Growers on Hawaii's Big Island use chemical analysis to accuse retailers and coffee makers of passing off commodity beans as Kona.
Kona coffee, prized for what Mark Twain once called “a richer flavor than any other,” grows on the cloud-wreathed western flanks of Hawaii’s Big Island volcanoes.
The test is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the Smiths and owners of two other nearby farms accusing Amazon, Costco, Walmart and 18 other companies of selling bogus Kona.The case, filed earlier this year, has been plodding along in U.S. District Court in Seattle, whose metro area is home to Amazon and Costco.
The Kona farmers hired scientists to determine various chemical ratios in genuine Kona coffee. The ratio of manganese to nickel, for example, averages less than 40 to 1.Coffee that varies significantly from that and other chemical ratios is not Kona, the lawsuit says. The growers’ attorneys said in the suit that some of the tested samples labeled as blends might contain Kona, but so little as to be deceptive. Hawaii requires that Kona blends contain at least 10% of the real stuff, but the law only covers sales within the state.
“The mere fact that the retailer defendants stock and sell a product does not make them responsible for statements on the product label,” their lawyers wrote.Kona is a place name, not a trademark, defense attorneys wrote. Boyer’s Coffee Co. argued that “Belgian waffles,” “Kentucky bourbon” and “Peking duck” are also legally unprotected words that don’t mislead consumers.
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