The coffee plantations was initially introduced by missionaries in the 1820s to Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets, and seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the island of Hawaiʻi in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Formerly the group was known to Europeans and Americans as the Sandwich Islands, a name that James Cook chose in honor of the then First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. Cook came across the islands by chance when crossing the Pacific Ocean on his Third Voyage, on board HMS Resolution; he was later killed on the islands on a return visit.

The climate of the Hawaiian Islands is tropical but it experiences many different climates, depending on altitude and weather. The islands receive most rainfall from the trade winds on their north and east flanks as a result of orographic precipitation. Coastal areas in general and especially the south and west flanks or leeward sides, tend to be drier.

In general, the lowlands of Hawaiian Islands receive most of their precipitation during the winter months (October to April). Drier conditions generally prevail from May to September.[ The tropical storms, and occasional hurricanes, tend to occur from July through November.

During the summer months the average temperature is about 84 °F (29 °C), in the winter months it is approximately 78,8 °F (26°C). As the temperature is relatively constant over the year the probability of dangerous thunderstorms is approximately low.

In 1825, King Kamehameha II, Queen Kamalumalu, the Governor General of Oahu Chief Bogi, and others formed a delegation from the Hawaii Islands and ventured to London. It was there that they first tasted coffee. Unfortunately it was also in London where the King and Queen contracted measles and died. Chief Bogi returned to the Hawaiian Islands aboard a British battleship, bringing with him the bodies of the King and Queen. En route to the Islands, the Chief made a stop at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he obtained the coffee trees that spawned Kona Coffee.

Upon his return, Chief Bogi handed the trees over to an ex-West Indies settler, John Wilkinson, who planted them on the Chief’s land in Manoa Valley on Oahu. Unfortunately, during his lifetime, Wilkinson was unable to successfully cultivate the tree for production of its fruits. In 1828, Father Samuel Lugress took coffee trees with him from Manoa Valley to Kona, on the Island of Hawaii, planting them in his yard simply for viewing pleasure.

The Kona region provides an ideal environment for coffee cultivation. The region where most of the coffee farms are concentrated commonly referred to as the “coffee belt,” runs along Mamalahoa Highway which cuts across the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa from 300 to 800 meters above sea level.