About Timothy Bruno - Procaffeination

From Kona coffee farmer to popular coffee author

So, how did a nice guy like me end up writing about coffee? First, there was drinking it, then there was growing Kona coffee on the edge of a high-altitude rainforest on the Big Island of Hawaii, and then there was the writing about it. How I went from Kona coffee farmer to popular coffee author is kind of a long story.

I Got Started with Coffee Pretty Early

My earliest memories of coffee are in my grandmother’s kitchen, watching the bubbles in the glass top of the percolator on her stove as she made coffee for my grandfather.

Stove Top Percolator, photo by Kristen Haynie

I must have been 3 or 4, and she allowed me to enjoy my own cup – with lots of milk and what I assume was sugar and not the saccharine tablet for sweetness that my grandfather used (although I am old enough that it might have been cyclamates!).

I remember feeling so grown-up.

High School Coffee

Fast forward to my junior year of high school, where the occasional late-night English essay required “a little boost” of caffeine (Jane Austen is HARD!). By my senior year, I would occasionally sneak into the teacher’s lounge for a pre-lunch “pick me up.” Coffee was not available anywhere for students, presumably because it would stunt our growth, but I wanted to be fully attentive in Mr. Macnamara’s pre-lunch AP European History class. He may or may not have felt that that particular act was appropriate; he never said. My, how times have changed… Carmel High School in Indiana runs a coffee shop by and for students that makes over $100,000 per year!

College Coffee

In college, I had a morning radio show (let’s hear it for the Woo Crew!), and we would go through at least three pots of coffee before we were through. If I decided to skip French class (who knew I would need to speak French?) I would have another couple of cups at breakfast. There followed a couple more cups after lunch and a couple at dinner, as well. All of this allowed me to make it through until Letterman’s monologue before heading to bed for 4 hours of sleep. It is conceivable that I may have had a small caffeine problem at this time.

Coffee in the Workforce

Being in sales for a large portion of my pre-farm work life, I wasn’t always in an office, but when I was, there were multiple trips to the office coffee maker, regardless of the quality of the coffee being brewed. Then, in 2008, my wife and I chucked our conventional lives and bought a Kona coffee farm on the Big Island of Hawaii. Voila! Coffee farmer! The writing would come later.

Our time in Hawaii was wonderful and plenty full of hard work. Discovering that the formula for making a small fortune growing coffee was easy (start with a large fortune and be a coffee farmer – your fortune will get smaller very quickly), we diversified. We started a local farmers market that helped me develop deep connections in the Kona coffee growing community, where I became a member of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, the Hawaii Coffee Association, the Hawaii Farm Bureau, and the Hawaii Farmers Union United. We also started and continue to operate a natural skincare company, Luana Naturals, using Kona coffee in some of our products. Many thanks to Miranda and Shannon, who keep everything running smoothly.

After ten years of beating back the jungle, my wife and I are now Living a French Life, restoring/renovating a centuries-old farmhouse (check out the channel YouTube.com/@LivingaFrenchLife), and our two “kids” have since graduated from university in London and Rotterdam with various Master’s Degrees and grown into responsible adults. Time marches on.

Tim and Karen after haircuts in Kona. Farmers who want to be popular coffee authors have to look sharp!

What’s Happening Now

And me? Well, my transition from Kona coffee farmer to popular coffee author is, well, not complete but certainly in progress. I have published a couple of books, The Coffee Lover’s Tasting Guide and Journal and The Coffee Lover’s Dictionary: A humorous romp through the world of coffee, and have a couple more in the hopper that I am working on. I am very much looking forward to connecting with a nice, worldwide group of coffee lovers and sharing what I have learned. If you want to keep up to date on the publications, sign up for my newsletter at the bottom of this page. I promise: I will never spam you.

The focus of this blog will be to showcase cool coffee gadgets and techniques for getting the best brew possible while regaling you with stories from my years growing coffee in Hawaii. You can also count on stories from coffee’s long history; it truly has had a profound impact on society. But not to worry, it will be in a fun and informative way. Thanks for joining me here. I would love to hear from you; feel free to send me an email at tim@procaffeination.com.

For my writing on other topics and more of the story (and it’s a pretty good one!) visit TimothyBruno.com.

More about Tim and Coffee

My author page is www.TimothyBruno.com and I can highly recommend our Facebook group for fun coffee memes and stories.

I was quoted in this article posted on Perfect Daily Grind

Here is an article I wrote about the Farmers Market my wife and I started on the Big Island of Hawaii

And here are some articles that were written about us and our Kona coffee farm