Da Kine Coffee Bean

One of my all time favorite Kona Coffee's is Terry Fitzgerald's Da Kine Coffee Bean, winner of the prestigious Gevalia Cup in 1997.   Terry is one of the true original pioneers in the resurgence of Kona Coffee.  He came to Kona in 1970, an itinerant geo-physicist and Kerouac inspired hippie, found an old overgrown coffee farm in the highlands of Honaunau, 1.2 miles up a twisting trail above the Hawaiian Telephone switching station, and restored the farm to a functioning, flourishing coffee plantation.

Terry has 4 acres of coffee, and to prove the land and soil is no fluke, his neighbor on the mountain, Pat Pearlman, won the Gevalia Cup for her farm exactly 10 years after Terry.  Terry is one of the true spirits of Ohana (family) in Kona Coffee, and he retains an air of regal self awareness in one of the most beautiful spots in Hawaii.  In the picture above you see Terry raking his beans on the roof of his house, in a Japanese platform called a hashi dani. 

Terry's coffee is available over the internet at www.dakinecoffeebean.com or by calling 808 - 328 - 8716.  He has kept his prices amazingly low compared to his competitors.  I asked him why and he said "We make a pretty good living and I just like to jeep my prices where people can afford them".  Terry produces about 5000 pounds of coffee a year.  This is one of the all time great Kona Coffees and a perfect Christmas gift.

Keiki in the street

The kids were out in force at the Holualoa Coffee and Art Stroll street festival. Above a young girl sits in front a coffee cherry laurel wreath, while below two young girls perform a hula while their grandmother accompanies them on the ukulele.

Keiki is Hawaiian for child or little, and it is always nice to see the keiki out in the street taking part in the cultural life of the islands as traditions are passed on to a new generation.

Saturday afternoon .....Holualoa Street Festival

Holualoa is the sleepiest of towns, an art colony, a lovely village in the sky and the site of the Holualoa Street Fest on the first Saturday of the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival... Coffee farms from Holualoa to Honaunau display their wares in kiosks and the street fills with people. For Boutique coffee farms of unquestionable pedigree and single vineyard distinction it is  an opportunity to gather together, for much of coffee selling is an internet affair. But its quite lovely, and lets you visit with and taste the wares of dozens of fabulous Kona coffee farms

Holualoa was where coffee farming was revived by japanese farmers in the 1890's.  The people in the picture above, the owners and progenitors of Waiaha River Coffee Company, are the third generation of their family to grow and sell this coffee, direct descendents of the original farmers.

The former buddhist temple in Holualoa has been turned into a private residence in the middle of town, but what a beautiful cottage in the sky.

Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort Hotel

While in Kona for the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival the Devil Dog stayed at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort Hotel, in a fabulous 4th floor oceanfront room overlooking the scene above, waves crashing against a steller point of land carved from an ancient lava flow.

The bar at night has the added attraction of consistantly attracting a festival of manta rays just offshore through the use of floodlights, and as cool as that seems, there are actually snorkeling excursions thru Fairwind Tours to swim amongst the manta rays on a night dive.

The hotel is beautifully appointed, fabulously located, and features a lovely pool, water slide, full service spa, and a terrific restaurtant, Kai, featuring excellent fresh seafood.  It also served as a perfect base to explore the coffee farms high above in Holualoa, just above in Keauhou, or just down the road a bit in Kealekekua, Captain Cook and the legendary Honaunau.

Thank you  Sheraton for a fabulous week and a terrific base of operations.

We have a Winner

The Devil Dog was there this afternoon when this years Gevalia Cup winners were announced at the Outrigger Keauhou Resort Hotel on the ocean in Kona where King Kalakau had a beach home in the 1880's and very near where King Kamehameha III was born .  56 classic entries and 12 Crown Estates (larger farms) competed to be the best of Kona Coffee, 100% Kona Coffee, individual estates where a farmer grows, processes, markets and sells his hand crafted product in much the way that great winemakers craft their wine in Napa and Sonoma.

The winner this year was Debbie Hoshide of Hoshide Farms in far southern Honaunau.  Debbie was overwhelmed by the victory, which was completely unexpected. You see Debbie doesn't even have a private label product. She sells all her product to Greenwell Farms, all 7000 pounds of it, where it was packed and sold along with Tommy's beans as Greenwell Farms. Well count this as a victory for Tommy as well for it speaks well as to the quality of his product.  But Tommy will soon be issuing a Hoshide Farms sub-brand, or Debbie will be putting out one herself, for demand will soar.  Congratulations to a woman with a fine plot of land that becomes the southernmost farm to win in the history of the Gevalia.

Second place went to Una Greenaway and her husband Leon and their Kuaiwi Farm, last years first place winner. Leon and Una are in Captain Cook, and their organic farm showed its chops again this year, but why not. These people are a rock of integrity in Kona Coffee, living in geodesic domes an 4 acres of sheer heaven up Koa Rd, and back into a corner of the mountain off Bamboo Road.

