Ka’u Coffee Mill

The tour was very informative! The two women working in the shop were incredibly nice and helpful. We bought several bags of coffee and macadamia nuts. They will even ship coffee for you! Samples were abundant! I definitely recommend visiting!

Their vanilla macadamia nut coffee is awesome! Awkward that they don’t have milk though — super strange to make visitors taste their coffers with powdered creamers

It was absolutely wonderful. I found this pantheon of joy that is coffee and drank all the samples. Even the candies was swell.
I might say that the one with the «dark» label was rather great. The only drawback is to trying to find the darn place due to it being on a side road, another side road, and a long country road to boot. Parking is plentiful. Some of the coffee making process (to be exact, the machines) lay behind a window. The staff was very friendly and I ended up buying a cool looking hat. It’s lightly populated in the afternoon — but it could be the location.

Great staff, tons of free samples but average coffee.

Charm and good food, loved it! Try the doughnut-​esque goodies (names escapes me at present). Lots to choose from.

It’s quite a hike to drive out to this spot. Hit it up when you’re making your way back to Kona from Hilo or the Volcanoes National Park.
As for the Mil/​Store: Except for the silly Unilocal sticker on the door, it was great to taste the different coffee and macadamia nut options which you can buy right there.
If you look through the large glass windows, you can view the production plant. Pretty dope.
Mahalo

Go during the week if you want to tour. One of the sales ladies gave us an informative talk on the differences of the Kona, Hilo, and Ka’u coffees. Ka’u coffee is becoming more recognized. They had different samples to try. Nice flavors. Would have bought some the estate coffees if I was a coffee connoisseur.
They also had many varieties of Hamakua macadamia nuts to try. They said they provide the nuts to their sister store, the Hamakua Nut Company which we were going to see the next day. Figuring the prices were the same, we bought here. Bad idea. Prices are much cheaper at the Hamakua Nut Company and better deals. One would think prices would be equal. Would have saved at least $ 30. If the distance wasn’t so far, I would return the items and go buy at Hamakua Nut.

Nice experience, staff very knowledgeable and care, anyone came be fake nice. Here their genuine… ok it’s expensive boutique cofffee but flavorful and I found less acidic than others on the island

Great stop! Friendly staff, tasty coffee and smoothies. Tons of samples to try. Clean bathrooms. They even gave us a free banana to eat while we drank our morning coffee. It’s worth the stop!

What a great place!!! So many samples to try! The coffee is truly some of the best we’ve had. It is better than kona coffee in my opinion. One of the best things here is outside they have fresh macadamia nuts you crack the shell yourself and eat for free! The young lady working the gift shop was super nice too. The farm was beautiful too. This was our favorite coffee stop on all the island.

If you’re looking for an amazing taste of the freshest hazelnuts/​coffee/​macadamia nuts then this is your place if you find yourself driving to/​from black sands beach or south point. The staff was more than willing to educate everyone on their freshly grown products as well as provide us with unlimited free samples. If you’re a tourist then pay it forward to some locals by getting some wasabi macadamia nuts or a pound of peaberry coffee for your mom!

While on vacation, we were driving around the island, headed towards Hilo when we spotted the signs for this place. I don’t have much of a point of reference, but it was located back amongst a neighborhood of modest homes, back up in the hills. It was really beautiful up there with the trees, wind, etc. So the great part is free macadamia nut and coffee tasting… and there are lots of things to try (and buy). Everything was quite good. Before leaving, I bought one of the bags they keep the beans in for storage. Makes a great artistic memory at home, as it is now hanging on the wall. Really nice people working there too at the visitors area. Even got to take my kids up close to the coffee trees. Just a nice little stop at a real coffee plantation.

On our way back to Kona from seeing Kiluea Volcano, we spotted signs to visit this place. So a detour we took and climbed up the hill at the base of Mauna Loa to see this beautiful coffee plantation. Free samples of coffee to drink. Many flavors to choose from. An opportunity to see the trees up close, as well as the banana trees growing nearby. Lovely landscaping. Friendly staff.
So very happy we stopped and picked up some wonderful Hawaiian coffee to take home. Very relaxing and lovely to visit.

A clean, friendly, well-​designed, and welcoming center for the Ka’u coffee company. Staff met us at the door and quickly explained the coffee washing types and then let us have at the coffee sampling bar. First time I tried «natural unwashed» process and that alone was worth the stop. Nice folks, easy pleasant stop.

The coffee here is different than Kona. This coffee is smother than Kona. Kona coffee is MUCH stronger.

Parking is easy and plentiful, they have a large variety of coffee and macadamia nut samples and a video you can watch of the process. Decent restrooms too.

Soon after arriving back from Hawaii, I received a message from Ka’u Coffee Mill apologizing for the negative experience I had there. They wound up sending me a whole box of goodies and coffee, and two hand written notes apologizing again for the experience and asking me to visit again.
I would visit again.
I understand every company has their off days. If you look at the quality of product, the peaberry is super yummy, as is their other coffees. The macademia nuts are amazing as well.

What an awesome detour! We saw signs for the coffee mill on our way to the Black Sand beach and looked it up on Unilocal.It had good reviews and didn’t close until 4:30 so we decided we would go on our way back from our trip to South Point Park.
It was raining on our way back and we were tired from all our exploring so we really needed some coffee to wake us up!
We thought it would be right off the road, but it was about a 10 minute detour to the coffee mill. It was worth it. The lady working there was really friendly. I tried each flavor of coffee they had out and they also had a bunch of different flavors of macadamia nuts to try, too!
I liked that you could serve yourself macadamia nuts. The lady even told my boyfriend he could have the entire cup of one of the flavors. She must have noticed him lingering around it for a long time. haha
After we were done in the store, we walked over to where they dry the beans and that was pretty cool. The view is really pretty, too.

Wandering about the Ka’u district we stopped for a coffee tasting at the real deal; not some faux attempt to sell you a product, but an actual educational experience which by the way included as many tastings of several coffees and macadamia nuts. yippee! We checked out the tour which was relaxed, in depth and inspirational. We learned about the sugar industry closing up shop in 1996, and the devastating impact on the local economy. No jobs. Local coffee industry gets a boost from this mill with the hopes of restoring local jobs so folks don’t have to drive to Kona to serve tourists… but I digress. And, by the way, Kona coffee’s got nuttin’ on Ka’u coffee. I have seen the light! (but my preference is dark) The roaster is top-​notch. The mill director, Louis, gave us the tour; he’s smart, and clearly loves his job. Best coffee I have had on the island!

Now open daily, the mill is a nice stop on the drive between Volcano & Kona. The main attraction is the gift shop with unlimited coffee & macadamia samples and nice souvenirs.
The Extra Dark beans appealed to me as I have never seen them sold elsewhere.
Tours are a few minutes (when available) and consist of looking at the equipment and learning about the different types of beans. Don’t expect a huge factory tour as a huge factory does not exist.
The Mill offers excellent scenery of the Ka’u Coffee Farms.
Look for the very small signs — it’ll seem like you’re going off into the mountains to never never land, but you’re on the right track.
31 Unilocal Review Challenge #2/​31