 Lacking an underwater camera, tidepool shots of small corals was the best I could do. Actually we did some spectacular snorkeling, but alas, no pictures. |
 Oh, to be a brown, shapeless blob of goo, floating in the tidepool among the colorful fish and coral. I felt that not many people take, nor publish, pictures of Hawaiian algae – I try to be unique, I guess. |
 European tourists swarm on the City of Refuge at Honaunau. What they seek? A snapshot and a quick return to the AC on the tour bus! |
 Sacred Hawaiian Altar defiled by the German elderly! Kamehameha is rolls in his grave! Oh, it’s a tourist economy so let them have their fun … |
 There’s a name for every type of lava, every solidified form, but I just think they look cool. There is a geologic reality to this place that you confront with nearly every step. Land is fresh, unweatherized. Erosion has not won yet, not here. I like that … |
 Nonetheless, you see flora (read: a weed) spring up in the absence of soil. It’s mundane, but amazing too. |
 Can you take a guy in a pink hat seriously? Maria thought no, but I tried anyway. |
 At Honaunau, Maria sought her own kind of refuge, not from the strict old Hawaiian laws but from the heat. Ok … back to coffee… |
 Up the hill from Honaunau, in South KonaKona coffee comes from farms along the Kona Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii: Kona coffee comes from farms along the Kona Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii. Coffee is grown at elevations, is the Cowell’s farm, Kowali EstateA "coffee estate" is used to imply a farm that has its own processing facility, a wet-mill. In Spanish this is called an Hacienda. A Finca (farm) does not necessarily have a mill. (And Finca. It’s 10 acres they have farmed actively since about 1985, but was a very old farm from way back when. They have 100 year old typicaA coffee cultivar; a cross between Typica and Bourbon, originally grown in Brazil: Mundo Novo is a commercial coffee cultivar; a natural hybrid between "Sumatra" and Red Bourbon, originally grown in Brazil. It was developed trees, but pictured here is Rita Cowell with her JamaicaJamaica coffee can be excellent mild, lush coffee... sometimes. Like Kona and Puerto Rican coffee, it is soft, mild, clean and well balanced when it is good.: Ah Jamaica, a great place to visit. But Blue Mountain trees. It’s a small plot they have of this unique tree (also a Typica cultivar  USDA is (obviously) the United States Department of Agriculture. USDA also had coffee plant breeding programs in the past and one variety they distributed to Indonesia and was widely planted is called USDA (sounds like , but rounder cherry Either a flavor in the coffee, or referring to the fruit of the coffee tree, which somewhat resembles a red cherry.: Either a flavor in the coffee, or referring to the fruit of the coffee and seed, skinny leaf). |
 This should illustrate the difference in the leaf – it does seem to have a slightly Bronze Tip like the Guatemalan Typica, but less so. It seems also to turn green soon after, as pictured, making it look to me a bit like CaturraCatimor is a broad group of cultivars derived from a Hibrido de Timor (HdT) and Caturra cross, highly productive, sometimes with inferior cup flavor. The main issue is the Robusta content in HdT, although this. It’s not though. |
 Can you ever take enough pictured of coffee cherryOriginally coffee literature referred to the fruit of the tree as a "berry" but in time it became a cherry. It is of course neither. Nor is the seed of the coffee a bean. All? I cannot, clearly. This is the JBMJBM is short for Jamaica Blue Mountain, which is both a trade name for certain Jamaica coffee, and a Typica cultivar. As a cultivar, it is one of the older New World Typica types since tree, and shows some green, some ripe, and some over-ripe cherry on one branch. That’s why you rely so much on the skill of your pickers to select the right ones! And notice how loaded the branches are – as mentioned, 2005-2006 is a huge crop. |
