2 replies to this topic

[Rachel Perlow]

I originally posted this in a coffee thread on the General Board, but as this is an excellent source for mail order food, I thought it was worth copying here.

OK, here's our source for pure Kona coffee, Bay View Farms. Jason and I visited them on our honeymoon and got a personal tour with Eva and met Roz in the tasting room. We bought a lot then and had it shipped home as souveniers for family, wedding attendants, etc. Since then we have ordered from them several times. One of the best received presents we ever sent was a Thank You to a business colleague of Jason's.  We sent her a couple of pounds of their coffee and one of macadamia nuts. Totally fresh amazing coffee and nuts.

I am now going to talk rhapsodic about their mac nuts. :cheesy:

They have the Best Macadamia Nuts Ever .  They are whole, very large, dry roasted without oil or salt. They are excellent for eating out of hand (I like to dip them in a little kosher salt, or sprinkle some on after toasting them) or to use in cooking. They have a really true flavor since there is no greasy, powdery, salty coating - like some other mac nuts available nationwide in supermarkets. A couple we know recently came back from Hawaii, and they gave us a bag of mac nuts. They may has well have been that unmentionable famous brand. They were mostly halved nuts and had a lot of salt on them. Useless for baking.

If you like mac nuts and you want to try some really excellent ones, call Bay View Farms. For the coffee, I believe they roast everything fresh right before shipping it to you. Both products are vaccuum sealed. They also sell green coffee wholesale.

[NewYorkTexan]

That could be a nice idea for next years gifts.  Do they do a packaging job of packaging the gift baskets?  

You mentioned you have ordered several times from them so I assume good customer service, right?

[Rachel Perlow]

In previous orders, it has been strictly plain packaging, although they were able to include a gift card for the Thank You gift I mentioned. Even in plain packaging, the wonderful quality makes it a welcome gift. However, I just checked the website and apparently they now offer a couple of very simple gift baskets. Interestingly, there is Gift Basket B and Gift Basket C, but no Gift Basket A. I wonder if that was something different for the holidays?

Regarding customer service, keep in mind it always seemed like a small business to me, even though, as Jason mentioned elsewhere, it is the #2 producer on the Big Island.  When you call, you get whomever is in the office, not some big order processing department located elsewhere. Even so, we've never had a problem. If you are going to place a large order, like for numerous corporate holiday gifts, I suggest you speak to them personally about it and then clearly write out what you are ordering, for whom, etc. and fax it in. As I said, speak to them about it for more details.

I'm going to email this thread to them to see if they are interested in answering these questions themselves.

Rachel