CTAHR's Hawaii State Coffee Trial (Tables 1-4) was a state-wide, on-farm variety trial, planted in 1986-1987 by cooperators, using varieties from the CTAHR coffee collection plus an early version of the Brazilian cultivar 'Red Catuai' ('Catuai Vermelho' in Portuguese) donated by John Hays. Several sites where results or other conditions were promising for coffee production became founding sites of the new coffee areas of Hawaii. Most of these areas were formerly planted to sugarcane or pineapple. These lands usually require irrigation due to dry summers and less dry winters and windbreaks against constant tradewinds-conditions virtually opposite those of the Kona coffee belt.
The varieties were grouped based on cherry yields in different environments. 'Yellow Caturra' and 'Red Caturra' were high-yielding, responsive to good environments, and also more stable in relatively poor environments (climate, management, and unexpected stresses). 'Kent', 'Red Bourbon', '6661', 'Guatemalan', 'Red Catuai', 'Progeny 502', and 'SL 28' were all high yielding and responsive to favorable environments but lower yielding than expected (unstable) under relatively poor environments. 'Blue Mountain', 'Mundo Novo', 'Pink Bourbon', and 'Guadalupe' were low yielding but stable as assessed by a statistical procedure called stability (Bittenbender et al. 1991).
Cherry yield and green bean recovery were affected by both location and variety. Cherry yield and recovery of green bean for all varieties were averaged across years for each location (Table 4). Yield is very sensitive to management and the physical and biological environment. Highest yields are likely under the same environments favoring bean recovery. Good recovery environments are characterized by higher average annual temperatures, lower rainfall, and higher levels of sunshine. Bean size, however, was negatively affected by such site conditions favoring bean recovery. Sites at low elevation with warm temperatures, such as Lihue, Kekaha, and Kunia, had significantly lower percentages of Hawaii Extra Fancy green coffee beans (Table 4). Sites at higher elevations, with cool temperatures and fairly heavy rainfall, such as Pszyk, Peck, and Kainaliu (2300 ft elevation), had the highest percentage of Hawaii Extra Fancy green coffee beans.
The 'Guatemalan' or "Kona typica" variety is preferred
The coffee variety most generally preferred in Hawaii is 'Guatemalan', also known as "Kona typica." In the early days of the Hawaii coffee industry, beans from Kona-grown coffee trees were called "Melikan koppe" (American coffee). Today, in 1999, due to a large corporate planting on Kauai, the greatest acreage of coffee in the state is planted with the Brazilian cultivar 'Yellow Catuai' ('Catuai Amarelo' in Portugese).
Most established varieties (cultivars) of Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) are self-fertile and breed true from seed.
Hermann Widemann introduced the 'Guatemalan' variety to Hawaii from Guatemala in 1892 (Goto 1982). He gave seeds to John Horner, who planted an orchard of 800 trees in Hamakua, comparing 400 trees of this new variety with 400 of the then-current variety known as "kanaka koppe," the so-called "Hawaiian coffee" believed to be the first coffee type introduced here, probably from 30 plants brought from Brazil in 1824 by John Wilkinson. By 1895, Horner was convinced that the variety from Guatemala was superior. Horner gave seeds to Charles Miller, who started a nursery on the Kona Tea and Coffee Company's farm in Kahaluu, North Kona. In 1897, Zentaro Inaba planted Miller's seedlings in Waiaha, North Kona. In 1899, Kunigoro Yokoyama planted 100 acres in Kamalumalu from seeds purchased from Horner. By 1910, Kona coffee growers were convinced of the superiority of the new variety. In the 1960s, some growers in Kona tried another variety from Latin America, 'Red Caturra', but few in Kona grow it today. The Kona coffee industry and reputation is based on 'Guatemalan', which some growers refer to as "Kona typica"; it is the recommended variety for Kona.