Tips for Brewing Great Coffee

Read our blog post about Cleaning Your Coffee Maker

Use Enough Coffee

The standard ratio is 2 tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounces of water, but it depends on the individual. It is better to start with too much ground coffee, then dilute your cup with water. If you skimp on the grounds and your coffee starts out too weak, you can't do anything about it.

Use Good Water

In some areas, the tap water tastes like it came from a pool. Do you really want to make coffee with that? Make your next pot of coffee with clean, filtered water or bottled water, but not distilled water. Avoid using hot water in your coffee maker.

Tap water has some dissolved minerals in it. A small amount of minerals actually helps coffee taste better, too much dissolved minerals will leave white deposits on the side of your coffee pot. Distilled water will not leave white deposits in your coffee pot, but it will affect the taste of your coffee.

Drink it Before it Goes Stale

Drink your coffee within 20-30 minutes of brewing. Letting a pot of coffee sit on a warmer for extended periods of time will scorch/burn it.

The taste and aroma of coffee depends on a number of substances in the coffee. As these substances evaporate, your coffee will lose it's flavor and taste. This is why re-heated coffee never tastes as good as fresh coffee.

Cleaning Your Coffee Maker

• Make a mixture of 1 part white vinegar to 2 parts water. Make enough to fill your coffee pot. If your coffee pot is particularly dirty, you can make a stronger mixture of equal parts vinegar and water.


• Before proceeding, please be aware that this process will FILL your home/office with the sweet smell of vinegar. This aroma will be unpleasant to most of your family members and most of your customers/co-workers.


• Insert a filter as usual. Pour the vinegar/water mixture into your coffee maker where you would normally add water. Turn the coffee maker on and let the cycle complete as normal.


• Discard the used filter and the vinegar/water mixture.


• Let the coffee pot cool for about 10-15 minutes.


• Wash the pot with soap and water. Rinse the pot thouroughly.


• Run 2 more cycles through your coffee maker with PLAIN, COLD WATER to rinse the vinegar out of the machine.


• If there is no vinegar smell after the 1st rinse cycle, you can skip the 2nd rinse.

White distilled vinegar is effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs due to its acidity. We hope you don't need to kill any mold in your coffee pot, but the acidity is also good for removing mineral deposits in your coffee pot (the white residue that doesn't scrub off).

Some people will tell you never to use soap to wash your coffee pot because glass pots will absorb the soap and ruin all of the coffee that you make in the future. Glass is inert, that's why scientists use glass test tubes and beakers in laboratories. BUT, if you don't rinse your coffee pot well, soap residue may remain and WILL probably affect every pot of coffee until it is washed out sufficiently.

There's a cleaning tip out on the Internet that mentions putting table salt and ice cubes in your coffee pot, then swirling the mixture around to remove coffee stains. Salt is definitely an abrasive, but this one doesn't sound very effective. If anybody has experience with this method...let us know.

What Do People in Hawaii Do on New Year's Eve?

It really depends. With the diverse ethnic mix here in Hawaii, there are a lot of different traditions.

One of the most popular activities to do on New Year's Eve is light fireworks. Aerial fireworks are illegal in Hawaii for the general public. Naturally, professionals can get special permits to set off fireworks for special events.

Take a look at these videos to see what can be found in "normal" neighborhoods on New Year's Eve.





Please keep in mind the following points:

• Any fireworks that fly more than 5-6 feet off the ground are illegal in Hawaii


• None of the fireworks displays in the videos are being set off by professionals. In fact, the first 90 seconds of the 2nd video appear to be coming from the SAME house.


• Despite the legality/safety of these videos, fireworks "shows" like these are quite common on New Year's Eve and July 4th.


• Hawaiian Isles Kona Coffee Company has no relation to these videos nor the individuals involved with the fireworks. We do not condone the use of illegal fireworks, we would just like to show you a segment Hawaii that many visitors are unaware of.

Hawaiian Videos: What to Do In Hawaii

If you've never been to Hawaii-here is a small sampling of the many things available to do in Hawaii.

What is Labor Day?

To be clear, the Labor Day that we are talking about is a U.S. Federal Holiday. This means that virtually all United States Federal Government employees take the day off (many privately-owned companies also give their employees the day off on Federal Holidays).

Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. Labor Day is a yearly national tribute to the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the United States.

Internationally, May 1st is known as International Worker's Day and is celebrated as a national holiday in over 80 foreign countries. International Worker's Day celebrates the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement.

Hawaiian Videos: How to Open a Coconut

Hawaiian Music Videos:Have You Seen These Islands-Danny Couch

Definitely an Island favorite!! and many visitors go home remembering this beautiful song.