Terry Fitzgerald's charmed life

Terry Fitzgerald has long been one of the Devil Dogs favorite people in Kona, if not on the planet. Terry is one of the original coffee pioneers, leasing four acres of rain forest in Honaunau in 1971 and restoring an overgrown coffee plantation, turned it into idyllic, award winning coffee farm that was one of the earliest single vineyard estate coffees.  He won the Gevalia Cup, as we have noted, in 1997, and more than that, he embodies the free spirited hippy types (tho he has always been more Kerouac than hippy), who restored Kona Coffee. Terry's house is largely built of Koa planking, especially the floors, and he has long lived the part of the wise avuncular man on the mountain.  But a few years ago Terry met Susie in China, and they married, and she came to Hawaii, where they had their beautiful son Sonny.  Now I have known Terry a long time but I have never seen him as happy as in his current domestic bliss, and Susie is as cool as she is amazing, but it is Sunny who has transformed the plantation in the sky where they live.  Thats Terry and Susie and Sonny in the picture above.

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The Da Kine Coffee Farm is a wonderland, of course, for a little boy, and all the neighbors know and adore Sonny.  In the picture above we see Sonny leading the way down a path between two swaths of coffee trees, Terry close behind.  In a way of life that hasn't changed in decades, and in a place that is the very definition of unspoiled heaven, Terry has a life that few could imagine. But he works hard too, and Da Kine Coffee remains one of the great Kona Coffee farms, if not the touchstone for those who appreciate the heritage of the individualistic coffee farmer. Thats Terry at the table off his kitchen in the photo below, a man who as much as anyone else has taken his piece of Hawaii and made it emblematic of all that life would hope to be.

Da Kine Coffee Bean

One of my all time favorite Kona Coffee's is Terry Fitzgerald's Da Kine Coffee Bean, winner of the prestigious Gevalia Cup in 1997.   Terry is one of the true original pioneers in the resurgence of Kona Coffee.  He came to Kona in 1970, an itinerant geo-physicist and Kerouac inspired hippie, found an old overgrown coffee farm in the highlands of Honaunau, 1.2 miles up a twisting trail above the Hawaiian Telephone switching station, and restored the farm to a functioning, flourishing coffee plantation.

Terry has 4 acres of coffee, and to prove the land and soil is no fluke, his neighbor on the mountain, Pat Pearlman, won the Gevalia Cup for her farm exactly 10 years after Terry.  Terry is one of the true spirits of Ohana (family) in Kona Coffee, and he retains an air of regal self awareness in one of the most beautiful spots in Hawaii.  In the picture above you see Terry raking his beans on the roof of his house, in a Japanese platform called a hashi dani. 

Terry's coffee is available over the internet at www.dakinecoffeebean.com or by calling 808 - 328 - 8716.  He has kept his prices amazingly low compared to his competitors.  I asked him why and he said "We make a pretty good living and I just like to jeep my prices where people can afford them".  Terry produces about 5000 pounds of coffee a year.  This is one of the all time great Kona Coffees and a perfect Christmas gift.

Ahupuaa

 Hawaiians traditionally divided the land into Ahupuaa, a wedge like pie shaped geographical division that stretched from the ocean at its widest to the top of the local mountain at its apex.  This way a given chief would have fish ponds and ocean for fishing and harvesting, lowlands for agriculture and highlands for hunting, providing all their needs.

During the current Kona Coffee Cupping competition the 16 semifinalists in the classic division were announced and there was several striking similarities which we call the Ahupuaa difference, and which we have seen as a similarity in past winners.  4 semifinalists came from the Keauhou region, and all four farms were literally right next door to each other - Buddhas Cup Estate, Imagine Coffee, Kona Earth and in the Crown (big farm) division, Kona Kulana farms. In addition, last years 2nd place winner, Malia Ohana, is right next door to these 4 farms.  Thus the Keauhou Ahupuaa is definitely a stand out for Kona Coffee this year, particularly when you consider that the old Kulana farm won the Gevalia cup twice in the  1990's.

Similarly, in Captain Cook, last years first place farm, Kuaiwi Farm, and third place farm J. Yokoyama, are literally 500 yards apart off Koa road, Just above them is previous winners Pau Hana Coffee and Koa Coffee, thus making what we can call the Captain Cook or Koa Ahupuaa a significant coffee land area.  Further down in Honaunau, on one stretch of land off of what is called Telephone Trunk road, a twisting barely paved trail leading miles up into the rainforest, named after the Hawaiian Telephone building off Hwy. 11, is Terry Fitzgeralds Da Kine Coffee Farm, winner of the Gevalia cup in 1997, and right next door to Terry's place, literally across a trail and adjoining his land, is Pat Pearlman's Pearl Estate coffee, which won the Gevalia Cup two years ago, making them, in my mind, the Lafite and Margaux of Kona Coffee and making the Telephone trunk line a star studded Ahupuaa of its own.

Its just a theory, and elevation and other factors could easily be at work, but soil and terroir of a similar Ahupuaa could be a predictive factor in high quality coffee. We will find out today when the winners are announced. STAY TUNED!!!