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A close German friend of mine, many years ago, always made sure that no matter how busy things got we always had 20 minutes in the late afternoon for coffee and cake. She explained it was a cultural tradition and was centered around the idea of making sure the people that you cared about were the priority in your life. When I lived in Japan, the afternoon coffee and sweets service gave everyone a chance to energize and socialize.

At Greenwell Farms, we host guests from around the world every day and share our farming operation with them. Over the last few years of doing farm tours, there are two themes that seem to constantly re-emerge. One theme is from those who live in urban communities who say, “I never knew so much was involved in making a cup of coffee.” The second theme is from our fellow farmers and ranchers from across our country who are “in the know” and share a deep understanding of what it means ...

As we continue with our Art of Making Coffee Series, I thought I’d shine a light on the French Press. It is so simple, easy, portable, requires no paper filter and yet can make a beautiful cup of coffee. For many months now, I have been using my Moka Pot and Chemex pour-over as my go-to method. The Moka pot gives me a great stovetop espresso, and the Chemex always delivers a crisp and clean cup. Last month, we featured our Elizabeth J 100% Kona from the Pacamara variety of ...

Aloha All. I was asked recently about the difference between certain items on the café menu and although it may be outside of our usual discussion, certainly a deeper understanding of what makes a certain coffee drink unique falls into the general category of the “Art of Making Coffee”. So as to up your overall understanding of things coffee and to give you a general guide to the cafe menu, I give you a brief description of many of the most popular coffee drinks available at your local café.

Like everything in life, industries evolve. In the ultra-competitive coffee world, cafes, baristas, growers, and processors are always trying to come up with that “new thing” that is going to set them apart from everyone else. Sometimes a trend flashes in popularity and disappears, and other times it becomes the new normal. Although my original draft list for this article had over 20 emerging trends in coffee, I will give you 7 that I believe are applicable to most people and have a good chance of becoming the future norm.

Coffee Freshness Our continuing quest to seek out the skills and knowledge to have the best cup of coffee continues. We are answering common questions we get and this week it is… “How long is my coffee good for?” How long does my coffee stay fresh? This is a great question and also a difficult one to answer in simple terms. As always, let’s start with the basics and go from there. Coffee is an agricultural product (like nuts, fruits, veggies, etc.) and although its moisture content has been reduced ...

Happy Summer! The tourists have returned to Hawaii in droves and we are seeing record numbers of visitors this summer. We are appreciative to see new faces and old friends back in Hawaii and here on the farm. Some semblance of normal life has returned and people are friendly, happy to be outside, happy to sip 100% Kona Coffee and ecstatic to be in paradise.

If you love iced coffee and crave that “cool me down, pick me up “ experience in the summer heat, I’m going to suggest that this is the summer you play with Cold Brew. Now, we all know that Cold Brew coffee has become somewhat of a phenomenon in these last few years, but there is good reason for it. So, let’s look at some of the benefits of cold brew, and then I’d like to share a couple of ways to make it.

In our continued quest to have the best cup of coffee, a question came to me by a loyal reader that stopped me in my tracks. Simply…what size cup of coffee is the best? Are small cups better than large ones? In the last two months, I had just transformed the size of my coffee cup and wondered if someone was spying on me. It is a tough question to talk about as many people are really attached to their daily coffee mugs.

Aloha Friends! We continue our quest for the skills to make the best cup of coffee and to answer the frequently asked questions we get here on the farm. Today, we are talking about ratios.  Almost every day, I am asked how much coffee to use and while I feel we have discussed this before, let me lay down a definitive answer and try to address the complexities that exist. The first thing to remember is that if you are scooping your coffee and not weighing it, you are getting ...

Donuts and coffee are a common enough pairing. The American “breakfast of champions” and the break time delight that helps many hard-working employees get through the day. Now I am not going to comment on health (you can read that here), nutrition, or anything like that, but on why coffee changes taste when paired with various foods. Also, to give you some insight into what coffees to serve or order depending on which food you are consuming.

I do not want to alarm anyone, but you should clean your coffee gear more often than you are. “I rinse it out every day, I put the carafe in the dishwasher,” you say, “my coffee maker is clean!” READ ON TO SEE IF THIS IS TRUE. Continuing with our look at some of the most frequently asked coffee-related questions and our search for a consistently delicious cup of joe, we add to our growing list “the cleaning of our coffee equipment.” If your devices aren’t routinely maintained, your coffee

First…if you are a mom, Happy Mother’s Day! Moms are the best. All of those unseen and un-thanked moments when you rose up and did what needed to be done because you are mom, please know that you made the world a better place. It can be hard to distill what a “mom” is as a figure in your life. There is an intertwining of love and craziness, nurturing and caring, and a need to grow beyond the very thing that gave you life.

Having just undergone an adjustment in coffee prices for the farm, and struggling for over a year with production costs, hidden costs, market conditions, current and future threats, and new pandemic-related consumption habits,  I thought our readers might find it interesting to know why and how their Kona Coffee Prices increase. A price increase is never taken lightly and always undertaken with deep care and consideration of many factors, along with internal strife, knowing that we will be asking our valued customers to pay a little more.

The complexities of Caffeine abound. In our Art of Making Coffee series, we’ve explored some of the more frequently asked questions about coffee and in particular, 100% Kona Coffee. This week, we will tackle a rather large question that has many intricacies, the complexities of caffeine. It may seem like a simple discussion but in fact, it is full of twists and turns, counterintuitive thinking, and a lot of subtle complexities that vary greatly from person to person. Let’s jump in! What is Caffeine? Caffeine is a natural stimulant most Read More…