Family Owned in South Kona Since 2013.
Our Story
From 200 gifted coffee trees to an award-winning seed-to-cup farm, Aloha Star is our family’s story and our commitment to authentic 100% Kona coffee.
Aloha! We are Armando and Karina Rodriguez, founders of Aloha Star 100% Kona Coffee Farm. Our home and original farm are in Honomalino, South Kona, on the western slopes of Mauna Loa volcano, within the Kona Coffee District.
Since planting our first coffee trees in 2013, we have built a family-run estate where we care for our coffee from seed to cup. We raise many of our trees in our own nursery, hand-pick ripe coffee cherries, process and dry the coffee on our farm, and oversee milling, sorting, small-batch roasting, packaging, and shipping. Every coffee we sell is 100% Kona and grown exclusively by our family in South Kona.
Our Journey
We purchased our original 13-acre property in 2004, when it was a producing macadamia nut orchard. For years, we traveled back and forth from Phoenix to care for it before making Hawaiʻi our permanent home in 2013.
Our first plan was to start a family food business featuring Mexican cooking with Armando’s mother, Doña Lydia. Soon after our move, however, our friends Godofredo and Matilde Miranda, longtime coffee farmers from El Salvador, gave us 200 young “keiki” coffee trees and encouraged us to plant them between the existing macadamia tree rows.
We planted those first keiki coffee trees at the end of 2013. What began as a generous gift grew into our family’s future. In 2015, we launched our first coffee brand, and our Kona coffee journey took root.
Our original brand, King’s Cup 100% Kona Coffee, was inspired by King Kamehameha III. When we sought federal trademark protection in 2019, we learned that a similar name was already registered. Choosing a new name meant redesigning our labels and rebuilding the brand we had worked hard to establish. It was a difficult and costly setback, but it also gave us the opportunity to choose a name that felt even more connected to our home and our values.
Hawaiʻi is the Aloha State, and the night sky above our farm often shines brilliantly. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, became part of our inspiration. The name Aloha Star brought those ideas together: aloha, which guides how we welcome and care for others, and a star representing hope and direction. It also honors Kona coffee as one of the stars of Hawaiʻi’s agricultural heritage, reflecting the family’s pride in growing and sharing this distinctive crop.
After receiving approval from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, we proudly launched Aloha Star Coffee in January 2020. What began as a setback became a name and identity that truly feel like ours.
Reinventing Our Brand: From Setback to Opportunity
Growing Our Farm and Our Roots
Living on our farm allows us to care for every tree ourselves and protect the quality of our crop. Over the years we’ve grown from 200 trees to more than 10,000, many started from seed in our own nursery.
In 2021, we expanded by adding a nearby 5-acre parcel, increasing our future production and strengthening our presence as a true estate farm.
As estate farmers, we oversee every step: handpicking ripe cherries, processing and milling, grading and sorting, roasting, packaging, and shipping. From seed to cup, we take pride in crafting authentic, high-quality 100% Kona coffee.
xxFrom those first 200 trees, our farm has grown to more than 10,000 coffee trees, many of them started from seed in our own nursery. In 2021, we added a nearby 5-acre parcel, helping us strengthen future production while remaining closely involved in the daily care of the farm.
Because we live and work here, we can respond to each season and protect quality at every stage. We produce Washed, Honey, and Natural coffees, offering three distinct expressions of Kona from our family estate. Each coffee is carefully processed and then roasted in small batches before being packed and shipped directly from our farm.
We continue to improve through close observation, ongoing education, and regenerative practices intended to support healthy soil, resilient trees, and the long-term care of the land.
Challenges That Shaped Us
Our journey has included crop pests, storms, business setbacks, and seasons that asked us to adapt. The hardest chapter began in early 2024, when Karina was diagnosed with breast cancer. Coffee production paused while she began treatment.
With expert care from her medical team at Kona Community Hospital Cancer Center, and with the support of family and friends, Karina recovered. Her strength became the heart of our farm. That experience reshaped how our family understands hardship. It taught us to be more resilient, to meet each day with faith and gratitude, and to hold close what matters most: health, family, and community.
Those lessons guided us through an especially challenging 2026. Kona Low storms struck our area in March. On May 22, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake damaged parts of our farm, and in August, Hurricane Lala brought another round of hardship. Each event required us to pause, adapt, and begin again.
Through it all, the perspective we gained during Karina’s breast cancer journey remained our compass. We knew that material things could be repaired or replaced. What mattered most was that our family was safe, that we had our health, and that we were surrounded by a community that cared for one another.
Today, we carry those lessons into our work on the farm and into every order we prepare. Every tree we tend, every harvest we gather, and every cup we share is grounded in resilience, gratitude, and a deeper appreciation for what truly matters.
Honoring The Land and Our Heritage
Since 2013, we have committed ourselves to learning and improving every stage of coffee production. Recognition at Kona and Hawaiʻi coffee competitions has affirmed the quality of our work, but our greatest reward is building this farm together as a three-generation family. Sharing this journey with our parents and children has truly been one of our biggest blessings.
As Latino immigrants and a Hispanic family-owned business, we are proud to share a story shaped by hard work, faith, and gratitude. We hope our children and grandchildren see that dreams can grow through patience, honesty, and perseverance.
We are grateful to call South Kona home. We work to care for the land, contribute to the Kona coffee community, and protect the integrity of authentic 100% Kona coffee. When you choose Aloha Star, you receive coffee grown and crafted by one family, with a direct connection to the place and people behind every cup.
Mahalo for supporting our family farm and allowing our coffee to be part of your table.
Armando, Karina, and our ʻohana
Our Story in Print and Film
We are honored that our family’s experience has become part of broader stories about Latino life in Hawaiʻi and the history of Kona coffee.
Featured in Aloha Compadre
Professor Rudy P. Guevarra Jr. included our family and farm in his 2023 book, Aloha Compadre: Latinxs in Hawaiʻi. The book documents nearly 200 years of Latinx presence in Hawaiʻi and the many ways Latinx communities have contributed to the islands’ history and culture. Seeing our story within that history is deeply meaningful to our family.
Featured in A Global History of Kona Coffee
We were also honored to be included in Professor Mariko Iijima’s 2025 book, A Global History of Kona Coffee: Multilayered Migrations in the Pacific Region. The book follows the people, plants, knowledge, and changing ideas that have shaped Kona coffee over nearly two centuries. We are grateful that our family’s experience forms part of this continuing history.
Learn About A Global History of Kona Coffee
Watch Our Story on YouTube
In 2022, KHON2 News featured our family in a Hispanic Heritage Month documentary presented by veteran Hawaiʻi journalist Jodi Leong. The program shares stories of Hispanic and Latino people living and working in Hawaiʻi and on the U.S. mainland.
About Aloha Star Coffee
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Aloha Star 100% Kona Coffee Farm is owned and operated by Armando and Karina Rodriguez and their family. It is a Hispanic family-owned estate coffee farm based in South Kona, Hawaiʻi.
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Our coffee is grown in South Kona on Hawaiʻi Island, within the Kona Coffee District on the western slopes of Mauna Loa.
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Yes. We sell only estate-grown 100% Kona coffee cultivated by our family in South Kona. Our coffee is not a Kona blend and is not mixed with coffee from another origin.
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The name combines Hawaiʻi’s spirit of aloha with the brilliant night sky above our farm. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, helped inspire the star in our name. Aloha Star represents welcome, care, hope, and a sense of direction.