News

Happy New Year! We raise our coffee mug to you and wish you health and joy in 2021 and hope your year is blessed.  I stopped making New Year’s resolutions long ago, but the end of the year is a great time to look back, reassess, evaluate, and see what went well and what needs modification. It’s also a great time to plan for the upcoming year and consider what things you’d like to see manifest in your life. When I was a teacher, I was involved primarily with alternative Read More…

On an almost daily basis, we are asked if it is better to buy coffee in the whole bean or in ground form.  Seemingly, it is a simple question but complexities do arise. Let’s take a quick look at some things to consider when choosing a whole bean or ground coffee and see if that helps with your decision. The Case for Ground Coffee over Whole Bean Unlike many “experts” out there I don’t universally assume that pre-ground coffee is stale or not worthy of your time and that whole Read More…

Christmas is my favorite Holiday hands down, and special dinners, drinks, decorations, and Holiday music take over my house for at least four weeks every year.  Today, I’d like to show you some unique holiday coffee drinks using our 100% Kona coffee espresso roast. Now that my kids are grown, and returning home for a brief period during the season, we want to savor that time even more and make as many special memories as possible. Sharing a holiday coffee drink is a positive step toward adulthood.  So today,  I Read More…

If you have ever driven through the Kona Coffee Belt between Halloween and New Year’s, there is a good chance your eyes were drawn to large bushes or even full-grown trees with bright red leaves and you may have thought, what are those?  Those are Poinsettias. This answer has surprised many tourists whose experience with the holiday flower has been little plants in gold tin foil covered pots that usually don’t make it past Valentine’s day. The noble Poinsettia is a staple on coffee farms in Kona and a harbinger of Read More…

Giving Thanks Giving thanks for the people and things in our lives is a noble and uplifting practice. As the Thanksgiving Holiday arrives this year, it is a chance for us as a culture and as individuals to look to those aspects of our lives that we feel truly thankful for. Even in the year 2020, with so much craziness from the pandemic, the economy, the natural disasters, and the election, it was still possible on a day-to-day basis to find something that we valued and appreciated. Whether a person’s Read More…

Amongst coffee facts, there many things that are common knowledge, and other things that are not so well known.  Today let’s look at some of the lesser-known.   As the holiday season is fast-approaching, it means the time for gatherings of family and friends is here. (Possibly. In 2020 who knows?) If your family is anything like mine, although we all have love and general respect for each other, vigorous debate, sharing of information and stimulating banter are all part of the holiday tradition. Today, my goal is to help you Read More…

As Halloween approaches and I enjoy the various decorations scattered throughout the neighborhoods on my drive home, I am struck by a giant inflatable black cat next to an inflatable green-faced witch displayed in front of a local coffee farm. Now as far as Halloween images go, I get the witch but why a black cat? Is it as simple as the seven years bad luck thing? Even knowing there are just as many cultures (England, Japan, Egypt) where black cats are a symbol of good luck, I assume it Read More…

The sun is setting earlier and rising later. The birds are starting to migrate to warmer climes.   Somehow the air feels different and the nights are getting a bit nippy. Acorns are falling and mushrooms are pushing their way up through the forest floor. The Maple leaves are just starting to change. Then your partner looks over lovingly and says, “Pumpkin Pie Spice Latte?”  Autumn has arrived. Honestly speaking, everything I just described above is from memory. Here in Kona, Hawaii, although there are subtle temperature variations, and the days Read More…

America celebrates National Coffee Day on Sept 29th and a couple days later the world celebrates International Coffee Day on October 1st. For most people, those two days go by unnoticed and without fanfare. For the coffee industry as a whole, these are very important days to bring awareness to the entire network of coffee industry professionals from the farmer to the barista and every step in between. It is also a time when issues facing the coffee industry can be examined, discussed, given priority and millions of minds can Read More…

Do you appreciate your wife?  Does your wife hear that you appreciate her often enough? You may ask why a “coffee-themed” blog is writing about Wife Appreciation Day. I hopefully have good reasons which will become clear as we move forward. First, know that my wife is an all-day coffee drinker. I guestimate about 3-4 cups on average. She can drink a cup at 10PM and sleep like a baby. I have always envied that about her as if I drink coffee at such a late hour, I am literally Read More…

Labor Day has me thinking about the great variety of workers that make this country run, and more specifically about the role of coffee in the workplace. In an earlier blog, we talked about how soldiers relied upon caffeine to power through their duties. Today though, is a tribute to the civilian soldiers, blue-collar, white-collar, academia, healthcare, government, service sector, the working men and women who wake up early every day, battle the traffic to get to the office and spend 8-10 hours, 50 weeks a year, moving society forward. Read More…

With all of the uncertainty of traveling this year and many being cooped up for so long, the number of Americans choosing to do some camping this summer is on the rise. While we are willing to give up many things to get back to nature, including the comfort of our beds and the warmth of our showers, the one thing we are not willing to give up is our coffee. Camp coffee is a must. In fact, I’d venture to say that drinking camp coffee may be one of Read More…

Are you a fan of Iced Coffee? Have you tried all of the various ways to make it? Summer is the joyous time of year when coffee drinkers all over the Northern Hemisphere put on shorts, clean up the BBQ grill, lather up in SPF 50, and think to themselves, “how can I make my beloved coffee a little cooler?”. Let’s explore the chilly world of cold/iced coffee drinks and cover some of the basic principles to make sure you are drinking your frosty coffee beverages at the highest level Read More…

July 19th is National Ice Cream Day and in celebration, I’d like to share how to make the perfect 100% Kona Coffee affogato. If you are not a regular affogato drinker, add it to your repertoire of simple but satisfying desserts that require little prep time.  On a quick news note, our blog was recently included in the Top 100 Coffee Blogs on Feedspot. So thank you for that!   Consider the Caprese salad. Beautiful ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fresh-picked basil leaves, a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt, Read More…

Do you enjoy your coffee with dessert?  Do you think of it as an American tradition like Baseball and Apple Pie? A Little Background One of the things that first attracted me to the Kona Coffee world (some 22 years ago) was the recipe contest at the annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. (Konacoffeefest.com) Pro and amateur chefs use Kona Coffee in both savory and sweet dishes for prizes and prestige. My wife and I, both avid home cooks, (she is a professional baker) never missed it. The gourmet nature of Read More…