Sunset Magazine features Ka'u Coffee in its January 2014
edition. The publication boasts more than a million subscribers. The story by
travel writer Christopher Hall features small-business owners like Will and
Grace Tabios, who operate a Na'alehu store and a farm with internationally
award-winning Ka'u Coffee. The writer illustrates the Ka'u pace of life
starting with the Tabios family:
Sunset Magazine points to kaucoffeefest.com for info about our annual events coming up, May 2-11. Photo by Julia Neal |
“Owner Willie Tabios was up at dawn
working his family’s seven-acre farm before opening the tiny shop for the day
with his wife Grace. But now he sits on an overturned bucket, chatting, or
‘talking story,’ as the say on the islands.”
The author drinks Ka'u Coffee at
Hana Hou Restaurant and travels to Cloud Rest to visit the farm of Trini and
Francis Marques, where they grow their own award-winning Ali'i Hawaiian Hula
Hands Coffee. The author writes about being at Cloud Rest. “I tell Trini that
this place feels removed somehow from the real world.” He also quotes Trini
Marques saying, “I believe it is sacred here,” and that she recounted “with
every tree she plants, she utters a silent prayer.” The author describes the
many details on the farm taken care of by Francis Marques and writes, “The work
is exacting, expensive and, Trini believes, crucial to producing quality
coffee.”
The illustrations are by travel
photographer Susan Suebert. Images include the iconic location photographed by
almost everyone who goes to Cloud Rest – looking down on numerous Ka'u Coffee
farms and Lorie Obra’s tiny coffee shack and out to the Pacific Ocean. Photos
also include picking and processing, the drying floor at Ka'u Coffee Mill, the
Flyin’ Hawaiian Coffee Truck, the inside of Will & Grace shop, the outside
of Hana Hou and a table within.
The Sunset story says Ka'u Coffee is exacting and expensive. Photo by Andrew Hara |
The story takes readers to the
farm of Lorie Obra and her award-winning Rusty’s 100% Hawaiian Ka'u
Coffee. It tells the story of coffee creating an economy after sugar shut down
in 1996 and describes some of the risks such as fires that damaged orchards and
the coffee berry borer threatening the crop. “And in a turn of events that
resurrects the feelings of helplessness that arose when Big Sugar left,
ownership of the leased coffee land has fallen to a big New York bank that’s
looking to sell. For now the trees are flourishing and there is reasonable hope
that the coffee borer can be managed and the coffee leases will be renewed.
Either way, the people of Ka'u will take it as it comes,” the Sunset writer
concludes.
The story
ends with a quote from Lorie Obra: “Learning how to grow coffee has been
important for Ka'u ... but maybe more important has been learning how resilient
we are. We are gutsy, and we aren’t going away.”
In a
separate section called Where to Fill Your Mug, Sunset suggests locations to
visit. Under the category Taste, the writer recommends having a cup at Hana Hou
with a slice of cream pie and enjoying Ka'u Coffee with Hawaiian sweet bread at
Punalu'u Bake Shop. Under Shop, it recommends Ka'u Farmers Market, where
Rusty’s can be purchased for $35 a pound. It also recommends Hawaiian Hula
Hands at $41 a pound and The Rising Sun at $28 a pound. Under Tour, the article
recommends Aikane Plantation Coffee Co., with a walk through the orchard and
visit to the 1930s plantation house. It also recommends Ka'u Coffee Mill for
touring the growing, processing and roasting operations and tasting at the
visitor center.
The article also
suggests Ka'u Coffee Festival: “The district goes full-tilt coffee crazy with
the annual Ka'u Coffee Festival, ten days of tastings, tours and events,
including the Miss Ka'u Coffee Pageant,” the story says. It points readers to kauoffeefest.com for information about the May 2 - 11 event.
For more, see sunset.com.
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