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Before attending any festival events, Allan went to do a little shopping and get a burger for his daughter. There in McDonald's was a spontaneous jam session of singing, slack-key guitar, and hula. Here is a living culture, not something presented to tourists at a hotel luau. It feels like such a privilege to be there for the real thing. The cupping contest is a major part of the festival. Tasters with discerning palates taste samples of the coffees submitted. They use descriptions similar to those used in wine tasting to characterize the different coffees. Ours was described in the following way. "Kona Cafe coffee has good body, rich fragrance, great taste and aroma."
Different schools and organizations showed their colors. Here are Allan and his farm manager, Lao, joining the Kona Young Farmers. Allan and Lao also had a photo op with the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival Queen. This year's crop looks very good.
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This
year we were fortunate to attend the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival.
It is a business event, a convention for growers and roasters, but
it is also a celebration of the unique culture of Kona, an agricultural
district on the leeward side of the Big Island of Hawaii.
The
parade of the festival was a truly "cultural" event. Women
from several of the Japanese Buddhist temples did a display of Bon
dancing. Young drummers from the Daifukuji Mission, originally a
support for recent Japanese immigrants, did their Taiko drumming
through the entire course of the parade. It was a very compelling,
joyous sound, and we walked alongside them the whole way. Kona coffee
growing was started by Japanese sugar cane laborers in the 1850's.
After they had bought their way out of their indentures, they leased
land to grow coffee and make their own money.
