Best of Honolulu Magazine 2010: Hula Daddy is Editor’s Pick

We all know Kona coffee is the best, but choosing a bag from the hundreds of farms on the Big Island can be challenging. So we asked the experts at Web site Coffee Review, which rates coffees on a 100-point scale-similar to the one used for wine-which is tastiest. The editors recommended Hula Daddy Kona Coffee, giving 97 points to the Kona Sweet roast and 92 points to the Mele roast.

Hula Daddy started in 2002 on an 11-acre cow pasture and has since grown to more than 30 acres in Holualoa. Owner Lee Patterson also offers tours of the farm and the coffee-tasting room, even baking cookies for guests. “I grew up on a farm and I like creating something that makes people happy.” 

Visit Honolulu Magazine to see original article

Hula Daddy Kona Coffee Extra Fancy received a 93.1, the third highest score ever given by Coffeecuppers.com

The excellence of this coffee must be what folks are referring to when they extole the qualities of the finest Kona coffees. It’s got it all - everything the above coffees exhibit cranked up a bit, and more subtly blended into the whole, with additional sweetness, a complex blend of fruit, floral aromas, chocolate, caramel and a touch of citrus, now reminding me a bit of bergamot. 

The coffee is as perfectly balanced as any I’ve had and lingers as a long finish to complete the experience. Full Review

Hula Daddy Kona Coffee written up in the January 2010 Hawaii Magazine

Hula Daddy Kona Coffee is familiar to HAWAII Magazine subscribers who read the January/February 2010 issue feature story “Kona in a Cup.” Owners Lee Paterson and Karen Jue’s farm in the heart of the Big Island of Hawaii’s Kona Coffee Belt has produced some of the most award-winning coffee roasts on the Island since 2002. In 2008, Hula Daddy’s “Kona Sweet”-one of several coffee varieties the company roasts-scored 97 out of 100 from industry buying guide Coffee Review. Only five other coffees worldwide have ever achieved that score. 

We’ve been longtime fans of Lee and Karen’s crisp, flavorful 100% Kona-grown Hula Daddy coffees. We’re grateful to Hula Daddy for rewarding our Reader Photo of the Week winners with such a great prize. 

Excerpt from HAWAII Magazine  January/February 2010Article:

 My first stop of the morning, Hula Daddy coffee offers … [tours, sampling and sales]. From a rocking chair on the veranda of the Hula Daddy’s retail shop, you can gaze on owners Lee Paterson and Karen Jue’s 11-acre farm, and, far downslope, the Kailua-kona coastline, all the while samping as many cups of their fabulous brewed raosts as you want…

 Spend a day tasting coffee from farms along the belt, and you”ll quickly find that all Kona coffees are not created equal. Cups of joe  I sampled were consistently good, but not alwaysas crisp and complex as Hula Daddy.’s roasts.

Hula Daddy Kona Coffee written up in the Toronto Star newspaper

These days, newcomers to the coffee business are experimenting with improved varietals of coffee plants and innovative bean processing and roasting techniques in order to take Kona coffee to new heights.”Only recently have people begun to think about crafting fine coffee,” says Miguel Meza, the roastmaster at Hula Daddy Kona Coffee. “We’re a few decades behind wine in that respect.”

Hula Daddy owners Lee and Karen Paterson bought a cow pasture near Holualoa and turned it into a coffee farm in 2002.

“After practising law for 42 years, it was time to do something new,” says Lee.

“There’s something special about growing coffee. The greatest satisfaction is when people tell me they’ve tasted our coffee and it’s the best. That makes my whole day.”

As we step into Hula Daddy’s garage-sized production room, Meza stands in front of four or five cups of coffee that have been infused for four minutes in 90C water.

One by one, he slurps, swirls and spits out the rich-brown liquid to compare the relative acidity, sweetness and flavour of each brew.

“I’m like the winemaker,” says Meza, who performs this “cupping” procedure at least once a week to control quality and test out experimental batches.

Achieving a coveted, record-setting 97 rating for Hula Daddy’s sweet natural Kona coffee in December 2008 was not a slam dunk, however.

