Island X Hawaii was established in 1991 by William Martin. Over the years IXH was known for it's original, authentic design and art for it's clothing line and furniture, garden pieces. 

In 2001, Bill moved IXH from Waipio Gentry to Waialua Old Sugar Mill town which is closer to home so he could still catch some surf after work. Out of Island X Hawaii's back door was the mill site for Waialua Coffee but at the time the Waialua Coffee mill was abandoned.

In 2005, Waialua Coffee by Dole returned to operation and started the Waialua Estate Chocolate mill along with the coffee processing. Island X Hawaii was the first one to purchase Waialua Coffee green beans, roast them and package them at the site. Working together with Dole, Mike Conway, the founder of the Waialua Coffee / Chocolate Mill, Island X present the mini tour to the visitors and started to do some advertising of this unreal coffee and chocolate.

Island X Hawaii Store is located in the historic Waialua Sugar Mill and offers Waialua coffee, Waialua chocolate, and other “Made in Waialua” food products.  They also provide free mini tours of the Waialua coffee and cacao mill.  

By setting business in this town, Bill always wanted to do something for this once bustling town to be seen again. And he did. First edition of the North Shore Map by North Shore Chamber of Commerce originally didn't have Waialua positioned nor listed. Bill made an effort to gather the small business based out of the mill to join together, organized the advertising panel so the map would include Waialua town besides Haleiwa town.

In 2008, he founded the "Taste of Waialua" event to bring the community, business, history and local agriculture together to celebrate the rebirth of this glorious town. Trough out the years, Taste of Waialua has been successfully present Waialua, drawn people together, educated its young generations of who they are and what this town is really about.

Ever since the first Taste of Waialua, Bill invited Dr. Coffee Shawn to present the coffee seminar. Shawn Steiman is a coffee scientist whose business, Coffea Consulting, provides consulting services to coffee farmers, roasters, retailers and individuals seeking coffee-related information.  Steiman’s book, The Hawai‘i Coffee Book, highlights all aspects of the Hawai‘i coffee industry while offering a comprehensive guide to coffee.  It is available at Island X Hawaii, local bookstores or at online retailers.

Bill had worked so hard to get "Taste of Waialua" going over the years. Each year we are glad to see this event just keeps growing and going stronger. After countless hours of working, months of planing, and effort of recruiting people. On April 23rd, when we saw the outcome.... all the hard work is worth it. We see all the vendors were busy, all the visitors were having a great time. All the local people came and saw their friends, neighbors and families..... Weeks ago when we hung the banners, the Waialua people would honk at us and shout "Yeah~ Waialua!" We knew we did the right thing.

There are so many people we need to thank to. We can't make it without each and all of you.

Thank you, the people and community of Waialua. Your support and hospitality were appreciated by us and all the visitors.

Thank you Lorna and Robin from Castle and Cooke for allowing us having this event in your property. Thank you John the security you guys works extra hard for the event to make sure everything, everybody was fine.

Thank you Friends for Waialua Town, City and County of Honolulu and the Hawaii Tourism Authority for getting the grant to help out the expenses.                

Thank you Mike from Dole to give us Waialua Coffee / Cacao Tour. Thank you for squeezing us in your extremely busy schedule. We know the visitors enjoyed the insight of the mill from you.

Thank you Kathleen for organizing the stage and the bands. Thank you Bla Pahinui. Thank you the Abrigo Ohana, thank you Roshan and Shivani. Thank you, Coco and the Sunset Elementary School ukulele kids.

Our amazing staffs worked extra hard,  thank you Bob, Solei and Dave. 

Bob P. helped us build the beautiful bamboo banner holders and put them around, thank you.

 Casey, thank you for putting the words out through the radio stations, please tell all the DJ's thank you.

 KGMB, Dan Cook, thank you for coming all the way to Waialua to give us a chance in the Sunrise News to let people know about this wonderful little town. 

Thank you John H. for organizing the food vendors. Thanks to all the food vendors, you guys fed the hungry visitors with our tasty local food. Thanks for all the venders, artists, you guys showed the world how unique, how creative Waialua could be.

And thank to all our visitors, Taste of Waialua can't be successful without you.

Manalo!

From Island X Hawaii   April 24, 2011