Suit: Safeway's Kona Coffee Is Mostly Not From Kona

Safeway advertises its Safeway Select Kona Blend coffee "as if Kona beans are the major portion of the Kona Blend," but they actually contain "only a very small portion of Kona beans," according to a federal class action, Courthouse News Service reports. 

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Chanee Thurston of Benicia, California, says that until this year, the Kona Blend labels did not disclose that any of the beans came from anywhere but the Kona region of Hawaii.

“This is a significant omission since the majority of the coffee beans in the Kona Blend Coffee are sourced from regions other than the Kona region of Hawaii,” the suit alleges.

The label now says that the “delicate and smooth flavors of our Kona beans combine in perfect harmony with our Latin American beans to create this fragrant cup.”

A dedicated purchaser of the disputed coffee since 2006, Ms. Thurston took as gospel Safeway's assertion that she would “revel in the unmatched taste of savory beans from Hawaii's big island” when, in fact, she was reveling mostly in the taste of savory beans from elsewhere.

Although the suit gives no indication that Ms. Thurston ever failed to revel in the blend, it asserts that she paid more for the Kona Blend because she thought it consisted mostly of Kona beans and that she and other consumers were deceived by Safeway into paying more than they would otherwise have been willing to pay.

The suit notes that Kona coffee is the name given to a variety of coffee cultivated only on the slopes of Mount Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona districts of the island of Hawaii. The Kona districts are 22 miles long and 2 miles wide and annual production is small, causing the “high-end gourmet coffee” to be priced higher than lesser beans.

The suit seeks damages on behalf of all consumers who purchased the Safeway Select Kona Blend during the time in question.