater than sixteen ounces net weight shall be at least one and one-half times the type size required under federal law for the statement of net weight. The identity statement shall be conspicuously displayed without any intervening material in a position above the statement of net weight. Upper and lower case letters may be used interchangeably in the identity statement.

(b) A listing of the geographic origins of the various Hawaii-grown coffees and the regional origins of the various coffees not grown in Hawaii that are included in a blend may be shown on the label. If used, this list shall consist of the term ?Contains:?, followed by, in descending order of per cent by weight and separated by commas, the respective geographic origin or regional origin of the various coffees in the blend that the manufacturer chooses to list. Each geographic origin or regional origin may be preceded by the per cent of coffee by weight represented by that geographic origin or regional origin, expressed as a number followed by the per cent sign. The type size used for this list shall not exceed half that of the identity statement. This list shall appear below the identity statement, if included on the front panel of the label.

(c) It shall be a violation of this section:

(1) To use the identity statement specified in subsection (a)(1)(A) or similar terms in labeling or advertising unless the package of roasted or instant coffee contains one hundred per cent coffee from that one geographic origin;

(2) To use a geographic origin in labeling or advertising, including in conjunction with a coffee style or in any other manner, if the roasted or instant coffee contains less than ten per cent coffee by weight from that geographic origin;

(3) To use a geographic origin in advertising roasted or instant coffee, including advertising in conjunction with a coffee style or in any other manner, without disclosing the percentage of coffee used from that geographic origin as described in subsection (a)(1)(B) and [(a)](2);

(4) To use a geographic origin in labeling or advertising roasted or instant coffee, including in conjunction with a coffee style or in any other manner, if the green coffee beans used in that roasted or instant coffee do not meet the grade standard requirements of rules adopted under chapter 147;

(5) To misrepresent, on a label or in advertising of a roasted or instant coffee, the per cent coffee by weight of any coffee from a geographic origin or regional origin; or

(6) To use the term ?All Hawaiian? on a label or in advertising of a roasted or instant coffee if the roasted or instant coffee is not produced entirely from green coffee beans produced in geographic origins defined in this chapter.

(d) Roasters, manufacturers, or other persons who package roasted or instant coffee covered by this section shall maintain, for a period of two years, records on the volume and geographic origin or regional origin of coffees purchased and sold and any other records required by the department for the purpose of enforcing this section. Authorized employees of the department shall have access to these records during normal business hours.

(e) For the purpose of this section:

?Geographic origin? means the geographic regions in which Hawaii-grown green coffee beans are produced, as defined in rules adopted under chapter 147; provided that the term ?Hawaiian? may be substituted for the geographic origin ?Hawaii?.

?Per cent coffee by weight? means the percentage calculated by dividing the weight in pounds of roasted green coffee beans of one geographic or regional origin used in a production run of roasted or instant coffee, by the total weight in pounds of the roasted green coffee beans used in that production run of roasted or instant coffee, and multiplying the quotient by one hundred. [L 1991, c 289, ?2; am L 1995, c 103, ?1; am L 2002, c 258, ?1]

?486-121 Misrepresentation of quantity. No person shall:

(1) Sell, offer, or expose for sale less than the quantity -represented;

(2) Take any more than the quantity represented when the buyer furnishes the weight or measure by means of which the quantity is determined; or

(3) Represent the quantity in any manner calculated to mislead or in any way deceive another person. [L 1991, c 153, pt of ?6; am L 1993, c 54, ?12]

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol11_Ch0476-0490/HRS0486/HRS_0486-0120_0006.htm