Drivel -Ka'u Coffee Festival Day

For one last day I attended our island's coffee festival, although it's not quite over yet. The event ran 10 days this year. Quite a festival. 

People had the opportunity to sample freshly brewed coffees from various local growers. Cupping has become quite popular. I noticed that this year the various farms have come up with creative ways to process and roast the beans, creating new and complex flavors. 

Rusty's Hawaiian Coffee was of course present, with Ralph manning the booth. Lori and Ralph have done an excellent job with their coffees and keep racking up the awards. It's really cool to see one's friends being successful. The community is proud of them. 

Of course the Mirandas were also promoting their coffees. Jose is such a hard worker and Berta is a gem. And there were several other local farmers proudly talking up their beans this year. These families work hard, long, difficult hours trying to produce exceptional coffees. In my opinion, they are doing a banged up job. Congrads to each and every one! 

No, I'm not a big fan of coffee. I could take or leave it without caring one way or the other. I do grow  coffee for our own use, that's why I know how much work these coffee farmers put into their crop. I process my own beans in the standard boring way, not trying to attain hints of chocolate, fruitiness, lingering mouth texture, or other traits of the cupping competition world. Just a basic cup of joe is fine for me. 

Strolling the grounds were the lovely coffee queens and princesses.

Now you know that we're "country" when you come to an event and can purchase a raffle ticket to win a goat! 

This little guy was too busy consuming the coffee tree to care about posing for a picture. Humm, coffee marinated goat, marinated from the inside. What a concept! 

No local festival would be complete without local musicians and hula. Our friends and neighbors entertained us with numerous hula dances, telling stories told in song. I always love the outfits they make. Colorful and so tropical. 

For some reason mainlanders think hula is just a women's event. Not true. It's quite popular among the men here. In fact, the guys are really good hula performers. 

So our festival is almost pau (done, over). But coffee growing is a year around job. 

Here in Ka'u the coffee trees are once again in bloom. For some reason this year they are having multiple blooming events. This week they are loaded with blossoms for the third time already this year. Could it be because of all the constant rain that we've been having? With the blooming being stretched out over months instead of weeks, it going to be a rather strange harvest this fall. In fact farmers are reporting some trees still have ripe beans on them from last year while branches with green fruits and white blossoms....all on the same plant. Weird.