maui pic

Here is a pic from the Kaanapali coffee farms that happened to be just up the road from where me the girlfrien were staying in Maui. The pic was taken by my girlfriend who is vastly more talented at taking pictures than I am. This is a Red Catuai varietal, at least according to the sign. Long considered the "cabernet" of coffee, I was so impressed with it, I decided to buy a big old ten pound bag of it right after I was served sample cup of it at the Maui Grown Coffee store in Lahaina (right next to the historic smokestack).

Of course, the first thing I did when I got home is roast up a batch of this stuff. I kept it safe, doing 8 oz at P3 for 15:15. It turned out nice, a pretty full city and tasted great. The guy at the shop told me that the Red Catuai is a hard bean to screw up in a roaster and he was right. Hopefully, I can tweak it a bit and get it tasting just right. My first attempt at the the roast turned out ok. I appreciated the strong earthy undertones as well the intense bitter after taste. There is nothing sweet or "brown sugary" about the Maui Grown Red Catuai, and that is just fine by mean. Next time, i might try to stretch the roast out a bit longer to see what happens.

The Maui Grown Coffee company is best known for being the exclusive grower of the Maui Mokka, that tiny little bean I reviewed previously. They also had a few big bags of this first sale, but since I can only roast this in my little Nesco, I opted out of getting a big bag of that one.

The guy also got me excited by telling me that they had an annex open at the Port Of Oakland where I might be able to pick up a hundred elbows or so, if I wanted. I haven't done any research on it-yet, but if the Red Catuai grows on me, I just might have to look them up.