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After breakfast, we drove to the Kona Coffee and Tea shop where we met our tour guide.
Malia Hind is the owner and director of operations for the company. Her parents started the coffee farm when she was little. She has now added the coffee farm tour. |
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Malia drove us to the farm pointing out where her family owned the property along the way. The farm started off small, with only 20 acres on an old cattle ranch, and has grown since then! It now covers 200 acres of property in the Puna region. The farm practices Agri farming which is diversifying what they grow. This helps keep the soil fertile and makes it so that they are also not relying on a single crop.
As we drove on, Malia instructed us to look for a ripe banana bunch to cut down. I am sorry to say none were found but Malia was prepared. She keeps a machete in the truck for just such occasions. We stopped several times to look at a variety of plants. At one of the stops, Malia picked a large plant, held it upside down, and squeezed. Juices flowed out freely and didn’t feel very slimy at all. This was an Awapuhi plant which is like liquid soap. It has many uses, one of which is in Paul Mitchell shampoo.
When we reached an area where Malia noticed many coffee plants with ripe cherries, she pulled off to the side of the dirt road to let us pick a few. She pointed out the coffee flowers, the ripe cherries, and how the size of the cherry can tell how many beans it contains. The pod with one seed inside is called a peaberry. Most cherries contain two to three beans. We picked one and rolled it to get the fruit out. We tasted the fruit around the beans; it was sweet. We stopped at the area they use as a wedding venue to do a tasting. Malia shared a medium roast both hot and cold. You could actually taste different flavors even though they were the same coffee.
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Back in Malia's truck, she proceeded to show us other areas of the business. We ended up at the coffee roasting facility. The roaster master told us all about the process they use to roast the coffee. It takes about 15 minutes to roast the beans, and then another 10 to go through a rapid cooling process. Most of the coffee they produce is used for their shops and to fulfill mail orders. They do not do wholesale business.
Malia took us back to the shop where we met her to begin the tour and gave us some tea to sample as well as a bite of a cut-up fresh banana that had recently been picked. I never realized the difference in taste between a fresh banana and one bought at the grocery store; the banana was smaller which made it sweeter. They were really good. The tea was a Mamaki minty herbal tea that can be used for medicinal purposes.
With warm hugs, she left to take out the next group. What we really liked about this tour is that it was very intimate with just our group of six. She could cater the tour to what we wanted, which of course was everything. It was a great tour.
The manager of the store suggested that we go try Magics Beach Grill for lunch so we piled into our van and headed out. Magics Beach Grill was in the same area where we had had dinner the night before; the food was great yet again. We went back to our hotel to rest for a bit. Needing to get out steps in for the day, Mary Ellen and I took a walk about the resort property.
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Linda C., Victoria, Mary Ellen, and I had tickets for the Feast and Fire Luau at the hotel. It was posted to start at 5:00 p.m. Linda C. and Victoria were there before Mary Ellen and me, so they saved us a place in the quickly forming line. We were all there 5 minutes before 5:00 p.m. And there we stood and continued to stand for over half an hour. Apparently, they told everybody at 5:00 p.m. so that everybody would be there at 5:30 when they wanted everybody present. We didn’t really understand that since we had assigned seats. We went into the luau area where there was a large stage with tables set in front. Off to the side were tents for a small marketplace and bar. There were other tables and areas set up for the guest to experience traditional Hawaiian activities. Linda C., Mary Ellen, and I made wrist lei (this is the plural spelling). Mary Ellen and I made postcards out of bamboo stamps; Linda C. and Mary Ellen tried the Hawaiian bowling game. Neither one of them made it down the middle but the five-year-old in line behind them did. And, boy did they laugh!
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The evening continued with a lovely Hawaiian dinner. The show paid homage to the first people who landed on the island and followed the history to today, cowboys and girls included. I will say the fire dancer was amazing.
With the show over, Mary Ellen and I swung by the Manta Ray viewing platform before heading back to our rooms. We saw three or four Manta rays come close! What a perfect way to close out the evening. Two Manta Rays were opening their mouths to eat from the school of fish which was in view of the platform. Luckily, I had my big camera to get better, close-up pictures!
