Hawaii and the Chocolate Factory

On an expedition for shave ice, we stumbled upon the Manoa Chocolate Factory -- a bean-to-bar, socially responsible, craft chocolate company nestled in the town of Kailua. And when you stumble upon a chocolate factory on vacation, you MUST visit it.

Examining a cacao pod.

Manoa Chocolate is the largest chocolate manufacturer in the state of Hawaii, but its still a pretty small place (you can tour the whole facility without leaving the tasting room). Visiting the chocolate factory is a lot like visiting a winery. Our tour guide happily introduced us to the process of growing cacao, harvesting and drying the cacao beans and then walked us through the bean-to-bar manufacturing process. We learned that Hawaii is the only state in the United States that can grow cacao due to its tropical climate, but that Manoa Chocolate gets its beans not just from Hawaii, but from all over the world.

Then our Chocolate Sommelier took us through a chocolate tasting. We sampled a dozen different flavors of really delicious dark chocolate -- most of it is 60-70% chocolate, including bars made with chocolate from Tanzania, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. There were notable differences in the flavors from each region. We also tasted chocolate infused with lavender, and one made with a little kick by the inclusion of ghost peppers.

This is certainly a place to add to your list if you are visiting Oahu. And if you are not going to Hawaii anytime soon, but want to try some craft chocolate (pricey, but delicious) they will happily ship chocolate direct to you.