Bong Brothers
Coffee Company is located in the heart of Kona coffee
country in the town of Honaunau.Visitors to the store are often greeted by the
smell of freshly roasting coffee coming from the mill
or by the aroma of one of the café’s exotic
vegetarian dishes.
Bong
Brothers Store occupies the building that has been
recognized as a landmark by the Kona Historical
Society.Built
in 1929 as the site of the T. Kudo Store, it was one
of many small country stores that sprang up along the
Hawaii Belt Road to supply what had become a thriving
agricultural community.The T. Kudo store, and others like it, played
an important role in the development of the Kona
Coffee Market.Area
farmers could count on the Kudo family to provide them
with credit against their future coffee crop. In this
way they could purchase the things they needed for
their daily lives.Once
the harvest came, the debt would be repaid either in
cash or in kind.The
Kudo family would process the coffee in the mill that
they had built adjacent to the store.
In many
ways the business continues to operate in the
tradition of the original owners.When the Bong Brothers took over the property
in 1979, they made it a priority to restore both the
mill and the store.The
coffee that our customers drink is pulped, dried and
milled right on the premises.Locals, including many who still are coffee
farmers, and tourists alike can count on the Bong
Brothers Store to provide the best in Kona Coffee as
well as other necessities.Tom Bong custom roasts all of the coffee himself in small 20-pound
batches.Linda
Bong who runs the store and café is renowned for her
vegetarian cooking and her fruit smoothies.The shelves are always well stocked with a wide
variety of health foods, organic local produce, cards
and gifts items.
The store is located on the makai (ocean) side
of the road between mile 103 and 104 on the Hawaii
Belt Road (Hwy. 11).The
store is open Monday through Friday until from 9 am to
6 pm and Sundays from 10 am to 6 pm.
