Aloha Friday Photo & Story Via Italy

Laura and Marco Dinaro are two very delightful, longtime readers of Go Visit Hawaii all the way from Milano, Italy. They recently wrote me to share a couple of their vacation photos from the Big Island of Hawaii.

Laura and Marco’s photos relate to their experience touring a Kona coffee farm where they roasted their own coffee under their own private coffee label at Ueshima Coffee Company.  The photo on the left shows their very own custom coffee label.

Laura and Marco say that their visit to Ueshima Coffee Company was one of their fondest Hawaii vacation memories from two years ago. Here’s more of how they described their experience:

You know, COFFEE  is a signature “attraction” on that island. We were told that it’s  mainly grown in the Kona area, just a few minutes away from the coastline , over Keauhou Bay .

100% Kona coffee is a very expensive treat, but surely worth it! Up in  the hills, around  the village Holualoa above Kailua, we encountered many “small coffee farms” and stopped by Ueshima Coffee Company to “ROAST OUR OWN PRIVATE LABEL” !

WOW ! A very kind “hostess ”  took us on  a tour of  the whole property and afterwards explained us how to roast coffee beans… as they used to do it in the gone-by days. (See photo of Laura roasting coffee.)  During the roasting process, as the temperature is rising, we experienced how the coffee flavor starts getting stronger and the color of the beans considerably darkens. After only ten minutes, we had to start the cooling process. A fun thing about it :  our “ineffable”  host stated that, for a good Kona coffee, Laura would have had  to “dance  the hula “ while cooling the beans… which she did with much fun!

OUR OWN COFFEE ended up SOOO  DELICIOUS   and  both of us were now officially certified   “ROASTMASTER FOR THE DAY” !

We could bring home (in ITALY) a whiff and a taste of Hawaii, to share with family and friends! What a fun experience we had! Tasting that  coffee was… simply magic … for such a long time after our trip!

A big mahalo to Laura and Marco for sharing their photos and coffee story of aloha! They are headed back to Hawaii in August. They’ll be visiting Oahu, Kauai and Maui. Let’s hope they’ll have new adventures and vacation stories like this one to share after their visit.