Rick's BLOG about anything!: Hawaiian Micro Brew Coffee Spot

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Hawaiian Micro Brew Coffee Spot - Beach Bum Cafe

Andrew and Dennis
Beach Bum Cafe

I haven't blogged about Beach Bum Cafe in several months. I know I've tweeted and facebooked photos many times since my 1st blog about them back in February 2011, but those are a little difficult to search or compile so I thought I'd write another blog to help and do just that.

If you are a true coffee lover, you must have Hawaiian coffee at Beach Bum Cafe if you are in Oahu. I will admit that their location, in the middle of Hawaii's business district, is inconvenient even for most of us that live here, but that doesn't keep me away. If you need parking, I suggest parking at the Iolani Palace lot and paying the meter for a couple of hours of parking. I believe that parking there is the most affordable and it is only a couple of blocks (5-10 minutes walk) away. In fact, if you are a tourist, I suggest planning to go on the Iolani Palace tour and walking over for coffee after purchasing your ticket for the tour that begins later in the day. Don't forget to feed the meter if it's running out of time. The maximum you can pay at once is 4 hours.

Rusty's Red Caturra
Natural Process
Pour-over Sock Pot

You can also visit the Hawaii State Art Museum located in the middle of the walk from Iolani Palace to Beach Bum Cafe. The King Kamehameha statue is also located across the street from the Iolani Palace. Including Beach Bum Cafe in your plans to tour this area would be ideal for coffee lovers and people looking to purchase the best quality Hawaiian coffee beans as gifts. Believe me, this is not the stuff labeled, "100% Kona Coffee", that you can buy in department stores or is being served at your $500 a night hotel with your $35 breakfast buffet. I can barely drink that stuff when it's served free.

Anyway, on to the true topic of today's experience...

Affogato treat!

This morning's experience is not the normal experience that you should expect at Beach Bum Cafe, but I felt like sharing it on my blog. Beach Bum Cafe only serves the best quality Hawaiian coffees. In addition to having my cup of Rusty's Farm Yellow Caturra, we were able to experience Andrew's (@MAndrew808) personal roasts of a single harvest, El Salvador grown bean that was processed 3 ways; wet, pulp-natural and dry [Sweet Maria's Glossary]. It is always amazing how the cupped coffee flavors vary so much just by the different processing and roasting techniques. The consensus of the group that was there sampling this morning seemed to prefer the wet process then the dry followed by the pulp-natural. This coffee had a fruity or wine like flavor to it and that was most noticeable in the dry process. The wet processed batch probably had the best balance of flavors to most of us while the pulp-natural seemed to lack the kick of any significant flavors. Dennis, the owner of Beach Bum Cafe, sometimes does these special tastings for us as a Saturday treat and we love treats! =) Speaking of treats, Dennis finished up with a surprise affogato made with Tahitian Vanilla ice cream and his special Beach Bum Cafe espresso blend! 8) 8) 8)