Shopping For Coffee

 

One of Hilo's most interesting attractions is the Hilo Farmer's Market. Packed with vegetables, fruits, honey, soap, ethnic foods, clothes, handcrafts and yes, coffee, the Hilo Farmer's market operates on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from however early you can manage to wake up to about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

 

Big Island Coffee/ Kimchi booth at the Hilo Farmer's Market
Photo by Arah Ko 

 

The Hilo Farmer's Market has booths selling over half a dozen different Big Island coffee brands, so one bright Saturday morning I stopped by the market and picked up one of every brand I could find, determined to have my own home coffee tasting.

 

 

Divine Hawaiin coffee booth
Photo by Arah Ko

 

It didn't take me long to figure out that coffee tastings are actually called coffee cuppings. (Thank you wikipedia!) The coffee I bought was all medium roast and if I could get it, whole bean. I purchased coffee from Buddha's Cup, Big Island Coffee, Big Island Roasters, Kona Mountain, Divine Hawaiian Coffee and Sharkie's. I will be posting about the individual brands as well as the result of the coffee cupping soon!

Cappucino Crazy

A classic heart-shaped cappucino.
Picture taken by Arah Ko.

There are a lot of reasons many people prefer other coffees to cappuccinos. Some people don't like bitter coffee and go for the Frappe type of drink while several black-coffee drinkers I know avoid cappuccinos because "they are all foam", but there are also a few pros to this particular beverage...

 

 

One reason to order a cappuccino is if you don't want too much caffeine. Though the degree of caffeine in a cappuccino verses a plain cup of coffee varies depending on where you get it, your typical Starbucks Grande cappuccino will only have about 150mg of caffeine while the same size of Starbucks drip coffee is around 330mg.

 

A beautiful swan design cappuccino from the Ala Moana Mall-- after I had taken a sip from it...
Photograph by Arah Ko.

Reason number two for not dismissing a cappuccino if you're ordering out is that they can be fairly difficult to make at home, requiring very specific milk temperatures and an espresso machine. So if you want a little variation in your coffee habit, it can be a fun thing to try.

 

I haven't even seen one of these dog cappuccinos online! Even though a lot of cafes don't design their cappuccinos if they are in a to-go cup, the cafe we went to did it without us even needing to ask~
Photograph by Arah Ko.

 

My third reason (and excuse) for ordering cappuccinos is probably the most obvious one: cappuccinos can look amazing. There are hundreds of cappuccino designs ranging from hearts and leaves to monkeys and cartoon designs. The cappuccino photographs above were taken at the Ala Moana Shopping center in Honolulu where they have an amazing coffee shop called Honolulu Coffee Co.! I highly recommend a visit.