Unrooted wrote:I'm going to Kauai next month, is there good coffee to be found there?

Not in my experience, but it's been several years.

stherric wrote:It's usually poorly processed and even more poorly roasted. Good Hawaiian coffee exceptional, albeit expensive. Rusty's Typica roasted by Passenger coffee comes to mind as a really good one.

Anything that they (Passenger) roast and sell is exceptional. My favorite roaster by far.

http://www.huladaddy.com/catalog-coffee

Karen J is my favorite coffee. Expensive but worth it.

Suuuuuuper interesting... This all makes sense as to what I've suspected...

Without quoting 10 different posts... Catering to tourists; often over-roasted (adulterated lol!); capitalizing on the name; good when roasted properly/not cooked; etc.

Well then, I'll have to try buying some (expensive) greens I guess and home roasting them, or specifically asking for the lighter roasts/or the ones mentioned here. The ONE Kona that was close to being nice had hints of being very interesting, but even that was close to being roasted away.

So overall, it's a) a smooth/mild coffee (I know, hard to type a flavor profile) and b) often poorly/over-roasted I'm gathering.

Tnx for the awesome input n helpful links.

I've spent many years in Hawaii with the Navy Since 2005, And during those years m was fortunate enough to befriend the owner/roaster at Downtown Coffee, Honolulu, Mr. Fred Hokada.

Just so happened my brother worked just above his shop, made the introduction.

Anyway, most of my Saturday mornings were spent in Pioneer Plaza at DTC, enjoying a nice sit down cup of coffee with my brother while Fred and his couple of minions roasted outside in the square their small batches of coffee from around the islands for that week. Always 100% Hawaiian.

Fred taught me a great deal about the Hawaiian coffee scene. Bottom line, it's frickin fabulous, it's bustling, it's and it goes so much deeper than Kona. Fred would most always be offering his Waialua hand picked, Maui Mokka or Peaberry, or some Kona Extra Fancy. His blends were fabulous - his Downtown Blend (the House espresso) remains to be one of my favorite espresso blends.

I'm very happy to read mentions of Hula Daddy (cool history) and Kau (best kept secret) in the posts above.

Here's a link to a great article in a Hawaiian publication from a few years back that Sheds some neat light on the happenings out there.

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolul ... fee-Scene/

I always wondered this as well. Seems like it's just overpriced and overroasted for people that wanna spend a buncha money on a bag of coffee at Fresh Market. I get the same impression from Jamaican Blue Mountain.

ThomasCee wrote: Well then, I'll have to try buying some (expensive) greens I guess and home roasting them, or specifically asking for the lighter roasts/or the ones mentioned here. The ONE Kona that was close to being nice had hints of being very interesting, but even that was close to being roasted away.

Always had great success with Pele Plantation greens. Greenwell too, and Heavenly Hawaiian was always good until my last order where I had to pick out about 10 beans per lb to toss, with minor bug damage. The rest of their (HH) coffee was great and they are understandably cheaper.

clc12rock wrote:I always wondered this as well. Seems like it's just overpriced and overroasted for people that wanna spend a buncha money on a bag of coffee at Fresh Market. I get the same impression from Jamaican Blue Mountain.

+1. A few years ago I tried some Jamaican Blue Mountain from the (supposedly) only authorized provider, and it was way over-roasted. From what I've read there's quite a bit of misrepresentation concerning that coffee.

Kona and Jablum were great coffees when I discovered them in the 1970s, among the best you could buy back when there was no such thing as specialty coffee. Sad that they've fallen from grace.

I've never had any real interest in ordering a Kona, for the reasons discussed. I have ordered Hawaiian specialty coffee, however, from Big Island Coffee Roasters. I enjoyed the coffees grown on their farm. They sell some Kona coffees that they roast, but are grown elsewhere.

www.Bigislandcoffeeroasters.com

I've purchased some green Kona and Jamaica Blue Mountain from Sweet Maria's years ago and roasted it myself. I've never been all that impressed. I think you can get a very similar flavor profile in Central and South American coffees for a lot less money.