Kauai Coffee Company || Kauai, Hawaii

Kauai Coffee Company Estate

Kauai Coffee Company is the largest coffee plantation in the United States, with around 4 million coffee trees in total. Located in Kalaheo, Kauai, the Kauai Coffee Co. owns over 3,100 acres on Kauai.

 

 

Here you will find a self-guided tour, gift shop, and coffee window. 

The estate was about a 20 minute drive from Poipu. You can get an idea of how expansive the fields are as you drive along Highway 50 and head down toward the Kauai Coffee Co. Visitor Center, where there are miles and miles of coffee trees on either side of the road that span all the way down to the coast. Each coffee field is surrounded by a row of taller trees which protect the fragile coffee trees from strong winds.

  

The coffee fields extended for miles around the estate and down to the coast. 

The estate is open to the public for self-guided tours, and they also have a gift shop and cafe on site. The self-guided tour takes approximately 15 minutes and there are arrows pointing you down a paved path. There, you will find signs that detail the entire process from coffee growing to harvesting to roasting along with examples of some of the equipment used in each step. I was surprised to learn that one coffee tree produces approximately 1 pound of coffee per year! 

 

Two of the signs along the self-guided tour. 

After the tour, I recommend heading back toward the gift shop and stopping to try the free samples of the day. They normally have four or 5 different coffee blends/roasts for you to try. While I was there, they had a light roast, medium roast, and dark roast along with a macadamia nut flavored coffee.

  

(Left) A piece of old machinery along the self-guided tour. (Right) A picture of the unripe coffee cherries. 

There is also a small gift shop where you can buy their coffee (they will grind it on site for you if you wish), t-shirts, coffee mugs, and more. We picked up a couple bags of coffee to take home as souvenirs. I also grabbed a travel mug in their signature blue color and a vintage t-shirt. Now that I’ve been to the Kauai Coffee Co. estate, I recognize their coffee in stores (I’ve seen it in Target and TJMaxx/Marshalls). They use bright blue packaging, so it is easy to spot on the shelves.

Their bright blue branding was also seen on a Jeep on property.   

On our way out, we stopped by the cafe window and ordered coffees for our ride back to Poipu. Along with brewed coffee and espresso drinks, they also have smoothies, frozen drinks, and pastries. The frozen coffee was delicious - imagine a less artificial tasting Frappuccino - as well as the latte and brewed coffee.

There was a small café window where you could order coffee drinks and some desserts.

If you are visiting Kauai and are a coffee lover, I highly recommend visiting the Kauai Coffee Company estate. You will definitely need a rental car to visit, since it is not in a major town. However, it is along the route to/from Waimea Canyon, so you can add this stop to your trip fairly easily if you are already traveling towards the western side of the island.

Another site on the self-guided tour: greenhouses where the coffee dries out.