Kona, Hawaii-based coffee producer and roasting company Hala Tree Coffee recently opened its first retail cafe on the island of Oahu.
Offering panoramic ocean views, the spacious Hala Tree Cafe boasts a soothing white interior illuminated by woven basket pendant lights and abundant daylight through front windows. Natural wooden shelves, benches and tabletops are echoed by the panels and handles of a white Sanremo Cafe Racer espresso machine atop the tile-fronted bar.
The approximately 1,800-square-foot building is split roughly in half between two levels, with a full commercial bakery downstairs supplying the cafe above with fresh bread and pastries, emphasizing local ingredients.
The coffees come exclusively from the 110-acre Hala Tree Coffee farm, which was founded in 2012 by Jean and Danielle Orlowski. Today, varieties grown there include Gesha, SL28, Red Bourbon and others not often found in Kona.
Brian Webb, a long-time roaster, educator and consultant that was previously the cupping competition chair for the Hawaii Coffee Association, joined Hala Tree at its Big Island plantation as a roaster several years ago, and has transitioned to being the general manager of the cafe.
“I’ve been around in the industry for a long time, and wouldn’t be just managing a cafe if it wasn’t something interesting and somewhat innovative,” Webb told Daily Coffee News. “We’ve got the entire supply chain all the way from soil preparation to serving a cup of coffee to a guest, which is a pretty awesome thing to be able to do.”
The roastery that launched in 2013 at the farm in Kona is now run by co-head roasters Kat Keith and Marissa Sterling. A 20-pound-capacity fluid-bed Ashe Roasters machine runs alongside a traditional 15-kilo Mill City Roasters drum roaster.
A QR code on each bag of Hala Tree coffee directs customers to wealth of information regarding the history of that coffee. Data includes the variety, lot location, dates of harvest, processing dates, processing methods and more, all tracked by an app called ECropOrigin that was developed by Jean Orlowski.
Orlowski said the app is currently being used through a paid subscription model by farm operators in other countries of coffee origin. Yet for Orlowski, the focus remains on the coffee business, as opposed to a tech business.
“We are trying, but to be honest, I don’t have too much time to really work on it,” Jean Orlowski said. “We have the farm and now we have the coffee shop and that’s our focus.”
In the coming months, in the space downstairs from the cafe, Hala Tree plans to build out an educational nano roastery and lab. Three Aillio Bullet roasters, cupping tables and the fixings for a Kalita Wave brew bar are all on the way. Slated to open in September, the lab will accommodate consumer classes and workshops on roasting and brewing, plus provide more resources for the Hala Coffee team.
“We’ve opened the shop, of course, for us to have another channel to distribute our coffee, but also to really do the farm-to-cup, to have an extension of our farm,” said Orlowski. “It’s to be able to give the information and to have more people enjoying not only the coffee, but to also understand how coffee works overall.”
Hala Tree Cafe is located at 51-666 Kamehameha Hwy. in Kaaawa, Oahu. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.
Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
