The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-04-23
COFFEE MAN TALKS
Prices and Markets the Subjects
Of His Communication.
SUPERIOR HAWAIIAN GRADES
What the Tenderfoot Should Know.
Local Production Better Than
Central American.
HAWAIIAN GRADES

MIR. EDTTOR:-In your issues of
of 18th, z2d and 25th of March, 1 no
tice your editorials on the coffee in
dustry and the value of Hawaiian
! coffee.
In the first article you challenge the
Bulletin to publish some Of the account
sales returned by Folger & Co., San
| Francisco, to some of our coffee ship
pers, while in another you criticise a
statement, made by the same paper.
that Kona coffee will command cents
per pound more than Brazilian.
Now, Mr.. Editor, as 1 have been en-
gagged in active coffee planting for
over 15 years, in this country and
abroad, and claim to know something
about the proper preparation of the
bean, for the market, and moreover as
1 aspire to the distinction of one Of
the experienced" men whom you
would desire to see annihilated; please
allow me to make a few remarks and
furnish some statistics and facts in
regard to the true value of Hawaiian
coffee in foreign markets. Although,
I quite agree with you in your COM
ments on the boom pest, and the
misleading statements which are pub
lished in regard to coffee planting in
Hawaii; beg to differ with your views
and criticisms on the value of the
bean, and particularly your sneers at
the ever present experienced man"
as you are pleased to term him. /
have found that there are two kinds
of this class in these Islands. First
Those who possess the actual knowl-
edge, acquired by many years of hard
and active toll in coffee planting, and
who can make their representations
good on investigation. Second-ThOse
who profess to know all about it, and
talk as though they had been born
and brought up under a coffee bush;
but who in all probability, never saw
a coffee tree before their arrival in
these Islands.
l venture to say that if Hawaii had
possessed a few more of the despised
individuals representing the first class;
the value of coffee abroad would have
been stablished long ere this, and the
tons Of rubbish which have been pick
ed up, along the Kona coast in parti-
cular, would never have had an exist
ence.
l have not seen the article in the
Bulletin which you criticise in your
issue of March 22d, but from the state
ment you refer to, 1 presume that paper
was praising the quality of Kona cOf-
fee; and I must say / heartily endorse
such an opinion.
Whether KOna coffee will command
cents per pound more than that from
Brazil, L am not prepared to say; but
of one fact i am assured, viz: that such
coffee will not only command a higher
price than Brazilian, but as | can show
on good authority, will realize more
than that obtained from the best Cen
traI American varieties. But you must
bear in mind, Mr.. Editor, that the
coffee I have referred to is the one
prepared by the experienced man,
whether he possessed that experience
before his arrival in this country, or
acquired it here by experimenting on
samples at the expense of others.
The statement you make, that KOna
coffee at the normal price of Central
American will pay well, is not only
misleading but is inconsistent with the
facts.
With the price the coffee planter of
these Islands has to pay for labor, as
compared with that ruling in other
coffee countries, in order to insure
success. two conditions are necessary,
viz. a greater yield from the trees and
a superior quality in the bean. So far
as my observation goes with the coffee
trees in this district, during the past
seven years, l am led to believe that
both these conditions exist.
If the coffee to be finally shipped
from these Islands is to rank with
some Of the Central American yarie-
ties. then the sooner we shut up coffee
planting in Hawaii the better.
The test which you suggest, and on
which you express your readiness TO
stake money, is no test at all, so far
as the ommerciaI value Of the bean is
concerned. You venture to say that
if four cups Of coffee be prepared US
ing Brazilian, Salvador or other Cen
traI American with Java, and ten hab-