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Compared with the state's 6.5 million-pound output, it's a drop in the cup.
But these beans, the same Guatemalans grown in Kona, aren't just any beans. They're Oahu beans.
Hand-picked and carefully sorted, they are said to produce a smooth, aromatic brew not unlike the Kona prized by connoisseurs around the world. And like its pricey cousin, the Oahu newcomer is asking close to $20 a pound.
"We're not talking about doing a McBryde here," said Jerry Vriesenga, president of Dole Food-Hawaii, noting the former Kauai sugar company's major shift to coffee with 4,000 acres under cultivation.
"We're looking for something that fits into our marketing plans for tourists."
Most of Dole's modest output is earmarked for its Tropical Fruits Distributors, which sends packages of Hawaiian produce to the mainland and Japan.
But if you look hard enough, you might find a bag of Waialua on a few store shelves in Haleiwa. Fujioka Super Market recently had some 7-ounce bags priced at $7.99 - that's equal to about $18 a pound.
Dole is tending 130 acres of coffee on former sugar land off Kamehameha Highway. The trees are on both sides of the highway as you come down the hill toward Haleiwa, just past the pineapple fields.
The striplings, protected from wind by rows of tall sorghum grass, are hard to find. But taller trees reach their willowy branches over windbreaks.
Dole picked a Guatemalan variety for both aromatic and high-yield qualities. Young trees are carefully protected from the wind so they'll grow straight: while the operation now relies on manpower to pick the beans, it hopes to find a machine that will one day do the job.
Vriesenga wants 200 acres in coffee by year's end. Eventual output should be 200,000 to 300,000 pounds of finished beans a year, he said.
It's not much of a cash crop by Dole's standards, perhaps $2 million to $3 million a year. But coffee is part of an elaborate plan for diversified agriculture that Dole is piecing together on the 6,000 acres freed by the closing of its unit, Waialua Sugar Co., in October.
Already in the ground are large fields of papaya, lychee, mango, grapefruit, tropical flowers and vegetables.
The old sugar mill doubles as a power plant and papaya processing plant - steam from the turbines is to be used to treat papayas for export. Power sold to Hawaiian Electric Co. generates $3 million to $4 million a year, Vriesenga said.
Nearby pastures are growing hay for local dairies. And Dole plans to grow alfalfa for cattle feed, now a costly import item.
Behind the mill, a 500-acre farmer's cooperative is under lease to former sugar employees at low rates.
All of this is aimed at recouping the $26 million annual income generated by the sugar company. New revenues, Vriesenga said, will help "pay the bills" for Dole's primary enterprise - export pineapple.
It also gives work to some of the 350 workers laid off when Waialua Sugar closed down.
The new brew on the block isn't getting much respect from neighbor island growers.
"Our growing conditions are different from what they are on Oahu, said Richard Emery, vice president of the Kona Coffee Council. "We have higher elevations here. I think that brings a characteristic to our coffee they can't match."
Beans grow slower and get denser at higher elevations, said Emery, who said he hadn't tried the new Oahu coffee.
Vriesenga is leaving that judgment for consumers. Meanwhile, he's left the door open for bigger things.
"If this thing really takes off, we'll look at getting a little more land."
Grower: Dole Food Hawaii