Kimi Kaloi is passionate about coffee and wants to share her enthusiasm by taking it on the road.
She offers an array of coffee, tea and homemade pastries from her cheery food truck, Homegrown Brew.
The 29-year-old Mililani resident began her venture Aug. 1 and says that business continues to pick up every day.
The turquoise-colored truck and its striped awning can be found on the corner of Kamehameha Highway and Avocado Street in Wahiawa from 6 to 10:30 a.m. weekdays and at Mililani Tech Park, near Oceanic Time Warner Cable, from 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. You may also find Homegrown Brew at Eat the Street events and the Honolulu Night Market. Kaloi hopes to eventually open a coffee shop in the Wahiawa area.
For now, she said, "I wanted to keep things simple. It’s my home away from home. I’m in the truck all of the time."
Homemade baked goods on the chalkboard menu include bacon-wrapped bagel dogs ($3.75), banana bread ($1.95), scones ($2.15), cornbread ($1.25) and pumpkin crunch ($2.50).
"Many of the baked goods are made using my great-grandmother’s recipes," she said
The main attraction, which includes her own blends using coffee from Waialua, Maui and Molokai, ranges from $1.95 to $4.25 per cup. Kaloi tries to ground the coffee the same day it is used to ensure freshness. Her two coffee blends are named after her twin sons, Nalu and Kumakani: Nalu Kine is a light roast, and Kumakani Bold is a darker one.
If you’re not a coffee connoisseur, there are plenty of other options. Kaloi makes a Lilikoi Lemonade Slush ($2.95) using fresh lilikoi gathered from Wahiawa Heights.
Taking a page from the Starbucks playbook, Homegrown Brew is serving up Pumpkin Spice Latte for the fall season. As Christmas nears, she plans to offer flavors such as peppermint, mocha and gingerbread.
Kaloi attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and lived in California for nearly a decade. While there she briefly worked on the Nom Nom Truck, the Season 1 winner of "The Great Food Truck Race" on Food Network.
She also learned about coffee while working on a coffee farm after returning to Hawaii. "I loved being a barista and love the atmosphere of the food truck, so I decided to blend the two together," she said. "I have a great passion for coffee."
Kaloi grew up in Wahiawa, which made it the natural place to set up shop. "Family members and friends stop by daily," she said.
