Submitted by Jasmine Jade Newton on the 2022 winter session program in Hawaii sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences…
This week in Kona, we went on so many amazing excursions! We went to visit a Kona coffee plantation and learned a lot about the history of Kona coffee and how its production has come to be today. I thought it was really amazing to test out the different coffee they had and learn some history on the type of brew it was. One that was interesting was called Peaberry coffee, it is a bean that is completely round and doesn’t have the two different sides like a regular coffee bean. This creates a much more unique flavor in the coffee harvest and production process!
Another one of my favorite excursions was the Kealakekua Bay snorkel trip. We took a boat for about 45 minutes to a secluded bay and got to jump into the water from the top of the boat. We saw so many fish and also were so lucky to have seen an octopus and two oceanic white tip reef sharks! This was a really engaging and memorable experience that I will definitely carry with me my whole life.