You expect to find top-rated beaches on the Big Island of Hawaii. Stunning waterfalls and colorful reefs? Of course. In the Big Island’s potent landscape, even flowing lava is part of everyday life. Most visitors may take for granted that much of the island is used for agricultural purposes — with everything from growing macadamia nuts and coffee to organic honey production — but there is a type of specialty farming that has quietly taken off here, and it may surprise many. It’s cacao farming.

On six acres in the strikingly beautiful embrace of Kona’s Hualalai Mountain, Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory is ground zero for the Hawaiian tree to bar movement. Founded and operated by North Carolina natives Bob and Pam Cooper, Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory is the home of Hawaii’s first homegrown chocolate. In fact, Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory was the first place to grow and process chocolate in the entire United States. From the Original Hawaiian Chocolate’s modest start 16 years ago, the Coopers supplied cacao seedlings to anyone willing to grow the trees and allow the Coopers to buy back the beans. In addition to growing their own beans, Original Hawaiian Chocolate now sources beans from 27 other Hawaiian orchards.

Tours complete with chocolate tastings are conducted a few times a week at the chocolate factory and plantation. We were delighted to take a tour of the nation’s first tree to bar operation and experience single-origin Hawaiian chocolate.

At the start of the tour, Bob Cooper tells us: “We are the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, and original means first. Making chocolate is not extraordinary. It is made all over the world. So the fact that we make chocolate is not exceptional. We’re just the first to give it the old college try in the state of Hawaii.” We also learn that the cacao tree grows in a band between 16 and 20 degrees north and south of the equator. The Hawaiian islands sit at the very north of the cacao belt — between 18 and 22 degrees north of the equator. “It is by the grace of Mother Nature that chocolate will grow in Hawaii and this is the only place in America where chocolate, also known as cacao, will grow quantitatively for the business of cultivating.”

With the hot sun shining even in late winter, it’s hard to imagine that Hawaii is a little chilly for any crop. But, it is sort of at the North Pole for cacao. Even though it may be almost too cool to grow the cacao, the island’s remote location comes with a distinct benefit: major cacao diseases haven’t made it to Hawaii’s shores.

The tour begins with guests receiving bite-sized plumeria shaped samples of the three types of single-origin chocolate made exclusively from Hawaiian cocoa. The first two hand-poured flowers are made from the Forastero bean — one milk chocolate and the other dark chocolate. The third flower is made from the first 100% Hawaiian-grown dark Grand Cru chocolate made using the rare and fine Criollo bean.

As we enjoy the samples surrounded by lush vegetation, Bob Cooper tells us why this chocolate is so special. “The chocolate you are sampling this morning is a single origin chocolate. It is truly special and unique because most of the chocolate made by the processors throughout the world are blended bean chocolates.” He goes on to tell us that processors often shop as many as 12 to 15 different equatorial regions throughout the world and take those distinct flavors from those respective regions and blend them into signature chocolates. “The chocolate industry  makes lots and lots and lots of chocolate. We’re not adverse to making a lot of chocolate but we choose not to import any beans whatsoever from offshore, so we don’t have that luxury. We only have one shot for flavor,” says Bob. He explains that if the Hawaiian beans were blended and mixed together with other beans, the identity of the Hawaiian chocolate would have been lost. “So we made the decision that we should represent this cacao for what it rightfully is. We use only 100% Hawaiian grown cocoa beans.”

The Coopers feel deep satisfaction that Original Hawaiian Chocolate is the world’s first producer to grow and process non-blended, single-origin, American-grown chocolate.  “Hershey is a formidable American company that makes chocolates that people enjoy eating but there is not a single American-grown cocoa bean in their chocolate. They come from the different equatorial regions in the world. If you travel to Europe and try the finer chocolates there, none of the chocolates you have there will have American grown or Hawaiian grown beans. So, this actually becomes Hawaii’s first, America’s first, and the world’s first and we take great pride in saying that.”

The one hour tour continues with a walk through the orchard where we see the 1,600 cacao trees. Cooper tells us many interesting horticultural facts about the trees, like how big they get and the different aspects of pollination and how he must harvest his pods every two weeks. We learn how the volcanic soil, the rain, and the tropical sun all play a role in creating the unique taste of Original Hawaiian Chocolate.

Then, Bob takes us to the nearby workstation and uses a cleaver to slice open a ripe cocoa pod. We see the beans and learn the beans have no semblance of the taste or smell of chocolate. They are very citric, very sweet, very clean in the sense of taste and they don’t really smell.

We learn how flavor is incited through fermentation in slatted mahogany boxes and exposure to sunlight. We see (and smell!) the beans fermenting in their sweat boxes. At this point, they smell like dirty gym socks. We are then shown beans drying in the sun. Bob tells us that natural sunshine is the best flavor developer in all the world and the beans stay in the sun for between 22 and 28 days. We learn that after they are fermented and dried, the beans are burlap bagged and stored for a few years. “Just like wine, the flavor continues to develop,” says Bob.

At this point, a contract grower would be done. The industry would send send buyers out to buy the beans. But Original Hawaiian Chocolate does it all, so there is more work to do in the factory. “The industry takes it from the dried bean to the finished product. Because we actually grow the bean on this very property and take it to the finished product we became the only integrated processor of its kind in an industrialized nation that grows and makes chocolate.”

Bob teaches us the five steps of how the factory takes the dried beans and makes them into an edible piece of chocolate: cleaning, roasting, winnowing, conching, and tempering. As we walk through the small factory, we see the various pieces of equipment that help in the production of chocolate. Visitors can see the liquid chocolate poured into molds and cooled before being wrapped. The end result is 100% Hawaiian chocolate available as hand-poured bars or plumeria shaped pieces.

As we learned on the tour, chocolate derives unique characteristics from a location’s ecology. The resulting taste can, quite literally, capture the essence of the land, or the ‘aina as it is called in Hawaiian. After spending an hour learning about the trees and the soil and all of the factors that contribute to a chocolate’s unique taste, we came away realizing that Original Hawaiian Chocolate is more than a delectable treat. It offers a taste of the ‘aina and the stories that come with it. As the Coopers say, Chocolate is Aloha.

To make a tour reservation or order chocolate, visit Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory or call them at 808-322-2626.

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