Coffee plants in Rapa Nui kapē

Coffee Plants in Rapa Nui

Today we want to tell you about the coffee plants that grow successfully in our organic garden, thanks to the gift we received from a Rapa Nui friend a couple of years ago. We have them in a "manavai", which is a circular structure made of stones that has been used since ancient times on the island to grow plants, as it is a very efficient way to maintain humidity and protect them from animals.

Although the exact date is unknown, it is most likely that coffee arrived on Rapa Nui in the 19th century, brought by the Easter Island Exploitation Company. Although in small quantities, coffee has been cultivated on the island since that time and is currently considered a Rapa Nui coffee.

In the Rapa Nui language, coffee is called kapē and has traditionally been cultivated for own consumption, especially before the arrival of international brands of instant coffee, that is, until the mid-1970s.
Today some plants can be seen in the Hanga Roa sector of Easter Island, but very few people harvest and prepare coffee, since in reality it is a multi-stage process.

We are coffee lovers (between 2002 and 2006 the owner of the company Rapa Nui Natural Products opened the first coffee shop on the island called Café Ra'a), and that is why we have been harvesting our coffee for several years. When we had the store "Rapa Nui Natural Products" that was next to the square in Hanga Roa, our coffee was one of the gourmet products that we offered.

In the wild, coffee plants can be found on the slopes of the Rano Kau volcano, where there is a special and very favorable microclimate, not only for the growth of this plant, but also for many others such as avocado, grapes, matu'a pua, etc.

The taste of Rapa Nui coffee is exquisite, and we say this not only because we know how much work is needed to be able to drink a cup of coffee grown on this isolated island.

 

 

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