Famous Author Mark Twain Was Very Impressed By Fine-Tasting Kona Coffee
Mark Twain published a story in the Sacramento Daily Union on August 18, 1866 detailing his journey to the Big Island of Hawaii the previous year when he had penned some of his “Letters from Hawaii,” a book that is still widely read.
Twain noted that he was, “Bound for Hawaii, to visit the great volcano and behold the other notable things which distinguish this island above the remainder of the group . . . we sailed from Honolulu on a certain Saturday afternoon, in the good schooner Boomerang.”
As he came upon the Big Island, also called Hawaii Island, Twain noted, “we were close to the island of Hawaii. Two of its high mountains were in view - Mauna Loa and Hualalai. The latter is an imposing peak, but being only ten thousand feet high is seldom mentioned or heard of. Mauna Loa is fourteen thousand feet high. The rays of glittering snow and ice, that clasped its summit like a claw, looked refreshing when viewed from the blistering climate we were in.”
About Mauna Loa Volcano Twain noted that a person “could look down the long sweep of its sides and see spots where plants are growing that grow only where the bitter cold of Winter prevails; lower down he could see sections devoted to productions that thrive in the temperate zone alone; and at the bottom of the mountain he could see the home of the tufted cocoa palms and other species of vegetation that grow only in the sultry atmosphere of eternal Summers. He could see all the climes of the world at a single glance of the eye, and that glance would only pass over a distance of eight or ten miles as the bird flies.”
Once Mark Twain came ashore he visited the town of Kailua and described its environment as a “Refuge for the Weary.”
Twain states, “We landed at Kailua, a little collection of native grass houses reposing under tall cocoanut trees - the sleepiest, quietest, Sundayest looking place you can imagine. Ye weary ones that are sick of the labor and care, and the bewildering turmoil of the great world, and sigh for a land where ye may fold your tired hands and slumber your lives peacefully away, pack up your carpet sacks and go to Kailua! A week there ought to cure the saddest of you all.”
Twain described the area where King Kamehameha I had lived near the sea in Kailua, “An old ruin of lava-block walls down by the sea was pointed out as a fort built by John Adams for Kamehameha I, and mounted with heavy guns - some of them 32-pounders - by the same sagacious Englishman. I was told that the fort was dismantled a few years ago, and the guns sold in San Francisco for old iron - which was very improbable. I was told that an adjacent ruin was old Kamehameha’s sleeping-house; another, his eating-house; another, his god’s house; another, his wife’s eating-house - for by the ancient tabu system, it was death for man and woman to eat together. Every married man’s premises comprised five or six houses. This was the law of the land. I was told, also, that Kailua was old Kamehameha’s favorite place of residence, and that it was always a favorite place of resort with his successors.”
Mark Twain then began his journey to see the island, and was impressed with the Kona coffee region. In a section of his writings titled, “The Famous Orange and Coffee Region.” Twain states, “It was only about fifteen miles from Kailua to Kealakekua Bay, either by sea or land . . . We hired horses from the Kanakas . . . I will mention, in this place, that horses are plenty everywhere in the Sandwich Islands - no Kanaka is without one or more - but when you travel from one island to another, it is necessary to take your own saddle and bridle . . . The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it by what name you please.”
Twain recounted the troubles that Kona’s coffee industry had been experiencing, “At one time it was cultivated quite extensively, and promised to become one of the great staples of Hawaiian commerce; but the heaviest crop ever raised was almost entirely destroyed by a blight, and this, together with heavy American customs duties, had the effect of suddenly checking enterprise in this direction.”
Twain continued to recount the recent plight of Kona coffee, “For several years the coffee growers fought the blight with all manner of cures and preventives, but with small success, and at length some of the less persevering abandoned coffee-growing altogether and turned their attention to more encouraging pursuits.”
Twain also noted that the coffee industry in Kona, while it had suffered some misfortunes, was showing signs of progress. “The coffee interest has not yet recovered its former importance, but is improving slowly. The exportation of this article last year was over 268,000 pounds, and it is expected that the present year’s yield will be much greater.”
At the time that Mark Twain visited the Big Island the sugarcane industry was well underway, and had begun to dominate all other agricultural pursuits. Twain went on to compare Hawaii’s coffee farming and sugarcane industries: “Contrast the progress of the coffee interest with that of sugar, and the demoralizing effects of the blight upon the former will be more readily seen.”
Twain noted that while 117,000 pounds of coffee and 730,000 pounds of sugar had been exported from Hawaii in 1852, by 1865 the coffee exports had risen only to 263,000 pounds (a little more than doubling) while sugarcane had increased to more than 15 million pounds, more than twenty times its previous volume.
Continuing on his journey, Twain described what he saw, “The coffee plantations we encountered in our short journey looked well, and we were told that the crop was unusually promising.”
Twain also commented on the fine citrus trees growing in the Kona region, “There are no finer oranges in the world than those produced in the district of Kona; when new and fresh they are delicious. The principal market for them is California, but of course they lose much of their excellence by so long a voyage. About 500,000 oranges were exported last year against 15,000 in 1852. The orange culture is safe and sure, and is being more and more extensively engaged in every year. We passed one orchard that contained ten thousand orange trees.”
Twain also noticed many other types of trees also, including “the varied and handsome foliage of the Kou, Koa, Kukui, breadfruit, mango, guava, peach, citron, ohia and other fine trees,” but it was the rich, green color and high quality of the orange trees that compelled “constant exclamations of admiration.”
As he progressed toward Kealakekua Bay on horseback at about 1,000 feet above sea level, Twain noted that “you find yourself buried in the forest in the midst of a rank, tropical vegetation and a dense growth of trees, whose great boughs overarch the road and shut out sun and sea and everything, and leave you in a dim, shady tunnel, haunted with invisible singing birds and fragrant with the odor of flowers. It was pleasant to ride occasionally in the warm sun, and feast the eye upon the ever-changing panorama of the forest (beyond and below us), with its many tints, its softened lights and shadows, its billowy undulations sweeping gently down from the mountain to the sea. It was pleas ant also, at intervals, to leave the sultry sun and pass into the cool, green depths of this forest and indulge in sentimental reflections under the inspiration of its brooding twilight and its whispering foliage. The jaunt through Kona will always be to me a happy memory.”
Many years later Mark Twain recalled his Hawaiian Islands visit, commenting that, “For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun; the pulsing of its surf is in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud-rack; I can feel the spirit of its woody solitudes, I hear the splashing of the brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago.”
So when you are sipping some premium gourmet Kona coffee you can reflect a bit on its rich history. This very same coffee was enjoyed by the likes of Mark Twain more than a century and a half ago.
To read about Kona Coffee Farms see Kona Coffee Farms, Tours, and Coffeehouses.
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