MAHALO COFFEE
Backwoods Blog;
in the woods and on the road…
While on vacation this summer Linda and I visited our three nephews and their families who live in Knoxville, Tennessee. Since Matthew, Garrett and Brandt are all avid coffee drinkers (it must run in the family DNA) they insisted on taking Uncle Dave to their favorite coffee place in town, Mahalo Coffee. The Hawaiian-themed cafe and coffee roasterie is owned by Trevor and Ashton Bayne and boasts three locations in the Knoxville area. Trevor Bayne is a former race car driver who won the Daytona 500 in 2011 at age 20. When he hung up the race car keys he decided to pursue his love of coffee and Mahalo Coffee is the caffeinated result.
Mahalo is the Hawaiian word meaning “thank you” and expresses the Aloha Spirit of friendship, understanding and compassion. The space is open and breezy with cool island colors, a surf board on the wall and aromatic coffee grind in the air. Of course I was there for the coffee, but Mahalo also has a “not-coffee” category that includes loose-leaf teas, chai, green matcha and iced seasonal specialities like the coco cabana, beach mintality, coconut mocha and lemonade daydream. I selected a pink bourbon coffee pour over. The bean is a single source Columbian and the information on the website states it has a wonderfully clean and tropical cupping profile, strong tasting notes of melon and tropical berry, with a marshmallow-fluff-like mouthfeel, sweetness and creamy texture. The staff says it “wows us every time we drink it!” It wowed me too and I would have had a second one if I didn’t already have more coffees (way too many) planned for the rest of the day. When we started the week-long Tennessee food and coffee tour we came up with our own unofficial rating system to evaluate our samplings. My cup of pink bourbon ended up being my favorite cup of coffee of the trip. Interestingly enough, out of all the coffee beans Mahalo carries in stock, none are sourced from Hawaii. That is my only complaint. If they had carried a Kona or Hilo bean I would have certainly tried that, and if that were so, I never would have tried the pink bourbon – the best cup of coffee I had on the trip. Sometimes things work out better when you just stay out of the way. Mahalo!
On the road,
Dave
July 5, 2022
Glad you were able to visit Knoxville. Drop in anytime, the next cup is on us. 🙂
Hey, I’ll take you up on that offer!
Mahalo.