“There are dozens of steps where you can screw up coffee,” explains the 27-year-old roastmaster, who shepherds his estate-grown beans through the many critical stages of production.  

The process begins with hand-picking the bright red coffee “cherries” one berry at a time at the peak of ripeness and then mechanically removing the outer pulp and fermenting the beans.

Fermentation gives so-called “wet-processed” coffees their characteristic bright, clear flavour.

Afterward, the beans are sun-dried and milled to remove the parchment and silver-skin layers.

Selection of the highest-grade green beans, climate-controlled storage and custom roasting at just the right temperature for the optimal amount of time help to ensure that the final product will be full-bodied and aromatic.

The proof of Meza’s long, hard labour is evident up in Hula Daddy’s tasting room where we inhale the rich aroma of fresh-brewed coffee and savour the differences among select, fancy, extra-fancy and prized peaberry Kona.

“We both like coffee, and since we started drinking Kona, we’ve fallen in love with it, so we wanted to see how it’s made,” say Theresa and John Banks, residents of Marysville, Calif., who are taking a self-guided coffee tour as they wind up their holiday on the Big Island.

The couple finds similarities between Hawaii’s Kona coffee belt and California’s Napa Valley wine country.

Hula Daddy Kona Coffee is Imbibe Magazines number one Hawaiian coffee

Imbibe Magazine Nov/Dec 2009

Hawaiian Tropic
Say aloha to island coffee.
 
Something of the redheaded stepchild of the coffee industry, Hawaiian coffee has for years been known more for tourism than taste. But that reputation is changing—here to rewrite Hawaiian coffee’s character is a crop of island roasters whose coffees are nuanced, balanced and outright delicious Article Source

Something’s brewing on the Big Island

Toronto Star 

Kona country offers a taste of history and the chance to savour some award-winning coffee

HOLUALOA, Hawaii–The coffee pot is always on here along the Kona Heritage Corridor on the Big Island of Hawaii, where producers of prized Kona coffee beans are turning up the heat on competition to develop award-winning brews. Read more

Intuit Small Business United Blog

The words “pure Kona coffee” can be deceiving. For those who are coffee connoisseurs or just desire the morning cup to get your day started, know that the word “pure” has a certain status to live up to.

Being a former coffee store manager I can tell you first hand that Hula Daddy’s 100% Kona Private Reserve is a taste of heaven in a cup. If you don’t believe me, try some for yourself.  Read Complete Article

Noble Pig Weekend Menagerie

Noble Pig, October, 2009

Even though Friday began without fanfare, that all changed when the postman arrived with an unexpected package. My brother, for no other reason than he thinks I’m the bomb and wants me to have the best of everything (he really does) sent me the best coffee I have ever tasted. You see, my brother is always in Hawaii. Always. He buys all his coffee from Hula Daddy and visits their tasting room when he’s in Kona. So while placing his order last week, he ordered me some too! This coffee is to die for. Did you know coffee is rated on a 100 point scale like wine and these two one pound bags he sent me, “Kona Sweet” Light Roast received 97 points and the other “Mele” Kona Coffee received a 92 point score. If you have a coffee lover on your holiday list, this would be a very special gift. The bags even come packaged in these beautiful cloth drawstring sacks. What a surprise this was, thanks bro!!!!  Article Source

Hula Daddy Kona Sweet is the Coffee of the Month at Campos Coffee in Sydney.

September 2009

“Rarely do coffees meet expectations- especially when they are prohibitively expensive. This Kona coffee, of the 700 growers in Kona, this singular one coffee produced as the first dry processed Kona in the world- it is truly a gift to specialty coffee for which we will be forever grateful. “

Hula Daddy “Mele” 100% Kona Coffee Receives Score of 92 in June 2009 Edition of Coffee Review

Overall Rating: 92 points

Aroma: 8
Acidity: 8
Body: 7
Flavor: 9
Aftertaste: 8
Roast (Agtron): Medium-Light (51/73)

Read review

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