Located on the southwest side of the island, the Kauai Coffee Visitor’s Center is open daily to serve patrons freshly-brewed, Kauai-grown coffee with delicious foods and snacks. Kauai Coffee Company got its start in the early 1800s as McBryde Sugar
Located on the southwest side of the island, the Kauai Coffee Visitor’s Center is open daily to serve patrons freshly-brewed, Kauai-grown coffee with delicious foods and snacks.
Kauai Coffee Company got its start in the early 1800s as McBryde Sugar Company. Then, in 1987, McBryde Sugar Company transformed into Kauai Coffee Company — the largest producer of coffee in Hawaii, with 4 million trees on 3,400 acres.
Darla Domingo, retail operations manager, spoke about Kauai Coffee’s new partnership with Meadow Gold.
“We partnered with Meadow Gold to make Kauai Coffee ice cream that is sold exclusively on Kauai,” Domingo said. “It won’t be sold in retail stores. It will be offered to restaurants and snack bars.”
There are two flavors to choose from: a Kauai Coffee ice cream (Kauai Coffee with fine flecks of coffee bean) and a Turtle Macadamia Nut ice cream (Kauai Coffee, macadamia nuts, chocolate chips and caramel swirl).
At the coffee bar, a single scoop of ice cream costs $2.60, and a double scoop costs $3.25.
If you have a craving for baked goods, Kauai Coffee offers a variety of delicacies from local producers on the island.
“We get frozen dough from Passion Bakery in Wailua, so we make sticky buns, Kauai Coffee peaberry cookie and lilikoi and blueberry muffins,” Domingo said.
Sticky buns are $3, peaberry cookies are $2.50 and muffins are $3.75.
I highly recommend peaberry cookies. Domingo gave me the spiel on the peaberry and its unique flavor.
“About 4 percent of coffee trees produce peaberry,” Domingo said. “Inside a coffee cherry there’s usually two seeds. A peaberry is when one seeds forms instead of two, so it has a stronger, more intense taste.”
Also available are malasadas that are picked up every morning from Menehune Food Mart in Lawai. If you’re unfamiliar with malasadas, they are fried balls of dough that are rolled in sugar and are sometimes filled with cream. They sell for $1 each.
If you’re a Hawaii resident, you get a kamaaina discount of 15 percent off all items at the coffee bar and at the store.
Something you and your family can do while at the Visitor’s Center is roam the property. Kauai Coffee’s visitor center has a guided tour that’s offered four times a day — at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. They are free and no reservations are needed.
All you have to do is show up around the allocated times and a Kauai Coffee employee will make an announcement. A guide will take you along a path and talk about how Kauai Coffee is grown, the company’s history, how it transitioned from sugar to coffee, how the coffee is harvested and every other process involved with producing the coffee. The tour lasts for about 25 minutes.
The Visitor’s Center, located on 870 Halewili Road in Kalaheo, has been around for 15 years and continues to be an integral part of the community.
It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. during the summer and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the rest of the year. The visitor center is open daily except for Christmas. Call 335-0813 and visit http://www.kauaicoffee.com for more information.
