Christine Coleman, her business and life partner, Manny Ochoa, and her son Justin Olson are marking the 10th anniversary of their Kona and Hilo-side coffee-growing operations this year.

"I could go on and on about the coffee," said Justin. Coffee has 800 flavor characteristics, versus 400 for wine, he said. "We love to educate our customers about that fact and have them try the different tastes," he said.

He and his mother are also partners in the Kona Gold Rum Co. bakery and cafe they purchased in August.

Olson inspired the name of their Buddha’s Cup line of coffee.

When he was born weighing 11 1/2 pounds, the nurse handed him to his mother and said, "Buddha."

"I was a big guy," he chuckled.

Customers at the store receive a 10th-anniversary burlap bag with the Buddha’s Cup logo with certain purchases.

Kona coffee farmers take pride in offering customers 100 percent Kona coffee. That many companies offer 10 percent blends is a touchy subject among them.

Beyond that, Coleman takes great pride in her five lines of coffee, each grown on a single estate and never blended.

Beans for the Buddha’s Cup line are grown under ohia trees, giving the coffee "a fruity, floral taste," she said, while Imagine beans are grown under macadamia nut trees and "taste completely different."

The Kona Kulana line is grown "in full sun," Colman said.

In 10 years Coleman and Ochoa have worked to distinguish themselves by producing single-estate-grown coffees that can be distinguished by their flavors, one from the next. "Why would you want to mix it?" she asked.

Ochoa is known as "the Juan Valdez of Hilo," she chuckled.

His Manny’s Brew comprises a mix of five coffee varieties all grown on a single estate.

Buddha’s Sanctuary coffees are available on Oahu at Neiman Marcus, Honolulu Gourmet Foods in Waikiki and Eggs ‘n’ Things, and are served in Alan Wong’s restaurant as well as in the main headquarters at Kamehameha Schools, Coleman said. "We lease their land," she said.

The Kona Gold Rum Co. markets cakes not just at the retail store, but statewide. Coleman uses Maui-based Hana Bay Rum for the cakes but grows just about all the other flavoring ingredients, including the apple bananas used for the banana-macadamia nut cakes.

Coleman and Ochoa came to the islands by way of California and Oregon, and when they arrived in Kona to continue their agricultural lives, "we learned from the old-timers learned the old-style method" of coffee growing, harvesting and processing, she said.

She meets travelers from all over, who may have stopped at the Kealakekua bakery and cafe and picked up a brochure promoting the farm tours she offers way, way up Old Poi Factory Road.

Visitors who taste her pure-Kona coffee wonder aloud why their hotel room only offers a 10 percent blend, she said.

"Kona coffee is like a thoroughbred horse, and we’re greeting them with our lowest-grade coffee. Why would we be doing that?"

“Buy Local” runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.