We bought this amusing small-bean coffee years ago, a distinct cultivar grown on the island of Maui. This is the 14 screen version of the Maui Moka: the earlier lot we had was 11 screen; extremely tiny! The farm was originally a part of the Pioneer Mill sugar plantation since 1860, which diversified the land out of sugar cane into coffee in 1988 under the name Ka'anapali Estate Coffee. They chose to plant four coffee varieties: Red Catuai, Yellow Caturra, Typica and Moka variety. It is a unique farm in other respects, irrigated with a drip system and planted in precise rows to facilitate mechanical processing of the fruit. Given the flaws of this type of harvesting, additional steps must be taken at the mill to carefully sort out unripe coffee cherries that were picked by the machine. All this took serious capital investment to set up, and over time the project proved unsustainable; parts of the farm were sold for residential and resort development. However a portion of the remaining coffee estate is under the care of one of the original farmers, Kimo Falconer, and his new business called Maui Grown. With this, the Moka is now available in both washed and natural types. This is the natural (Dry-Process; DP) coffee, and I admit that 80% of the character here must be attributed to the process, since the elevations this is grown at are quite low, even by Hawaiian standards. But it is a tribute to the farm and their methods that they are even able to pick and process such small seeds! It requires extra care and specialized equipment.

Dry fragrance from this coffee has a muted fruity quality, molasses sweetness, with a dusting of cocoa powder. The wet aroma has maple syrup, rustic dark honey, carob, and a Cocoa Puffs chocolate note. On the break there is a bit of melted butter. The cup has very low acidity, and may seem a bit imbalanced and flat. The positive qualities compensate well though: rustic molasses/honey sweetness, fruit, and thick body. At light roasts there is a raisin bran cereal flavor. There is a muted, mild chocolate flavor, more like milk chocolate syrup, which is underscored by the thick body. This coffee can be a challenge to roast: It is hard to hear the 1st Crack and a bit hard to judge the color as well. I think air roasters might be the best option, since you can see the roast a bit better. In a Behmor, use the small grid Behmor roaster drum, and keep an eye on this coffee!

Kona Coffee is grown only in the district of Kona on the west side of the Big Island of Hawaii. While coffee is also grown on other islands (Kauai, Maui, Oahu), it does not generally receive the same care and attention in the process as true small-farm Kona coffees. Kowali (which means Morning Glory in Hawaiian) is a moderate-sized Kona farm with the right kind of altitude to produce exceptional coffee. Skip and Rita Cowell are the owners of this 12 acre farm, up an old-time coffee road winding along the steep hillsides of Honaunau in Southern Kona. It has been consistently acclaimed one of the top 10 coffees in Kona and placed in the Kona Coffee Competition. "The funny thing about that," Rita told me a long time back, "is that I didn't enter the competition!" Last year she did enter it, and won first prize in the category for "larger" farms ... which is all relative. By all measures, Kowali is very small. The coffee is grown on carefully tended land, using no pesticides and 100% hand picked. It has been recognized by the Kona Soil and Water Conservation District for continuing conservation practices. Skip is an expert in this area and lectures on Soil Conservation at mainland conferences. In terms of cup character, the coffee reflects the Kona heritage, the higher altitude than the farms down in the flatter areas, and the cultivar (this is 100% Kona Typica, which was brought from Guatemala in 1892).

This cup is a classic Kona in all respects, with a big, sweet flavor that somehow matches the immense blue-green appearance of the coffee seeds. Dry fragrance has honey-on-toast sweetness, nut, cinnamon, and a slight floral sweetness at lighter roast levels. I get hibiscus floral qualities from the wet aromatics too, while darker Full City roast has a nice milk chocolate scent. The body is light but has a nice silky quality. And it has the brightness that is lacking in so many low-grown Hawaiian coffees, and a floral accent to the cup. A refined, elegant sweetness prevails, vanilla-laced honey that lasts through the crystal clear flavors in the finish. In the finish, you can taste the lower-grown character intrinsic to all Hawaii coffees: After all, they are grown at 100-350 meters, as opposed to 1500-1900 meters for our Guatemala coffees. But Kowali has brightness and sweetness that make this a compelling cup side by side with much higher-grown Central American coffees.