What is the Ka'u district?
Ka’u is a lava plateau on the southeast side of Hawaii Island, on the slopes of Mauna Loa, and home to the Hawaii KAU Coffee farm.
The farm is near the southern tip of Hawaii Island, just outside the town of Pahala, on a lookout about 350 meters (1,150 feet) above sea level. As of January 2021 it covered 8.5 acres.
Updated
Where Ka'u is on the map
The Ka’u district spreads across the southeast of Hawaii Island, on the slopes of Mauna Loa. This schematic map shows Kona on the west coast, Hilo on the east coast, Kilauea and Volcanoes National Park, Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, and Pahala, the town of the farm’s mailing address. The map is not to scale.
Where Ka'u is and how to get there (figures from our farm blog)
| Item | Details | Article (Japanese) |
|---|---|---|
| Location | The southeastern side of Hawaii Island, on the slopes of Mauna Loa | /mauna-loa/ |
| From Hilo | About 1.5 hours by car, past Hawaii Volcanoes National Park | /mauna-loa/ and /volcanoes-national-park/ |
| From Kilauea | About 30 minutes by car to the edge of the district | /black-sand-beach/ |
| From the airports | A long drive from either Kona or Hilo airport | /kau-coffee-festival/ |
| The land | A vast lava plateau, formerly sugarcane country (the sugar industry ended in 1996) | /en/about-kau-coffee/feature/ and /logo-meaning/ |
| The farm | Outside Pahala, about 350 meters above sea level, overlooking the ocean | /coffee-plantation-movie/ |
Distances and times are what the author of the farm blog (Kayama LLC) recorded from actual trips. The linked articles are in Japanese.
Around the farm (video)
The farm outside Pahala, about 350 meters above sea level, with a clear view of the Hawaiian ocean.
Places and stories (from our farm blog, in Japanese)
Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, where you meet the honu
Punalu’u Black Sand Beach is Ka’u’s signature beach. The beach originally known as Black Sand Beach was at Kalapana on Hawaii Island, but a lava flow swallowed it completely in 1990. Punalu’u, also black sand, came to be called by that name instead.
Green sea turtles, called honu in Hawaiian, come ashore here. Never touch them: germs from humans can make them sick, and the Hawaiian green sea turtle is endangered. From Kilauea volcano it is about a 30-minute drive to the edge of the Ka’u district.
Our coffee trees grow at the foot of Mauna Loa
Drive about an hour and a half from Hilo through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the great mountain on your right is Mauna Loa. In Hawaiian, mauna means mountain and loa means long. It looks flat, but it rises 4,169 meters (13,678 feet) and, at about 75,000 cubic kilometers, it is the largest mountain on Earth by volume (the article cites Wikipedia). It has erupted more than 30 times in recorded history and is still an active volcano. The Ka’u district lies on its slopes, and our coffee trees grow at its foot.
May is Ka'u Coffee Festival month
The Ka’u Coffee Festival is held every May. Each farm serves its best coffee, lunch is on sale, and there are hula performances and a stage for Hawaiian bands. Locals look forward to it as much as visitors. Beyond the main community center, events run for several days at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach and at restaurants, so the whole district joins in. John’s coffee booth is near the festival headquarters. The 2020 festival, which would have been the 12th, was canceled because of COVID-19.
Three Big Island desserts to have with Ka'u coffee
This is the personal ranking of the farm blog’s author (Kayama LLC), who has lived on the Big Island for 20 years. Third place goes to poi mochi, a fried sweet made by kneading poi (taro paste) with mochi flour. Second is haupia cheesecake; haupia is a coconut dessert something like a bavarois, and this cheesecake has been sold at a Hilo supermarket for years. First place is the lilikoi malasada. Lilikoi is passion fruit, and a malasada is a Portuguese-style fried doughnut. You can find lilikoi malasadas on the menu of a bakery in Ka’u: a malasada made in Ka’u with coffee grown in Ka’u.
A legend of Ka'u
The author heard this legend from a teacher who teaches Hawaiian culture for the Hawaii State Department of Education. A loving couple lived in Ka’u. The wife died while pregnant and was buried along the shore. A long vine grew from that spot, and when a fisherman dug at its root he found an ipu, the Hawaiian word for gourd, buried there. When he split it open, two healthy twin babies came out. Ka’u has many legends like this one. The author likens it to coffee beans: a peaberry is an only child, and the usual flat beans are twins.
Taste the coffee of this land
Ka’u is a lava plateau on the southeastern side of Hawaii Island
The Ka’u district lies on the southeastern side of Hawaii Island, on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the largest mountain on Earth by volume. It was sugarcane country until that industry ended in 1996. In 1989, farm owner John Ah San was entrusted with developing a coffee farm here, and that is where Ka’u coffee began (The Land Behind the Taste).
How do you get to Ka’u?
From Hilo, drive through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and you reach Ka’u in about an hour and a half; from Kilauea volcano it is about 30 minutes. It is a long drive from either Kona or Hilo airport, but once you are past Kilauea the clouds break and a deep blue sky opens up.
The farm sits 350 meters up, outside Pahala
Kau Ocean Vista Coffee Estate, the Hawaii KAU Coffee farm, is near the southern tip of Hawaii Island, just outside the town of Pahala, on a lookout about 350 meters (1,150 feet) above sea level with a clear view of the Hawaiian ocean. See the farm in Photos & Videos.
Key points
- Ka’u is a lava plateau on the southeastern side of Hawaii Island, on the slopes of Mauna Loa (4,169 meters), about 1.5 hours by car from Hilo.
- The district was sugarcane country until 1996; our coffee farm has been here since 1989.
- The farm is just outside Pahala, about 350 meters above sea level, and covered 8.5 acres as of January 2021.