Islands Cafe

Islands Roastery

In 2016 Islands Cafe became a roaster of imported green bean. The price surge in roasted Hawaiian coffee had gotten so high we were going to have to stop serving 100% Hawaiian coffee or go bankrupt. We were low on cash and only 6 months into our first cafe, and now we needed to reinvent the wheel! 

I got a hold of a 2.5 lbs electric roaster we named Mahina. We used Mahina for two years developing some really interesting profiles and finally settling on a blend for our main espresso. Two years later we opened our second cafe Mauka and bought our second larger roaster we named Doug. Doug is a 15 lbs gas powered coffee roaster giving us more control with our heat adjustments while roasting.
Don't worry though we still use Mahina as a sample roaster for all our new Surf ® varieties, and anytime we want to refine our current blends. 

FROM HAWAII, TO US, TO YOU, WITH ALOHA 

Ibegan roasting coffee in a small a-frame home located on the North Shore of Oahu in 2006. Every Fall some friends and I would hike into the vast Waimea Valley and pick beans from coffee trees growing in the wild. We would harvest around 75 pounds of green bean each, which was more then enough to brew every morning and experiment with different roasting profiles.

Using a make shift cast iron drum roaster I learned the craft of roasting coffee, cupping, and extracting. In 2016 Islands Cafe bought its first roaster and started importing green bean from Hawaii. Becoming a roaster would allow for better control of coffee taste profiles and as well offer our customers a product much fresher then most other cafes and grocery store bought coffee.In the last two years Islands Cafe has established it self as premium boutique roaster delivering coffee to over 30 countries. All our coffee is roasted the week it is offered for sale and thus giving our customers  the freshest coffee bean possible. Since this time we have imported and roasted over 20 different varieties of coffee from all around the world, and specifically regions with amazing surf! 
Check out our Surf ® to learn more about beans from other amazing coffee regions from ethically sourced farms!