coffee business strategies

Last week’s Hawaii Coffee Association statewide cupping competition was won by Rusty’s Hawaiian coffee of Ka’u. No surprise there, it’s really outstanding stuff. However, what I did find interesting is that of the top 5 scoring coffees, only 1 is from Kona (4th place). Slots 1, 3 and 5 went to Ka’u farms and Maui’s [...]

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Kailua-Kona Hawaii (March 3, 2010) – In two coffee industry firsts this past weekend in Los Angeles, Pete Licata of Honolulu became the first representative from Hawaii to win the Western Regional Barista Competition and also the first-ever to prevail at any barista competition using 100% Hawaiian coffee. Mr. Licata’s espresso blend of three coffees [...]

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A new study commissioned by the Kona Coffee Farmers Association touts the benefits of legislating that all products sold with the label Kona Coffee within the State of Hawaii should consist of 100% coffee grown in Kona. While I am in agreement with the concept of truth in labeling and believe that the origin and [...]

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This morning I was forwarded a link from Campos Coffee in Sydney with their review of Hula Daddy Coffee’s Kona Sweet, which has been selected as their featured coffee of the month. I remember when the guys from Campos were in town and was invited to attend, but had some kind of schedule conflict and [...]

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Friend and colleague Dr. Shawn Steiman, PhD serves up an insightful overview of Hawaii’s coffees and makes a few recipe suggestions for cooking with coffee in today’s Honolulu Star Bulletin newspaper. From the Honolulu Star Bulletin: Coffee has become big business in Hawaii. Eleven regions on five islands house some 830 farms statewide. This is [...]

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