The third place finisher is actually one of my favorite coffee farms in all of Kona,  Kona Rain Forest Farms, and their owners Robert and Dawn Barnes, whose farms lies even further south than Hoshide frams, at mile marker 95. Though it is their first top three finish in the history of Kona Rain Forest coffee they have the distinction of having been chosen to be served on multiple occasions at special functions at the White House. Among other reasons....they roast on Monday and ship it to you Monday night. When you open that bag on Wednesday its like a special love delivery.  We'll visit them later.

The Crown title for larger farms, who will sell 3000 pounds of their coffee on Gevalia's website in a special co-branding, went to Kowali Farm, 10 acres of dedication farmed by Rita for the last 32 years, and a deserving  farm that is actually small by comparison to the size of its competitors in this category.

Congratulations to all the winners. The Devil Dog is thrilled to know two of these winning growers well, and will go further into the farms and environs of many of his favorite farmers in future posts.

 

Ahupuaa

 Hawaiians traditionally divided the land into Ahupuaa, a wedge like pie shaped geographical division that stretched from the ocean at its widest to the top of the local mountain at its apex.  This way a given chief would have fish ponds and ocean for fishing and harvesting, lowlands for agriculture and highlands for hunting, providing all their needs.

During the current Kona Coffee Cupping competition the 16 semifinalists in the classic division were announced and there was several striking similarities which we call the Ahupuaa difference, and which we have seen as a similarity in past winners.  4 semifinalists came from the Keauhou region, and all four farms were literally right next door to each other - Buddhas Cup Estate, Imagine Coffee, Kona Earth and in the Crown (big farm) division, Kona Kulana farms. In addition, last years 2nd place winner, Malia Ohana, is right next door to these 4 farms.  Thus the Keauhou Ahupuaa is definitely a stand out for Kona Coffee this year, particularly when you consider that the old Kulana farm won the Gevalia cup twice in the  1990's.

Similarly, in Captain Cook, last years first place farm, Kuaiwi Farm, and third place farm J. Yokoyama, are literally 500 yards apart off Koa road, Just above them is previous winners Pau Hana Coffee and Koa Coffee, thus making what we can call the Captain Cook or Koa Ahupuaa a significant coffee land area.  Further down in Honaunau, on one stretch of land off of what is called Telephone Trunk road, a twisting barely paved trail leading miles up into the rainforest, named after the Hawaiian Telephone building off Hwy. 11, is Terry Fitzgeralds Da Kine Coffee Farm, winner of the Gevalia cup in 1997, and right next door to Terry's place, literally across a trail and adjoining his land, is Pat Pearlman's Pearl Estate coffee, which won the Gevalia Cup two years ago, making them, in my mind, the Lafite and Margaux of Kona Coffee and making the Telephone trunk line a star studded Ahupuaa of its own.

Its just a theory, and elevation and other factors could easily be at work, but soil and terroir of a similar Ahupuaa could be a predictive factor in high quality coffee. We will find out today when the winners are announced. STAY TUNED!!!

Holualoa Street Fest

The tiny village of Holualoa was the kick off point for the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, as a street fair was held in the artists colony high above the town of Kona.  Holualoa was where coffee cultivation began in Kona over 100 years ago as Japanese laborers, newly freed from indentured servitude in the cane and pineapple fields of the islands and facing discrimination in hiring and lacking jobs began cultivating coffee in the highlands here.  

Now 100 years later Kona Coffee has become a highly specialized gourmet product grown by over 600 farmers, who range from aging (OK, mature) hippies, to third generation Japanese families, to neuveau riche investors, to retirees seeking a lifestyle of gentleman farmer, to everything in between.  The bottom line is that Kona Coffee is the best coffee on the planet, and with dozens of highly sophisticated organic farms producing between 1000 lbs to, say 10,000 pounds a year of this amazing product, it is not an exageration to call them the Boutique Coffee Chateaus of Holualoa, Kealekekua, Captain Cook and Honaunau.  

The Devil Dog knows many of these farmers individually and has been buying their product over the internet for years. A pound of 100% Kona Coffee can range from $20 - $36  and is well worth the cost. You routinely pay $50 or more for a bottle of good wine and its gone in a night. A pound of coffee may last you weeks or more, depending on how you drink it, and you will never taste coffee like this. 

Make sure you buy ONLY 100% Kona coffee from individual farms. There is a glut of an inferior product called Kona Blend which IS ONLY 10% Kona coffee and 90% inferior south and central american beans.  This is an ongoing scandal denigrating and despoiling the beauty of 100% Kona coffee. You wouldn't take a bottle of Chateau Lafite and blend it with a bottle of Sebastiani table wine. The Devil Dog is emphatic on this point:  ONLY BUY 100% Kona Coffee direct from the coffee maker. Support real farmers who craft their product the way real winemakers craft their wine. More on this as our week progresses.