Big Island Epic Coffee Tour at Ohana Ranch
Description
Explore a working coffee farm, roast and bag your own Hawaiian coffee, and take it home straight from the source. Come spend a couple hours at Ohana Ranch learning how Hawaiian coffee is grown and roasted. You’ll take a short walk through the farm with a local guide, talk story about volcanic soil, growing conditions, and what makes Big Island coffee different. Guests get their hands dirty planting a coffee tree and learning how coffee goes from plant to bean. At the roasting station, you’ll help roast and bag coffee, learn what to look for during the roasting process, and take home the bag of coffee you roasted as part of the experience. We’ll wrap things up with a fresh cup of Hawaiian coffee right on the farm. It’s a small-group, laid-back experience — part farm tour, part coffee lesson, and a good excuse to slow down and enjoy the land.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Meet your local guide at Ohana Ranch, just minutes from Volcanoes National Park, head out to the coffee fields with your local guide. Walk through the trees while learning how Hawaiʻi’s volcanic soil influences the flavor of the beans. Guests will also plant a young coffee tree, a hands-on way to connect with the land and support future harvests.
Next, head to the roasting station where you’ll learn how raw beans turn into fresh-roasted coffee. Guests take part in a hands-on roasting and bagging session and **take home the bag of coffee they roast**, then wrap up the tour with a cup of freshly brewed Hawaiian coffee enjoyed right on the farm.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(41)
I was a little disappointed overall, the guides were fun and personable, or it would’ve been a total bust. It was raining, which is fine, no one’s fault, but there’s no actual grown coffee plants yet to look at, we were only outside for around 10 minutes, the coffee was subpar, and it was just a tiny roasting process and not super informative either. I’m sure in a few years when the plants are mature, the building is finished, and it’s their own coffee, it will be great, and the people running it are awesome, just wasn’t quite there yet as a tour.
The Ohana Coffee Tour was a Mother’s Day gift for my wife, and arranging everything was easy — even joining one day later was no problem at all. It’s a fun experience and the people are friendly, but it still feels a bit like a startup. Everything is quite basic: the registration process, the building itself, and especially the toilets. We enjoyed planting a coffee tree, tasting coffee and the bean roasting demonstration was really nice. One important note: reaching the ranch with a normal car is difficult without risking damage. A 4x4 is highly recommended, and they should mention that more clearly in advance.
So let me say first I love agriculture tours and always try to find chances to learn about local plants. We had a very rainy day and our guide was super nice and accommodating. A few things to keep in mind if you book (these weren’t quite clear in the description so passing this on for other interested travelers): 1) The road to the ranch is VERY rough- if you don’t have an SUV it’s going to be tough on your car. 2) The ranch is very young- about 3-4 years old. If you want to see a mature coffee farm this isn’t it. The trees are very small but you will learn a lot of sustainable coffee farming and roasting.
Great experience. Learned a lot about coffee and enjoyed our tour guide Rachel. We were able to plant, taste and see the process.
Great tour! Highly recommend! We learned a lot about coffee and we even took the ones we roasted home!
Very cool experience. We really enjoyed the coffee tour and learning more about about Hawaiian culture in general. Would highly recommend.
It was less of an experience than we thought it would be. We did get to plant a coffee plant. We were shown the roasting process on a small scale. Disappointed that with 2 of us we only got one bag of sample coffee instead of 2.
I think it’s off season so we ended up in the coffee tour by ourselves, but Pono and Rachel took care of us! It felt nice to contribute by planting a coffee tree, and the knowledge about coffee and about Hawaiian history of the area specifically blew us away. To top it off with a cup of coffee you roast yourselves is pretty rad. And they gave us a great locals list of spots to find eats and other experiences(which panned out super well!) They mentioned that this was a newer farm. Can’t wait to return in a few years and see what it turns into! The ATV tours looked fun too and we were greeted by a golden haired piggie on the way back :)
This was a gem of a find! It was an informative, hands on, and tasty tour. Kamalani was a delightful guide who not only taught you about coffee and its cultivation on the island, but also the deeply rich Hawaiian culture and history. Walking through the process of coffee growing, harvesting, and roasting helped to highlight the significance of human hands and senses that go into making a bag of coffee. My husband is very picky when it comes to coffee, but this is husband approved! The coffee was smooth, rich, and complex in the bet ways. We will definitely be planning on coming back out to the farm for another tour the next time we are on the big island!
Super friendly and knowledgeable staff. You will learn so much about the coffee industry and Hawaiian history.
