Did you know that TRI UK has an in-store Coffee House? We serve the usual cyclist’s favourites of jacket potatoes, toasted paninis and also cakes with glorious (and sometimes unusual but incredibly tasty – trust us!) flavours. From chocolate Guinness cake, black forest brownies, beetroot cake, date slices and even a spiced parsnip cake.

But more importantly, we serve the best coffee in the world!

The clue is in the title, as they say, and the reason behind us calling our coffee pit-stop Kona Coffee House is because we import our coffee direct from the big island of Hawaii – home of the IRONMAN World Championships.

When TRI UK co-founder Chris used to compete at the IRONMAN World Championships he would have a daily swim in the tiny beach in front of King Kamehameha Hotel out to the catamaran boat moored out to sea.

Once he got there he would hang off the side of it while they served him, and all the other IRONMAN swimmers around him, small cups of delicious Kona coffee. Memories like that are why we now serve 100% Kona coffee in our Kona Coffee House at our TRI UK Yeovil store.

Sourcing Kona Coffee

We source all our Kona coffee from a fantastic 15-acre farm in South Kona. It is a wonderful multi-generational family farm – with the family now on their third and fourth generation. In addition to their 13 acres of Kona coffee, they also grow macadamia nuts, papaya, guava, pineapple, oranges, banana, passion fruits, avocado, lemon, lime, cinnamon and Surinam cherry to name just a few other crops!

Coffee has been grown on their farm for over a century and they still process the coffee in their original 1942 mill. Antique bottles and other artifacts dating back to the late 1800s are frequently found there. Plus, going even further back in time, there are rock mounds running from the mountain to the sea that was part of the ancient Hawaiian Ahupua’a farm system.

The farm’s location on the west coast of Hawaii provides the coffee plants with sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons – the perfect climate for coffee plants. With rich volcanic soil, a plentiful labour-force and constant care, this Kona location produces one of the smoothest premium coffees in the world.

The farm also has 3000 ‘heirloom’ coffee trees that are between 60 and 100 years old. The age of these trees is what adds the body and depth to the final coffee product. With the coffee beans ripening between September and December, every tree needs hand-picking several times during these months.

The process

As soon as the coffee cherries are picked, they are pulped and processed to prevent any spoilage. Then these pulped wet beans are spread out under the incredible Hawaiian sun on a traditional drying rack called a ‘hoshidana’.

This drying process enables the beans to seal up and preserve their flavour. Due to the golden skin that covers the bean, the coffee is often called Kona Gold. When the beans are dry, they are milled so the parchment skin is shredded and they are then graded by size.

Here’s the most important part…only beans that are graded as Prime or above can be labelled Kona Coffee. That’s why the coffee we serve at TRI UK is so incredibly delicious! Anything below Prime is called ‘Hawaiian’. Once the beans have been graded, the green beans are then ready to roast in their 1942 mill.

Where to get Kona Coffee

TRI UK serves 100% Kona Coffee in our in-store coffee house and it carries the seal of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association. It is the best of the best!

Next time you grab a delicious coffee at TRI UK’s Kona Coffee House remember that you are tasting a small bit of the beautiful and mysterious big island of Hawaii – home to the IRONMAN World Championships and where IRONMAN legends such as Mark Allen made triathlon history

So come down and visit us at our Yeovil store today to browse our wide selection of bikes, wetsuits and running shoes – and grab a coffee from our Kona Coffee house while you’re at it.