Despite of the rain this morning, we drove up the hills to another (organic) coffee farm: Holualoa Kona Company. It was just a 10-minute journey up a narrow, winding country road into lush, tropical forests on the slopes of Mount Hualalai, overlooking Kailua Bay on the Island of Hawaii. This family business is different from other farms we've seen: coffee plants grow mostly in the shade of huge trees, less "trimmed" and nice-looking as on other plantations, but healthy and wild. Geese are takig care of weeds and beetles and such, no pestizides or chemical fertilizers are being used on this organic farm.
In addition to roasting their own estate coffee, this mill and roasting operation handles coffee for more than 200 nearby Kona farms. The buildings include a wet mill, parchment drying and storage shed, dry mill, warehouses, roasting room, and packing room/retail outlet. Besides the coffee plants (which were pruned right now), exotic plants such as taro, pineapple, ginger. mango, avocado, papaya (pic) and jacaranda trees, cacao, and bananas are growing here.
After we got our daily dose of coffein, we drove on to the famous Original Donkey Ball Store in Kainaliu, a chocolate factory and store, where hand-made gourmet chocolates with macadamia nuts are produced. In Kealakekua we bought freshly baked Portuguese bread (pic) at the historical museum's weekly demonstration. The Portuguese immigration to Hawaii began in 1878, when laborers from Madeira and the Azores to work in the sugarcane plantations.
A couple of miles away, passing by a historic theater and several galleries and thrift stores, we randomly spotted a chicken roastery in the open. Having heard of Huli Huli Chicken before, a trademark of Hawaii, we bought a whole chicken served with Huli Huli Sauce for $ 16. Enough for lunch, dinner and for the next day. Because of the rain, we had lunch (!) at "home" - best chicken we have ever had! - before we went out again for another drive to Kailua-Kona in the pouring rain. Surfers were out now, waves had picked up, but the rain didn't make it really appealing to watch them.
Burned some time in Kona Books, then on to Ola Brewery, where we accidentially got a chance to meet with the German brewmaster Constantin who was kindly giving us a tour and a tasting. Great beers, but what we newly learned is, that hard seltzer, with the light, local flavors of lemongrass, ginger and lemon lime is getting increasingly popular. At Ola it's even selling better than beer. Hard seltzer is an alcoholic beverage containing carbonated water, alcohol, and fruit flavoring, with an alcohol content of around 4,5-5 %. Ola also produces cider. The general mission of Ola is to encourage growth in Hawai‘i's agricultural economy by purchasing local ingredients and incorporating them into beers and ciders. Wondering when it will be introduced to Germany,,, Ola Brew is both employee and community owned - an interesting project to follow up!
Tomorrow we'll move to Waimea, in the center of the island, famous for its cattle and horse ranching. We will stay in a so-called Tiny Home (Airbnb) without internet,. Therefore, please, bear with me and be patient,,, A life without internet will be tough, but since our backpacks are full of literature of all kind, it's probably a good thing,,,
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