LONOHANA HISTORY
Lonohana Estate Chocolate is located on the island of O‘ahu, Hawaii and is the result of two families’ dream to create a vertically integrated chocolate company here in Hawaii.
By controlling the entire process, starting with our own Hawaii-grown cacao all the way through crafting small batches of world-class chocolate bars in Honolulu, we aim to share where this beloved food comes from, how it is grown and made.
We propagated our own cacao seedlings, planted our first trees in 2009, and now farm 14 acres of cacao on the North Shore of O‘ahu. We harvest the fruit, use wild fermentations and dry the beans up on the farm. Then we craft small batches of chocolate bars at our factory in Honolulu.
Using traditional techniques, we have collected an array of vintage chocolate making equipment over the years to produce our chocolate. We offer behind-the-scenes factory tours several days a week where you learn every aspect of growing cacao and making chocolate. A 90-minute journey through the factory, tasting as you go and of course ending with a lot of samples!
We look forward to hosting you at the factory and thank you for supporting local farmers and Hawaii-grown chocolate.
EVERYTHING STARTS in the ORCHARD...
...and then evolves carefully at every step of the production process, so that the resulting bars are true expressions of fine Hawaiian chocolate. We are on a journey to discover how the unique and diverse soils, weather and microclimates of Hawaii can grow world-class cacao, and to show these different characteristics through our chocolate.
RETAIL STORE OPENING
After a few years of selling exclusively through our website, in 2017 we opened our small retail store in SALT at Our Kaka’ako. Here we host visitors daily with free samples of many of our chocolate bars.
In 2022 we moved our production facility into an abandoned art deco movie theater built in the 1930s. It is located only a few blocks from our retail store in Kakaʻako and has become an amazing resource for us to host visitors, tours, and house our ever growing collection of vintage chocolate making machines.
We still have a lot more we want to achieve, both with our own brands, as well as helping others in Hawaii to elevate the awareness of Hawaii chocolate.
