Fire Island Coffee

We spent some time with Sharon at Fire Island Coffee in the Honaunau Mauka appellation. Located high on Bruner Road, this is some of our favorite Kona coffee, expressing a round fruit and mild earthiness typical of coffees from this appellation. Some of this is due to a pocket of soil that blesses Honaunau, which is five feet deep at this farm. It is this soil that makes this area unique and informs the terroir of the brew. Walking through the farm we saw some very large fruit for the end of April, and lots of it. Hopefully this portends a good year for the 2017 Honaunau coffee.

When Sharon and Jeff bought this farm it had been untended for several years. It was quite a feat to dig these trees out from the morning glory jungle and make a productive farm of it.

With coffee, as with wine, fruit from old growth trees has some very desirable qualities and expresses the sense of place or terroir just that much more. These old growth trees have been marked here with pink ribbon and the fruit is hand picked and kept separate. This old growth coffee is sold as their Heritage product.

We visited the drying shed at the farm. They have an interesting Pulping machine that allows them to skip the fermenting step. We were surprised to discover that this fruit forward coffee had not been fermented.

Here’s a picture of a rake used to stir the beans while drying.

We have talked with Jeff several times over the last couple years at the local Farmers Markets and found him to be very enthusiastic about all things coffee. It was great to get a chance to tour their farm. It is a challenging drive up a one lane road to get there but a very good experience.

We have ordered this coffee from their website with good experiences every time. They take care of their customers and the coffee arrives in a timely manner.

Call 1-808-328-9893 to schedule a visit

http://www.fireislandcoffee.net/

P.O. Box 634 Honaunau HI 96726 US

[email protected]