100% Kona Coffee

100% Kona Coffee.  Thats all we ask.  The Devil Dog, as you have seen, is passionate on the subject, and so are the Kona Coffee farmers. We have spent a goodly ammount of time holding forth on the multiple amazing coffee farms hand crafting a superior product. Malia Bolton and her friend were kind enough to serve as models for our slogan (thats her friend above, and Malia in the two pictures below).  The guy in the picture below happens to run Buddhas Cup and Imagine brand coffee farms across the road from Malia's "Malia Ohana" award winning farm.  Together they are the new rising faces that will be around Kona Coffee for some time to come.

But its all about quality and supporting individual farmers who grow market and sell their own estate coffees, the boutique coffee chateaus of Honaunau, Captain Cook, Kealekekua and Holualoa, signified by their awards in the Gevalia Cup competition, and a coffee that can be found no where else.  The Devil Dog salutes them and encourages you to order their coffee over the internet.  And remember, like Malia says....make sure its 100% Kona.

The Pink Palace of Holualoa

Not everything in Hawaii is glamorous, but whole swaths of it are still authentic.  There is little more authentic than the pink palace of Holualoa, the charming Kona Hotel, a landmark that beckons back to an age on the Big island when there were no "resorts", when the Kona Inn downtown was the fanciest hotel in town, and the plans landed on what is now the baseball diamond near the wharf, and you could only get to Kona Village by boat, and Holualoa was a sleepy town filled with Japanese families working the land.  Then the pink palace, as the Devil Dog likes to call it, was the only game in town, an essential way station on the high road to Holuloa.

Today, as you can see, it is still filled with locals, perhaps less busy as a hotel (altho it still is a working functioning hotel) and it certainly harkens back to a simpler age, when local hotels run by families were the norm and mega resorts were the non existent exception.  Now the Devil Dog loves his mega resorts as much as the next guy, but you can't help but be charmed by the genuine relic that remains the pink palace of Holualoa.

Kona Coffee and Tea Co.

Dan Bolton is one of the most interesting men in Kona. Successful, irreverant, down to earth, driven, and a hell of a nice guy, he is happily married to his wife and partner in all things Jan, and they are also the owners of Kona Coffee and Tea Co. with over 100 acres of coffee growing on their ranch of several thousand acres high above, and I mean high above Holualoa. Dan is no slouch when it comes to quality, for Kona Coffee and Tea Co won the Gevalia Cup in 2003. Did I mention that his daughter Malia won second place in the Gevalia Cup last year for her organic 8 acre Malia Ohana Ranch, and also helps her dad run the Kona Coffee and Tea Co empire.

Thats Dan above and Jan just below. Their ranch is something to behold. Malia took me for a tour and as we rode high up the mountain, through several gates and onto a dirt road past herds of sheep I knew this was a special place. Then we get to the ranch house, a two story structure, southern plantation meets hawaiian ranch house, with a wide outside patio supported by a colonade of local hardwood trees.  This is living in paradise, back to the roots on a ranch worthy of the name.

But the essence is the coffee, 100 acres plus and with plans for expansion.  Dan is self contained, processing his own cherry, and acting as a big player in the Kona Coffee market while maintaining a home spun persona.

And did I mention the sheep. They are everywhere. Below is a gaggle of the critters prancing across an open meadow high up in the hills. Talk about free range.

Then of course there is Malia, as lovely as she is smart, and a rising star of the future in Kona Coffee.  This is no dilitante daughter of a well to do man.  Malia works her ass off, on her farm and for her dad.  She knows her coffee and knows her business, and no job is too small to recieve her full attention.  Thats her below flashing the Shakka sign as she drives the open jeep across the ranch land on our tour.

Kona Coffee and Tea Co can be found on the internet at www.konacoffeeandtea.com or by phone at 808 329 6577.

The Hat Lady

There is a lot of local arts and crafts on display and for sale at the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival events, including this woman at the Cupping competition who made and sold hats with a lifetime of skill and precision on display.

Here she weaves another hat, a process that takes her about 4 hours.  One of the charms of Kona is the preservation of hand skills and artistry that thrives with support in a culture of Aloha.

Images of the Coffee Cupping

The Gevalia Cup competition and the whole Kona Coffee Cultural festival is a throwback to a community celebration that we sometimes think has been lost in America, like neighborhood Fourth of July celebrations (instead of centralized pyrotechnic extravaganza's). At its core it is genuine, fascinating, widely diverse, remarkably grass roots, with a touch of kitsch thrown in, all wrapped in sincerity as it promotes the worlds greatest coffee in the worlds most serene location.  So they even have a Miss Kona Coffee and runners up, complete with crowns and sashes, who are constant ambassadors throughout the weeks events.  Above they stand in fascination as one of the judges explains the judging process to them.  

The Gevalia Cup event takes place at the Ourigger Keauhou Beach Hotel on an open lanai overlooking the ocean,  casually elegent but deadly serious. A local group of musicians performs beautifully intricate Hawaiian melodies of impressive measure, the lead singer employing the signature falsetto in the high notes of classic Hawaiian song.

Over the rainbow....somewhere

Somewhere....over the rainbow....skies are blue.  Nowhere is that truer than Hawaii, and nowhere on the planet has more rainbows on a given day. If there is it would astound me, for on any given day in Hawaii you look to the mountains and there is a rainbow in the mist....or a sunset to behold. Above is one such sunset, taken from the grounds of the Shearton Keauhou Bay Resort Hotel.  Situated at the end of an ancient lava flow, just yards from the birthplace of Kamehameha III, the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort is a rainbow of deluxe accommodation in a perfect location.  Below is a shot of the waves crashing into a lava tube on the property.  

The Hula stylings of Miss Kona Coffee

Hula lives. Thats right. Hula isn't just for tourists, and is a serious part of the reawakening of Hawaiian culture in the islands. Still its a touch exotic, and always a lot of fun, especially when it erupts spontaneously, (like last year in remote Hana, Maui, at a popular steakhouse, when a male member of the audience jumped up and performed a very masculine, intricate Hula with the  band playing Hawaiian music.)

But at the end of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, in a big outdoor tent on the lawn of the Outrigger Keauhou Bay Resort, Miss Kona Coffee got up at the end of the program and performed a graceful and quite lovely Hula, without ever disturbing her sash or crown.