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Hiro Coffee Farm is tucked away along Highway 70, about 10 minutes from the Jungle Warfare Training Center in the northern part of Okinawa. It is about a two-hour drive from Camp Foster.

Hiro Coffee Farm is tucked away along Highway 70, about 10 minutes from the Jungle Warfare Training Center in the northern part of Okinawa. It is about a two-hour drive from Camp Foster. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)

Hiro Coffee Farm is tucked away along Highway 70, about 10 minutes from the Jungle Warfare Training Center in the northern part of Okinawa. It is about a two-hour drive from Camp Foster.

Hiro Coffee Farm is tucked away along Highway 70, about 10 minutes from the Jungle Warfare Training Center in the northern part of Okinawa. It is about a two-hour drive from Camp Foster. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)

The coffee bean is actually the pit of the small "fruit" that grows on coffee shrubs. As the fruit ripens, it will turn cherry red. Each fruit normally contains two beans.

The coffee bean is actually the pit of the small "fruit" that grows on coffee shrubs. As the fruit ripens, it will turn cherry red. Each fruit normally contains two beans. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)

After hand roasting her coffee beans, Chiyomi Sumida, right, cools the beans down with a little help from the Hiro Coffee Farm staff.

After hand roasting her coffee beans, Chiyomi Sumida, right, cools the beans down with a little help from the Hiro Coffee Farm staff. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)

Hiro Coffee Farm roasts its own coffee beans right at the little roadside cafe where it sells coffee brewed by the cup or whole-beaned by the pound.

Hiro Coffee Farm roasts its own coffee beans right at the little roadside cafe where it sells coffee brewed by the cup or whole-beaned by the pound. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)

Gravitating to the words "home grown and organic coffee," we headed out north one recent weekday.

After a two-hour scenic drive along the east shoreline of Okinawa, we arrived at Hiro Coffee Farm, nestled in the woods of Yambaru. Greeting us were chubby chickens running loose, and a savory aroma of freshly roaasted coffee beans.

Hiro Coffee Farm is operated by Hiroshi Adachi, his son, Masakazu, and his daughter, Tomoko. The Osaka-born Adachi family started the coffee farm 15 years ago by planting 1,000 coffee trees brought from Brazil. They waited three years before the trees began to yield beans and now harvest about one ton of beans annually during the December-through-June season.

Adachi, 62, said he learned how learned how to grow coffee trees from his relatives in Kona, Hawaii.

"After working at their farm for three years, I began to want to grow my own coffee trees in Japan," Adachi said as he sat at a wooden picnic table at the farm’s parlor, which is the only place the Adachi family sells their beans.

Coffee trees, native to Ethiopia, are cultivated in regions from 23.5 degrees above and 23.5 degrees below the equators, known as the coffee belt. Adachi found that Okinawa and Ogasawara Islands, north of Iwo Jima, are the only places in Japan that barely touch the northern tip of the belt.

He said he chose Okinawa’s Yambaru forest because the soil and mountain weather are perfectly suited to grow coffee trees.

To maintain the quality of the coffee while keeping the trees free of pesticide or herbicide, Adachi uses a secret weapon to fight the bugs and insects: locally brewed sake called Awamori.

"My father sprays Awamori diluted with water at the bugs to get them drunk," Tomoko said proudly. Intoxicated insects are easy to sweep off the trees, she laughed as she served us tea made of young organic coffee leaves. The smooth tea flavor with the fragrance of lemon grass was very soothing.

Near our table in the parlor were two visitors leisurely enjoying their coffee in the tranquil atmosphere. Lush greens surrounding the parlor were as gentle and warm as the hospitality we received from the Adachis. Under a tree, the family dog was taking a nap while three chickens were pecking for food in the grassy area around the parlor. Tomoko said the chickens were runaways from a neighborhood farm. She said their owner never came to claim them, so they became family pets.

We wrapped up our visit by taking a try at roasting coffee beans to take home. In a small roaster on a tabletop stove burner, beans soon began sounding off like popcorn, and savory smoke engulfed us. A good breakfast coffee was in our hands.

Know and Go ...Directions: From Okinawa Expressway, take the Exit No. 9 (Ginoza) and turn to the left onto Highway 329, heading north toward Camp Schwab. After passing the Marine Corps base, turn to the right at the next traffic signal onto Highway 331. When the road meets a T-section, stay on the road and proceed on the straight road, Highway 70. About an hour after passing Camp Schwab, Hiro Coffee Farm will be on the right.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. April through September, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. October through March. Closed Wednesdays unless it is a Japanese national holiday.)

Drinks: Coffee, 500 yen; locally grown pineapple juice, 400 yen; cocoa, 400 yen

Beans: 1,200 yen for dark roast and 1,000 yen for medium roast, 200 grams each. Trial roasting is 1,000 yen for 80 grams of beans and takes about 15 minutes. The service is not offered on Sundays and Japanese holidays.

Phone: 0980-43-2126.

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