As I write this, a wedding rages on the property, up the hill from our B&B.  It’s been bumping since 3, meaning receptions here last a full hour longer than they do on the mainland.  I guess island time also allows more time for the reception.  How does anybody have the stamina.

We’ve spend the last few days touring the Kona region, which includes several towns like Capitan Cook, Holualoa, and Kailua.  We visited a coffee plantation, which was quite different than the one visited in Costa Rica in Series 4 back in 2018.  If you’re interested in that post, click here. Greenwell Farms, the place we visited, grows very little coffee itself and mostly processes beans from other farmers.  Like Chianti in Tuscany, Kona coffee comes from a very specific area on Big Island, the western slopes of the nearby mountains, which is further sub-divided by height above sea level.  This region, with hot days and cool nights, reduces bitterness, giving Kona coffee its characteristically smooth flavor.  Sadly, pests have reduced productivity and, thus, have increased the cost of Kona coffee over the past decade.   

The soil here is mostly rock and full of minerals.  Very little top soil exists.  The “soil,” small beat up pebbles really, drain quickly and the roots don’t sit in water.  Similarly, my favorite wine comes from the Central Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island.  While the rock was not produced in quite the same manner as here, it too is a rocky “soil” chalked full of minerals that drains quickly.  Very little top soil exists in New Zealand at the surface.  Something about those minerals and low moisture that make for flavorful wine and coffee.

Tomorrow I depart for Honolulu around 1030 AM.  I have a several hour layover before departing on a redeye to Atlanta, arriving early Monday morning.  

We’ll speak again one more time tomorrow.