About Long
Ears Hawaiian Coffee LLC
On
the Big Island of Hawai'i, is the scenic Hamakua Coast.
On the North end of this 40 mile coast line is the sleepy
old plantation town of Honoka'a. Travel 3 miles up old
Mamalahoa road and you will be in the rustic ranch lands
of picturesque Ahualoa the"long hill." Once on this
scenic drive look for the street name Waipahi, take
a left, up a ways then another left. You are now on
the 3B Half Horse Ranch. Here is the home of the Long
Ears Hawai'ian Coffee LLC.
The
3B Half-Horse Ranch began as a mule breeding operation,
hence the name "Half-Horse" in 1970 and continues to
this day. Our mule factory produced the only registered
mules in the State of Hawai'i, sired by a "Gold
Star" registered Mammoth Catalonian Jackass named
Ozark Red, since he was a dappled red roan. Ozark came
to Ahualoa from Missouri via 747 Jet from Oakland California
to Hilo Hawaii, first class we might add. Ozark Red
has since passed, but we keep him on our coffee logo
and developed a label Long Ears Hawaiian Coffee LLC.
This can be a "hole nada story."
The
Long Ears Hawaiian Coffee LLC began in October of
2000, quite by accident actually. For years, Arabica
coffee trees from Hamakua's coffee glory days fended
for themselves on our Ranch while I concentrated on
my original passion, being the manager of our "mule
factory." It was not until the passing of our beloved
Jackass Ozark Red that we began to take notice of all
the red cherry coffee on our trees. So, for the heck
of it, we started picking and before long we had picked
300 pounds of bright red coffee cherry, now we set out
to find someone to purchase or process this coffee for
us. But no one had any interest in this coffee from
Hamakua for one reason or another. Now, curious to know
what is wrong with our coffee cherries, we decided to
process this coffee cherries ourselves, all 300 pounds
of it. Not knowing anything about the process, and after
many phone calls we purchased all the needed equipment,
including
an old drum roaster. We now had all the needed equipment
to process this coffee right to the cup, and did just
that, we shared this "brew" with our friends
and some old timers who gave us the forgotten history
of Hamakua' coffee. This "spurred" us on and
we now found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a
coffee business, 100% Pure Hamakua' naturally.
Not having enough coffee
of our own, we started searching he hills and valleys
and found small farms that had coffee trees and would
sell us their coffee cherry. We found quite a number
of individuals most of them once employed by the Sugar
Industry, now self employed farmers trying to support
their families. They too had the same problem, no place
to sell their coffee cherries, and began to abandon
their coffee trees. We started to buy their coffee cherries
and began a network of told timers who had small plantings
on their land. In some of the remote valleys like Waipio
as well as gulches along the Hamakua' Coastline, here
can be found "wild" coffee. Hamakua' is no
stranger to coffee which has been here since early 1800's
and in the 1950's there were no less than 3 large coffee
mills processing coffee in the (mauka) upper lands.
Come visit, talk story, learn that Arabica coffee came
to this Island and was grown in the Hamakua' region
before Kona.
These days we, the Long
Ears Hawaiian Coffee LLC, are the only coffee processing
operation on the Hamakua' Coast that does the entire
process on site. We are a family owned and operated
business. Like many other small businesses, we are farmers,
processors, sales and marketing. Having complete control
in management, we can maintain a very high standard
of quality control. We do this the old traditional drum
roasting, "kind way", which develops the unique
flavor of our featured "aged single estate"
100% Pure Hawaiian Hamakua Coffee, which we custom roast
upon demand. This too is "a nada story," see,
we are not in any hurry, after all this is Hawaii.
The
Hamakua Coast is also noted for the big trees that grow
in this tropical environment, so why not make use of
them? By purchasing a Lucas Portable
Saw Mill we do just that. We mill lumber for our
farm building, slabs for table tops and custom mill
for others whatever the need be. Ask us about he Lucas
Mill, come by and check out our building, visit
our mules or just drop by and visit with us, talk story
and drink our "Aged Single Estate" Misty Mountain
Coffee. You can also try our very unique Kalehua Pea
Berry Coffee, also "Aged", or even our Long
Hill Coffee Berry Tea.
E Komo Mai E Ho'onanea me
Kope o Hamakua'
Welcome, come sit, relax and enjoy Hamakua' Coffee with
us!
Mahalo! Wendall and Netta Branco
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