 I think you can see the difference in the JBM cultivar and the Kona TypicaA variation on Typica grown in the Kona region of Hawaii.: Kona is a special cultivar, Kona Typica, a traditional varietal that cannot be grown at low elevations. – the cherry is more round, equally large, and the mark left by the flower bud (the circle on the end) is large and pronounced. |
 As a novelty, Rita and Skip Cowell have a few Yellow Caturra  Caturra is an Arabica cultivar discovered as a natural mutant of Bourbon in Brazil in the first decade of the 20th century, but wasn't studied until 1937. It has a good yield potential, but was along their farm road. Yes, that is ripe cherry on a Yellow Caturra tree. |
 They also have one of the old Sivetz roasters, which basically blasts hot air upward into a fryer basket that you have to keep in motion. (Note the sign). Crude but effective! And true farm-fresh coffee for the Cowell’s own enjoyment all year long. |
 Dogs in paradise – the Cowell’s Doberman is very sweet, and has a great porch to survey the landscape, and every movement down the 2000 feet slope to the shoreline. |
 Maria, Rita, Skip, Dog. Sorry Dog, I forgot your name, but you aren’t reading this anyway, are you. |
 How can I end a travelogue for such a wonderful trip? How about a blurry picture of a hamburger on the plane home. Sure, why not. In fact, United would not let us board, saying we were too late for the flight, with this subtext: Maria is disabled and would take longer to board. They wouldn’t even let us try to get the plane. Yes, it sorta pissed me off, because I think they would have let us try to make it (we had 25 minutes) if she was “abled”. We had to buy tickets on Aloha in order to get home that night, at the worst price. So my advice to you; visit Kona, come for the Coffee Festival, visit Mountain Thunder, buy cheap snorkleing gear and reef-walking shoes, rent a 4wd so you can get down the lava roads, eat at the small restaurants in Captain Cook, stay near Captain Cook (I don’t like Kailua Kona – too Boutiquey), go to the Kona Historic Society, buy a good map, check out the local tiny grocery stores, eat a Cocopan, and FLY ALOHA AIRLINES! Boo United! |
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| 2005 Gevalia Kaffe Kona Coffee Cupping  Cupping is a method of tasting coffee by steeping grounds in separate cups for discrete amounts of ground coffee, to reveal good flavors and defects to their fullest. It has formal elements and methodology in CompetitionOfficial List of Entrants |
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1. Po’okele Enterprises LLC
2. Full Moon Coffee 3. Heavenly Hawaiian Farms / The Other Farm 4. Kona Cafe 5. Kona Mountain 6. Kiele O Kona 7. The Kona Coffee & Tea Co. 8. Long Mountain Kona Results: 2nd Place 9. Lions Gate 10. DHC Ohana Farms 11. Kona Blossoms 12. Konacopia Farm (organicGrown without the use of artificial fertilizers, herbicides, etc.: Organic coffee has been grown according to organic farming techniques, typically without the use of artificial fertilizers. Some farms have more local Organic Certification than the) 13. Zuma Farm 14. Pearl Estate Organics (organic) 15. Lehuula Farms 16. Rancho Aloha (organic) Results: 1st Place 17. Royal Palms Coffee Estate 18. Pumehana Plantation 19. Cherry P.I.E. Kona Coffee Co. 20. Hubbard & Sons Coffee Co. 21. Sacred Grounds Coffee Farm 22. Moki’s Farm 23. Captain Cook Coffee Co. 24. Sunbean 25. G P Farms 26. Kowali Farms 27. Carroll Estate/ Mauka Fire Coffee 28. Kaloko Bayou 29. Holualoa Kona Coffee (organic) |
30. Kona Safari Farms 31. Pau Hana Estate ( organic) 32. Hula Daddy 33. Honu Kona Estate Farm 34. Panda’s Bamboo Ranch (organic) 35. Buddha’s Cup (organic) 36. Kona Rainforest Farms (organic) 37. Mamalahoa Trading Co. LLC 38. Haole Boy Coffee 39. The Funny Farm (organic) 40. Madison Kona Coffee 41. Ueda Kona Coffee 42. Cornerstone Farms 43. Kanalani Ohana Farm (organic) 44. Paradise Found Farm 45. Aikane Kona Coffee Results: 3rd Place 46. Greenwell Farms 47. BrocksenGate Estate (organic) 48. Blue Hedge Farm 49. Makapueo Farms 50. Lafayette Coffee (organic) 51. Kainaliu-Kona Coffee Co. 52. Arianna Farm’s Ono Kona Coffee LLC 53. Lani Hau Farm (organic) 54. Koa Coffee Plantation 55. Lei’s Beans 56. Ahiwai Farms (organic) 57. Kaibab Farms |
