Chocolate and Coffee Tour

Our tour offers an enchanted walk through organic shade grown coffee orchards on the slopes of Haleakala. Our farm features 8 different varieties of coffee each with a distinct flavor. We grow coffee under a canopy of that includes native trees that help to create a forest like ecology similar to coffee in its native Ethiopia. The terroir of our coffees reflect the varietals we grow as well as the ecology and cultural practices that we use. The tour includes tasting and the full gamut of picking and processing techniques that has helped us maintain “specialty coffee” status for the last 11 years.

There are three main species of coffee: Arabica, Robusto and Liberica. Liberica is the least know with only about 2% of the world’s coffee consumption. Arabica is the species grown at the farm and each species has its own varietals. There are 8 varieties  of Arabica grown at Kupa’a: Red and Yellow catuai, Red, Yellow and Orange Bourbon (from the French Bourbon islands), Typica, San Ramon, Mundo Novo, and Guadalupe. The last one which is planted in the mid section of the farm, maybe replaced by cacao since more space is needed to meet demand.

Maui Chocolate and Coffee Tours will walk you through the history of this second generation, recently certified organic, farm. Four acres are currently organically farmed with room to grow! Gerry Ross and Janet Simpson planted 450 coffee trees in 1997 and permanently relocated to Maui in 2003. You’ll get the full “skinny” on the Maui Chocolate and Coffee Tour.

Your Maui Chocolate and Coffee tour, starting at the gardens and orchards (coffee and cacao) you will experience, all the way through the tour, with your guides comparing and discussing the astounding similarities found in the growing and production of both fruits. You will learn on your Maui Chocolate and Coffee tour that both products start out as fruit and how they are transformed into chocolate or coffee. This tour includes the full chocolate tasting, demonstration and is topped off with an exquisite sample of Kupa’a organic coffee.