Farming Cacao
Growing Hawai‘i’s Cacao Legacy
When we started planting cacao on Oahu in 2009 there was very little local expertise on cacao farming in Hawaii. Unsure of what types of cacao would ultimately prove the most successful, both in terms of viability and flavor, we began our seedling orchard from cacao around the Hawaiian islands.
Evolving Cacao Farming in Hawai‘i
Since then we have continued to refine our orchards, slowly incorporating more and more grafted trees to clarify our diverse planting. Our farm straddles the 21st parallel, and that extreme condition (from cacao’s point of view) as well as many other more immediate climate, soil and topographical issues have all influenced how we farm cacao.
Practicing Regenerative Agroforestry Farming
We now entirely practice a regenerative agroforestry model. At its core, agroforestry means to grow agricultural produce within a forest environment. Regenerative farming puts back more into the land than we take out, so we see annual improvements in crop yield, erosion abatement, thriving animal and microbial habitats, and so much more.
Reviving Hawai‘i’s Land Through Cacao
We have created a lowland forest, very much like what would have existed had the land not been deforested over a century ago to make way for sugar cane. Our cacao trees grow within a forest of thousands of hardwood trees that we planted and now tower 50+ feet tall. Native wildlife have returned and the soil is thriving through the symbiotic benefits of a healthy and diversely planted forest. This model of farming, while rare here and elsewhere in the world, is in fact the best thing we could do for not just our cacao, but best for the aina (land) and community as well.
Educating people WHERE chocolate comes from and what it tastes like from different farms around Hawaii is all part of our dream. We hope to shed some light on how this food can be a viable new agricultural crop for Hawaii. We have formed great friendships with others on the islands that hold similar interests, and together we all hope in the decades to come visitors and consumers world-wide will associate Hawaii with world-class chocolate.
HARVEST
Just like any other food product, you can’t make great chocolate without great ingredients—in our case, cacao beans. Those beans have to be harvested exactly at the moment of peek ripeness in order to capture their full potential. Our harvest varies in pace throughout the year, and so we have to be ready for whatever mother nature has in store.
After picking, every pod is cracked by hand in order to extract the roughly 30-40 beans per pod that are held together as a clump by sweet white fruit pulp.
FERMENTATION
Fermentation is without a doubt the single most important step in the entire chocolate making process
We ferment exclusively in mahogany wooden boxes. Each box can hold 200-250 kilograms of wet seed, which suits our production and harvest levels perfectly.
Fermentation serves as a critical step in the cacao seed’s evolution. Essentially, it represents its death, at least in its current form. The alcohol, acidity and temperature of the natural fermentation liberates precursor compounds in the seed so that they can be catalyzed later in the factory during the roast.
SUN DRYING
The final step before leaving the farm is to spread out the wet fermented beans onto drying racks. Rather than a separate step, we view this as an extension of the fermentation process. It is here where a watchful eye and daily monitoring ensures that we can lock in the incredible flavors of each bean.
Over a period of 10-14 days, depending on the outside temperature and weather, we carefully rotate the beans on the racks until they are completely dried out and extremely little moisture is left inside. This ensures that the beans will be safe to travel and remain dried out and ready for chocolate making in the months to follow.
AGROFORESTRY
At Lonohana, we believe in bringing native plants back to the soil. Our farm contains a rich ecosystem filled with trees and shrubs enriching the land and the cacao trees we grow.
