Local Kona artists and farmers. It is quite a tight community in Kona and everyone is known to all. |
Tom and Jennifer Greenwell - owners of Greenwell farms and coffee mill. They have had coffee in the final 18 for several years now (including this one) and Tom pulls his sample from the general lot of parchment. No primping going on at Greenwell. We have offered Greenwell coffee for many years now, and a lot of other Konas we have sold were milled by Tom. |
In fact, here's a picture of the Greenwell cherry-buying station near Captain Cook. Most mills buy coffee cherry to suppliment the amount that comes from their own trees. It works out because most small farms cannot farm the land and run a mill too. |
And the winner - Lafayette Farm owned by Andy and Kazune Lafayette. It was an excellent coffee, and in fact my scoring picked the top 3 spots in the same order ... Lafayette first, Moki's second and HuaHua third. |
Just to make Maria jealous, I had to get a picture of myslef with the lovely Miss Kona. At this point, she was confessing to "smile fatigue" and I felt a bit guilty making her pose for one more... Oh well. Maria could not join me this time, just too much work at the warehouse. But we will definitely plan better and get ourselves to Kona again soon. |
I was able to meet up with a few home roasters at the comptition, and Terry McVay had emailed me before the event about going out for a little Kayak trip. |
Terry loading up the boats - I had a great time and can't thank Terry enough for his time, his knowledge of the terrain, and his Sulawesi roasted to a light Vienna! It was excellent, just a little roasty but with a lot of anise/licorice, and a rooty Goldenseal flavor for me. |
- a picture of me at Kealakekua Bay. Captain James Cook entered the sheltered waters of Kealakekua Bay on the morning of Jan 17, 1779, during the height of a local religious festival. He was welcomed originally but behaved rather badly and in the end, Cook was surrounded and killed at this very spot. There is a monument on the spit of land were the original village was, and it is only approachable by rugged foot trail or by water. Hence the kayaks! |
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After - I had to jump. |
I had little free time on this quick trip, but was able to snorkle some fantastic reefs, and make it to a few of the sandy beaches (which are rare) along the Kona coast. |
Ending on a typical Hawaiian scene - but Kona is not typical, it is quite unique. There is no place where the landscape and the people combine in such a way, and certainly no place where the coffee cup and the coffee consumer, can interact so closely with the farms, the trees, the fruit, the coffee mill and the grower. This is the easiest coffee trip you can possibly make, and the farmers are welcoming. Of course, bring your checkbook, because Aloha spirit needs a mainland infusion of money. |
| The
Complete Sweet Maria's Coffee Library Page |
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