Kona Snow

It’s snowing all over Kona! Visually, anyway. Dainty coffee flowers have burst forth on the trees and line the branches with white puffs. From a distance it looks like a dusting of snow over the trees.

February and March are known for their beauty here in Kona. The coffee snow lays in wait for a good rainstorm, then pops out a few days after. The mango trees are blossoming. Ripe oranges, avocadoes, persimmons, and assorted citrus weigh down our trees. Winter snowbirds (of the feathered variety) have migrated down from Alaska and grace our beaches. And humpback whales are breaching and birthing offshore.

We are also visited by many snowbirds of the unfeathered kind. New arrivals are pasty white, usually transitioning to beet-red sunburn after a couple of days. I don’t blame them for flying in from Wisconsin, Ohio, or Washington. Everybody loves our winter weather. We get a number of people out specifically for the coffee snow. If you could smell our nights, you’d come too. Coffee is a member of the gardenia family. When it blooms, breathe deeply, because the sweetness doesn’t last long.

These blossoms will grow into our first harvest round in September. With luck, and rain, we’ll have several more blooms. This time next year, you’ll be drinking these flowers.