Admittedly, I am not much of a tour person. Don't get me wrong, I love to learn about and observe things, but my preferred place of interest experience is through more of what I like to call a "free form observation." When I am in one of my traveling modes, I like to glean a place's unique characteristics without a time table or itinerary. That said, there was one place that I wanted to stop by while we were on the isle of Kauai, and that was the Kauai Coffee Estate.
Alaska posts tend to clog up my feed. When it comes to hunting, salmon fishing and preparation, digging clams, harvesting and eating stinging nettles, proper cold-weather gear appropriation and utilization, well, I have an understanding of such things. What I did not have an understanding of was anything tropical. Coffee has always come in a can in my world. I had always steered clear of the soil looking brew, but I loved the smell of coffee, and the husband drinks a pot a day. When I read that the Kauai Coffee Estate was the largest coffee farm in the United States, the need to observe such a thing developed and had to be assuaged.
We had a different beach selected to bask upon for each day of our trip, and as Kauai Coffee was not too far from that day's beach selection, Salt Pond Park, we dropped by the farm for the first free walking tour of the day.
The little green colonial style building is so welcoming, with it's big lanai and gift shop to peruse. My husband really enjoyed the self-serve carafes that contained all of the products that the farm produced, and the kids had a blast watching the beans roast and learning about the various aspects of coffee production. I was just fascinated by the plants (imagine that!), and lingered near the back of the pack studying the berries hanging on the shrubs. It really is a great feeling to experience in real life how something is produced and what it looks like. There is often such a disconnect between the end food product that we eat and its origins and production methods. Every time I scoop some Kauai Coffee out of the bag, I am reminded of the little yellow berries clinging to a moderately sized plant, or all of the local people busily maintaining the farm.
After the tour, we were hanging out on the lanai, my husband was sampling the coffee, and he started teasing me about not trying any. Truth be told, I am just not a big coffee drinker. The acrid taste of the metal can store coffee never did much for me, and I just avoided it. Also, the idea of spending $4-5 a day for coffee flavored sugar doesn't appeal to me either; it's just not my thing. However, as I learned that day, there is coffee out there that sips like silken earth-flavored ambrosia. My absolute favorite was the Hawaiian Coconut Caramel Crunch. There is not any sweetness in this variety, but ingesting it is like experiencing Kauai in a cup. It's like a Girl Scout Samoa cookie hitting all of your senses at once. I honestly cannot describe how awesome this particular roast is, but a bag of it now has to live in my cupboard for my once a week Sunday coffee indulgence!
If you are ever in the Kalaheo area on the island of Kauai, do yourself a favor and stop by the Kauai Coffee farm and take the walking tour. This Idahoan loved having her eyes opened to the world of coffee production, and I am sure that only some of that was due to the caffeine!
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's Caramel Coconut coffee stained iPhone.
