Best of the Beans
Judges in Kona anoint the finest
By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
coffees and the finest coffee recipesStar-Bulletin
KAILUA-KONA -- The roasty fragrance of freshly brewed java assailed the senses, followed by sounds of sniffing, slurping and socializing. Camera crews from Honolulu, Japan and Korea jostled through a cheek-by-jowl crowd of observers. Thus, the 27th annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival "cupping" competition unfolded on a warm, humid Kona coast day last week. Bystanders savored the robust nip of dark-roast Hummingbird coffee while snacking on almond biscotti, lilikoi cheesecake, pineapple turnovers and other all-you-could-eat delectables. Amid the kaffeeklatsch atmosphere, four international judges poked, smelled, vacuumed, swished, spit and all but smoked coffees from 43 estate farms.
"They're looking at the quality of the bean," said festival chairman Norman Sakata, "to see if the beans are uniform and have good body. They check for acidity and aroma. ...
"The farmers work so hard to maintain quality," Sakata explained. "It took tens and hundreds of farmers, and years of promoting to get an identity. It's so important to maintain the image and the industry. After all, if people pay three times more for Kona coffee than for the next coffee from South America, we better be very good."
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Tri-color Kona Coffee Mousse, created by Lynette Aoki,
won the best dessert prize in the professional division
at the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival cooking contest.
In the end, "Da Kine Bean" from the Terry Fitzgerald estate was judged best of the best. But Fitzgerald was absent -- busy patching the coffee pulping machine on his 4-1/2-acre farm in Honaunau. He's a hands-on farmer, like hundreds more in Kona.Sixty-seven-year-old Joe Nimori harvested 6,900 pounds of coffee last year on his two-acre Holualoa farm. "It's really big because everybody is doing their part of the festival," he said of the weeklong fest. "We try to get more people involved in it. It's for both tourists and local residents really. Tourists come by and look at it."
His wife, Tomoe, 64, agreed, "We really want local people to attend. A number of local people are grandchildren of coffee farmers. They live away from the farms; so they know very little about coffee farming."
She said independence, low overhead and a better product are the benefits of their small-scale farming. "You can pay attention to what little you produce," she said.
She attended a San Francisco marketing seminar where an analyst predicted that the next marketing trend is "the mom-and-pop concept. Consumers are sophisticated enough. They want homemade stuff, the real thing," she said.
"Large coffee farms worry about profits to survive," she added. "We do, to a certain extent, but one who chooses a small farming establishment does so because it's a personal choice. Because of the recognition of the value of a quality of life for the farmer, as well as for the product.
"Small-time farmers look for -- more than money -- for the quality of life."
Later in the festival, on a melting afternoon, a couple dozen entries competing for 20 prizes in the coffee recipe contest -- almost one prize per dish. Hey, it's a "world-class coffee" contest with small-town kitsch. After announcement of the winners, audience members devoured the entries in 25 minutes.
Perennial contest winner Vernon Wong, executive chef at the Keauhou Beach Hotel, said he likes Kona coffee.
"I do, I really do," he smiled. "It has really good flavor. I like a nice, steaming cup, because I don't use sugar and cream."
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Vernon Wong, executive chef at the Keauhou Beach
Hotel, touches up his salad of beef tenderloin cured in
coffee beans and herbs. The entree was runner-up in the
professional division. His wife, Susan, snaps his picture.
Wong's salad featuring paper-thin slices of coffee-bean-and-herb-cured beef tenderloin was runner-up entree in the professional division of the cookoff."In the hotel I've made (coffee-laced) sauces that use 100 percent reduction," he said, "so the flavors are very, very intense."
Cookoff organizers unveiled a glossy, softcover "Kona Coffee Cookbook" featuring more than 10 years of contest recipes. Claire Robinson, an HMSA account service coordinator, chaired the committee that compiled the 168-page collection. Her favorite recipe is a Kona Coffee Macadamia Nut Torte created by Stafford DeCambra, executive chef of the cruise ship Independence.
"It's a lotta work, but it's a treasure," Robinson said.
This year's winning recipes included an easy coffee curry, stuffed chicken breast with Thanksgiving flair and, to embellish those kaffeeklatsches, a rich cookie bar with coffee-bean crunch, a coffee-flavored fruit bread and an irresistibly light-tasting but decadent mousse.
Gevalia Kona Coffee Cupping Competition Festival winners
First place, Terry Fitzgerald Estate
KTA Super Stores Kona Coffee Recipe Contest
Coffee-Picking Contest
Coffee Art Contest
Miss Kona Coffee 1998
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Claire Robinson, cookbook editor.
Kona Coffee Cookbook
Web site
