We’re so excited to feature this new cafe serving Hawaiian coffees to the city of Honolulu. This is going to the top of our must-visit list for the next trip, that’s for sure. This is the new flagship location for Hala Tree.
The 2026 Build-outs of Coffee is presented by DONA, Pacific Barista Series, and La Marzocco.
As told to Sprudge by Ellie Schwartz.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
We are a completely vertically integrated, family-owned coffee company. At our core, Hala Tree is about true stewardship. We aren’t just sourcing green coffee or roasting it—we are the ones managing the soil, tending the trees, and hand-picking the cherries on our estate in Captain Cook on the Big Island. We control every single baseline variable from farm to roastery to cup. When you sit in our cafe, you’re experiencing an unbroken chain of custody and a profound respect for Hawaiian agricultural heritage.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
Our Waikīkī location is our absolute flagship. We wanted to design a minimalist, industrial-modern sanctuary right in the high-energy heart of Honolulu at Lilia Waikīkī. It’s built to be a deeply intentional retreat where locals and visitors alike can pause and connect with 100% Kona coffee.
The major evolution for this space is our expanded culinary focus: we have built a full-scale, on-site artisan bakery led by our resident pastry chef. Every single dough, pastry, and baked good is prepped and baked fresh in-house daily using locally sourced Hawaiian ingredients whenever possible. It beautifully bridges the gap between exceptional specialty coffee and true scratch-made pastry culture.
What’s your approach to coffee?
Uncompromising purity and radical transparency. We exclusively serve and produce 100% Kona coffee—no blending, no masking. Because we control the farming, processing, and roasting stages, our approach focuses on expressing the distinct micro-climates of Captain Cook. We curate Hawaiian heritage Kona Typica but extended offering to many other coffee varieties, showcasing each coffee’s uniqueness.
We also believe that specialty coffee shouldn’t feel like a closed gate. We embrace transparency by featuring a unique QR code on every single retail bag we sell. A guest can sit at the bar, scan their bag, and trace the exact harvest window, processing milestones, and roast profile of those exact beans. It bridges the disconnect that historically exists in the global coffee supply chain.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
We are exclusively a 100% Kona coffee brand, which means our equipment and our sourcing must be precise enough to honor the delicate nuance of single-origin estate beans.
We’ll be using a three-group Nuova Simonelli Black Eagle Maverick Gravimetric espresso machine paired with twin Mahlkönig E80T grinders. The slow bar uses Kalita Wave 185 brewers (the same device that took Hala Tree Coffee to the national finals in the US Brewers Cup) for our core medium roast coffees, and V60s for the lighter roasted Catalyst lineup.
The standard espresso offering will be our Medium Roast Washed Typica, the most classic presentation of Kona coffee. We will also have a rotating selection of experimental coffees in the second grinder including varieties like SL34 and Gesha, as well as coffees from the Catalyst lineup, such as our three-day anaerobic natural Maragogype.
The Waikīkī flagship will be the premier stage for Catalyst, our exclusive line of nano-lots. These are hyper-limited, micro-separated lots from our farms in Captain Cook that represent the absolute pinnacle of our agricultural experimentation and flavor profiling.
Signature drinks are still in development, but will feature elevated flavors and techniques in the style of a craft cocktail bar (think atomized aromatics, hydrosols, and other non-sugar-based flavor delivery).
To match this level of precision on the culinary side, our resident pastry chef’s kitchen is being outfitted with state-of-the-art commercial convection and deck ovens. Because we handle all of our laminated doughs and artisan bakes entirely on-site, the pastry equipment had to be just as uncompromising as our espresso setup.
How is your project considering sustainability?
Sustainability for us starts directly at the soil level on the Big Island. Because we farm our own coffee, we practice regenerative agriculture, mindful water-conservation during our wet-fermentation processing, and ethical labor standards with fair, transparent wages for our farm teams.
By running a true farm-to-cup operation, our carbon footprint and supply chain logistics are drastically reduced compared to traditional importers. In the Waikīkī build, we are prioritizing hyper-local sourcing—not just for our pastry chef’s menu ingredients, but by looking to reduce single-use waste footprints and partnering with eco-conscious commercial neighbors within the Lilia Waikīkī development.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
July 1, 2026
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
The entire space was envisioned and designed in-house by our co-founder, Danielle Orlowski. Danielle is a professional interior designer who previously practiced in France, and she brought that distinct European sensibility, discipline, and appreciation for cafe culture straight into this project.
We purposely chose not to outsource the design to an agency because we wanted the flagship to be an authentic, intimate extension of our journey. Danielle beautifully bridged the gap between our rustic agricultural roots in Captain Cook and a refined, urban sanctuary in Honolulu.
Her background allowed her to meticulously balance a clean, minimalist aesthetic with industrial-modern touches, ensuring the space feels both deeply grounding and highly functional. From the ergonomics of the espresso bar to the choreography of our scratch-baked pastry case, every single detail is a reflection of her design expertise and our brand’s soul.
Thank you!
Mahalo!
The 2026 Build-outs of Coffee is presented by DONA, Pacific Barista Series, and La Marzocco.
