At Honolulu Coffee, it's easy for us to get lost in our farm-grown Kona. We grow it, we take pride in its world-class quality, and then we are overjoyed to share it with our guests. But the truth is that our non-Kona coffees take just as much pride and passion to produce, and today we'd like to give one of our blends the spotlight: Lokahi.
HISTORY:
Lokahi was designed to taste great as espresso, whether at our cafes or in your home set-up. Our ideal espresso blend is medium-roast, easy to dial in, and gives that great chocolate and caramel taste while leaving in a backdrop of the distinct fruity characteristics of the coffees. When we source the components of Lokahi, these are the tastes we are specifically looking for.
So what’s with the name? Lokahi means unity and balance and these words that encompass what we are as a company and what best represents our coffee experience.
QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY:
All of our blends are subject to thorough and routine quality controls for taste and consistency. We cup our lineup of coffees almost every day to ensure tastes are up to par, green coffee is holding up, etc… but Lokahi gets a little extra attention, or an extra cupping bowl, or an extra roast profile to see what temp and times during the roasting process is bringing out the best flavors. And we don’t stop there.
Our Roasting and Quality Control teams spend ample time dialing our roasts with our espresso grinders and espresso machine, and then share the best practices with our cafe teams to help them ensure wherever it is served, it is tasting great.
What does this mean for you? When you get Lokahi in your cup, you are drinking the product of rigorous attention to detail from start to finish.
A BLEND THAT’S MORE THAN A BLEND:
Like all of our blends, the components of Lokahi change throughout the year based on harvest schedules and crop freshness. But generally speaking, there is always at least one coffee in Lokahi that represents a long, fruitful relationship with our producing partners.
- Colombia Monserrate: Relationship since 2007, visits about once a year.
- El Salvador Manzano: Relationship since about 2010 or 2011, visits about every other year.
Relationships are vital to the way we operate, and great coffee starts with these great relationships. Lokahi is no different. With each iteration, there is a years long story to be told and the importance of this blend goes well beyond the final taste.
BEYOND LOKAHI
Coffee is a funny thing. It’s an everyday, ubiquitous, oftentimes mindless part of people’s lives, but behind every cup is a long story of human connection, hard work, and dedication. Lokahi is a part of the much larger coffee story, but it’s one that has meant the world to us and has come to represent so much of our philosophy and identity.
The next time it’s in your mug as drip coffee, or a latte, or as an espresso shot, know that there’s a story unfolding before you, and enjoy your moment of harmony and balance with it.
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Related Content:
- Roasting Kona Coffee Beans | Honolulu Coffee Blog
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Freshly Roasted, Freshly Grown: Honolulu Coffee’s Kona Coffee Farm | Honolulu Coffee Blog
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How Do You Brew Kona Coffee? Chemex vs. Kalita | Honolulu Coffee Blog
