Why Your Latte is $5 a Pop - My Coffee Farming Experience

For the past three months, I've been living and working on Mama’s Kona Coffee farm in Keauhou-Kona, Hawaii. After working in the coffee business for three years, and drinking A LOT of coffee, I decided to take things a step further and really experience the journey that coffee makes from the tree to the cup. My goal in my professional career is to improve access to healthy foods and bring urban society closer to our food through gardening or small-scale farming, cooking, and nutrition education. As processed and streamlined as our food is in the modern day, it's hard to remember that there are human beings behind the convenience of grocery stores.  

Every coffee drinker has heard the criticism: “why would you pay $5 for a drink?” and

in my three years of coffee-making, one of the questions I heard the most was “why is coffee so expensive? Isn't it just beans and water?”

My answer back then, before I really had knowledge of the nature of coffee farming, was usually “well, the cost includes the cup and lid, milk and flavor, employee pay, and rent for the building”. Which are all real reasons when buying specialty coffee from a cafe, but coffee by the pound tends to be pricey, as well, especially when compared to other popular steeped drinks like tea.

Now, my answer includes all of the reasons above, but includes this, as well: coffee farming is hard. It's simultaneously physically challenging, mentally frustrating, and environmentally delicate. And for the farmer, it often isn't always very profitable. The farm I worked on supplemented their income by selling baked goods and meals at a farmer's market. When you consider that the majority of coffee is grown outside of the United States in countries with poorer working conditions and labor ethics, commercial coffee is actually under priced.

So what makes coffee farming in Hawaii, home to some of the best coffee on Earth, so challenging?

• Environmental Factors
• Coffee plants are very particular about the conditions they grow in, and only grow in very specific climates. While it loves and thrives in Kona’s volcanic soil, moderate year-round temperatures, and frequent rainfall, any deviation from the normal weather is damaging. Periods of drought and acid rain have made it harder for farmers to maintain healthy crops in recent years.
• Invasive Species (and other pests!)
• While Hawaii’s climate is perfect for growing coffee, it's also perfect for nearly any living organism. Farmers in Kona now have to tackle invasive coffee borer beetles and fire ants. Fire ants not only feed on fruit, but pose danger to farmers and coffee pickers with their painful sting.
• Caretaking of Plants
• Mentioned above, if it doesn't rain, coffee farmers have to water the plants by hand or with irrigation. This is costly both financially and environmentally for the farmer and the land.
• New growth on fruiting trees, called suckers, literally suck nutrients away from the coffee cherries and plants themselves. These are pulled or cut off before picking season.
• As coffee beans develop, they weigh down the tree’s branches. The main stumps of the trees, called verticals, start to bend and need to be propped up so that they don't snap in two. Verticals can be heavy, and propping them up just right takes time.
• The way beans are harvested is important, too. Careless pickers can damage the plant at the point the cherries grow on. New cherries should grow on the plant in the same spot during following seasons. If cherries are picked incorrectly, though, the plant scars and no cherry will grow there again.

• Processing of coffee
• Some farmers process their own coffee: from  pulping, drying, roasting and bagging, which is all time-consuming work. Others send coffee harvests off to be pulped (removes the fruit from the bean), and finish the drying and roasting process themselves.
• Roasting coffee is a rewarding experience, but it's also extremely hot, and the smoke burns your throat, lungs, and eyes if you don't wear proper protection. Not all farmers roast their own coffee, but it is a common process in Kona, where farms often go to market to sell their products and hold tours and coffee tastings.

As harvest season approaches, I'm looking forward to doing some coffee picking, though I’m not living on the farm anymore. Coffee farming (as any farming is, really,) is a labor-intense lifestyle, but I found being in the land to be calming and meditative. In fact, Lily Sr., or “Mama” as we all call her, is in her 90s and still goes out to take care of the land every day, having done so since she was a child. She was usually out before we would even be awake. She says it keeps her mind and body young, and seeing her out there, I believe it.

Farming coffee opened my eyes to the struggles that coffee farmers around the world likely face, and I've gained a new appreciation for one of my favorite beverages and the people that grow it. It brought me closer to the land, where I found confidence and gratitude to every little thing that went “right”. So I encourage you, next time you order your small, hot, honey-almond milk latte with cinnamon sprinkles (my fave ;) ), take a moment to be thankful for what you have, and for the people whose lives and livelihoods rely on that cup of roasted bean ambrosia!