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Coffee roasts, mocktails and a ‘Barista Throwdown’ highlight fest

Seed to Cup Coffee Festival aims to spotlight local coffee growers, roasters

Featuring vendor demonstrations and a stellar lineup of musical talent, including Rock Album of the Year Hoku winner Larry Dupio, the Maui Coffee Association will host its Seed to Cup Coffee Festival on Sunday at the Maui Tropical Plantation.

Offering insight into everything coffee related from soil, seeds, processing and roasting to brewing, tasting, cooking and more, the free festival will include a Taste the Roast event, a Mocktail Coffee Demonstration and a Barista Throwdown contest.

The annual festival was inaugurated in 2017 to help promote Maui coffee and bridge the gap between farmers and baristas. "It's a reach out to the community to let them know what's happening with agriculture and coffee in particular," explained Nicky "Beans" Matichyn of Maui Coffee Roasters. "The whole idea is to educate people and promote coffee. A lot of people will be doing demonstrations."

One of the vendors who will participate on Sunday, Matichyn has been involved in the Maui coffee industry for more than 40 years.

Now grown on six islands in the state, coffee was first brought to the Hawaiian islands in 1817, but the early plantings didn't succeed, according to the Hawaii Coffee Association. In 1825, Chief Boki Kama'ule'ule, the governor of Oahu, acquired coffee plants in Rio de Janeiro while sailing aboard a British naval ship and brought them back to the islands, where they flourished in Manoa Valley, according to Maui Coffee Co. The trees were then introduced to locations around the islands.

The popularity of Maui-grown coffee continues to attract both local and visiting consumers.

"It's becoming a bigger and bigger deal," said Matichyn. "Maui coffee has been winning some of the top prizes in state competitions. Rob Lind of Olinda Organic Farm has been winning a lot. Maui coffee has become a big deal. Years ago, we were selling very little Maui coffee, and now we sell more Maui coffee than Kona coffee."

Organizations, farmers and vendors participating include the Maui Coffee Association, Kupa'a Farms, the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Maui Coffee Academy, Maui Grown Coffee from Kaanapali, Maui Oma Coffee Roasting Co., Maui Mountain Coffee, Olinda Organic Farm, Bad Ass Coffee Company, Lokelani Burlap Bags and Aina Brands.

The festival will open with a demonstration at 9:30 a.m. by Makiko Nukui about how to professionally evaluate coffee. It will include free samples. A Taste the Roast event at 10:30 a.m. will spotlight Maui's roasting companies, which will roast the same coffee provide by Maui Grown Coffee. The public will be offered samples and the opportunity to vote for their favorite roast.

A Mocktail Coffee Demonstration at 1 p.m., hosted by the staff of Mala Ocean Tavern, will demonstrate how to make nonalcoholic cocktails with coffee. It will be followed by the Barista Throwdown from 1:30 to 3 p.m., hosted by the Akamai Coffee Co., celebrating the craft of Maui's baristas.

"They will be making 'tulips,' fancy little designs in the coffee," said Matichyn.

As part of the festival, music will be presented during the day, opening with Namaka Pauole at 9:30 a.m., and closing with the Maui Jazz & Blues Festival Band at 2:45 p.m.

Lei'ohu Ryder will give a Hawaiian blessing at 10:05 a.m., and CJ Boom Helekahi performs at 10:20 a.m. Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning Hawaiian slack key guitarist Kevin Brown will play from 11:10 a.m. until noon, followed by the Zenshin Daiko Drummers. Lahela Lee Park, the 2022 Carmen Hulu Lindsey Leo Ha'iha'i Falsetto Contest winner, will sing at 12:30 p.m., while the female Hawaiian music trio Ahumanu play from 1:10 to 1:50 p.m.

Performing as the Blues Braddas, Benny Uyetake will team with Hoku winner Larry Dupio from Hawaii island at 2 p.m. A versatile guitarist, accomplished across genres, especially blues and jazz, Uyetake remembers being impressed with Dupio's musicianship while living in Hilo.

"He's a great guitar player," Uyetake said. "I admired him when I was a kid in high school and college, when he was playing the contemporary rock and blues of the time in the late '70s."

Performing on Maui for more than four decades, Uyetake spent years playing with Glenn Kakugawa as the duo Ben and Glenn. An ukulele teacher at Kalama Intermediate School, he plays at Kimo's these days. He's previously teamed a few times with Dupio, and for the coffee festival, "we'll play straight-ahead blues, anything from Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton to B.B. King and Muddy Waters' blues, and some old rock songs."

Uyetake will also perform on July 30 as part of the free Maui Jazz & Blues Festival series at the Ocean Vodka Organic Farm.

The Seed to Cup Coffee Festival is presented from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Maui Tropical Plantation in Waikapu. Admission is free.