Aw, my last day in Kona. Time to see what the area's famous for! Besides the sandy beaches. Yay for Kona coffee and Kona macadamia nuts!
First, though, because it was our last morning there, I have to show you this picture of our accidentally enormous hotel room. We went through Priceline and ended up with a 1 bedroom, 2 bathroom, porch-having time-share place, the Kona Coast Resort. It was a bit odd for two people to have so much space - I kind of wanted to adopt a family and install them in the living room with its fold-out couch.
Since we were only there for 2 nights, we weren't able to take advantage of the huge kitchen, or the place settings for 6.
We drove into town for our Labor Day breakfast, only to find out that the place I'd wanted to check out, famous for its taro pancakes (U-Top-It), was closed on Mondays dammit. So we ended up at Island Lava Java, a terrible plan with horrendous consequences.
OK, actually, just bad food. No consequences. I had a mcmuffiny thing that was dry and weird, and Logan got a wrap with curdly, overcooked scrambled eggs, under-ripe crunchy pineapple, and rubbery greasy bacon. Bad choice, us.
Ooh, I didn't mention the sad little limp papaya garnish and that weird watery salsa! My bad.
Oops.
Island Lava Java is right on the waterfront, but go there for the wifi and the coffee (which really wasn't bad), not the food! The fact that 81% of Urbanspooners like it and it's highly recommended by Frommer's makes my eyes roll out of my head, but whatever.
After this less than satisfying breakfast, we hopped in the car and headed south of town. Bushy, leafy, coffee plants grow everywhere on this stretch of the island, and we pulled over several times to take pictures.
We even saw chocolate growing by the side of the road! According to my guidebook, Hidden Hawaii (which I loved), there's a local chocolate producer in the area. We found them, but they didn't seem particularly set up for visitors.
A place that WAS set up for visitors, though, was Bay View Farms (link - watch for music!), a coffee grower/roaster/purveyor/aggregator of local coffee. We visited them and got an awesome in-depth view of their production facility, which was quite interesting.
Each local farm that brings beans to Bay View for sorting, grading, and processing has their own type of burlap sack, so the beans can be traced.
Apparently, there was a huge scandal a few years back with people passing off cheaper, non-Kona beans as pure Kona, or even delivering sacks of rocks to processors, since beans are paid for by weight. That's partly what this giant bin is for - when the beans arrive in their sacks, they're poured into this for an initial sort and to be checked for rocks.
After the beans get checked here, they are then soaked overnight in this trough, which separates unripe beans from the ripe ones.
Then, the coffee berry's pulp is removed from around the bean, and the beans are spread out to dry for several days in the Hawaiian sun.
After the beans are completely dried out, they're then run through this low-tech sorter, which sorts the beans into different grades by size and density. One of these grades, peaberry, is prized among certain Kona drinkers for its extremely mild properties. It comes from stunted beans, where for some reason instead of there being two separate halves of the bean in each berry, only one grows into a strange, circular form.
The beans are then sacked up and inspected. Only some ridiculously small amount of broken beans are allowed in each pound of coffee.
After getting this demonstration of the work that goes into making coffee (and this is before roasting and before brewing!) we had to buy a small bag. Their cheapest coffees are $25 a pound, so we didn't buy much.
Since we were just a few short miles up the road from the wonderful painted church of St. Benedict, we drove down there to check it out. It's a beautiful little place, founded in 1899.
The interior is painted in grand style, with a trompe l'oeil nave to remind you of the grandeur of European churches. Aren't the palm tree columns wonderful?
Their cemetery has an enviable view of the ocean and miles of coffee plants.
Our next spot was the great Teshima's, a homestyle Japanese restaurant, but I'm going to give that one its own post so I can stick to the agriculture theme I've got going here. Except for the church, of course. And that hotel picture. Er... and our breakfast. Fine, I'm not the best theme-builder! Argh!
ANYWAY, the Kona Coast Nut and Candy Factory is right off the main highway. They'll give you macadamia nuts still in their shells so you can try out their nut crackers, and the small gift shop is surrounded by piles of macadamia husks and shells.
The macadamia nut process is more straightforward than the coffee process.. they're shelled, and husked, and them some of them are roasted and some are salted. One cool thing that these guys sell is "rejects", which are macadamia nuts that, though totally delicious, aren't quite the big, beautiful orbs you see in fancy mac nut mixes. Of course, these are a third of the price, so we bought a big ol' sack.
If you'd like to check out any of these places, here's information. Just... don't eat at Lava Java, ok?
Bay View Farms (again, watch for that music!) is in Honaunau, HI: "Turn off Highway 160, on the Painted Church Road, and look for us 1/2 mile past the church." 800.662.5880.
St. Benedict's, or the Painted Church, is at 84-5140 Painted Church Road in Captain Cook. 808.328.2227.
Kona Coast Macadamia Nut and Candy Factory is at 83-5275 Middle Keei Road in Captain Cook. 1-800-242-NUTS. (No, really.)
