Lyla D.
Yelp
We stopped in to Lonohana Estate Chocolate's new retail shop located at SALT at Our Kaka'ako during SALT's Bar Crawl. As luck would have it, they were having a Grand Opening special and participated in the festivities of the Bar Crawl by having chocolate tastings and a Bingo-like prize drawing.
I will admit, as a chocoholic, I was drawn in to this smallish space to taste and learn about Lonohana Estate. Lonohana Estate Chocolate is locally grown on the island of O'ahu where they grow cacao, harvest, ferment and dry the beans before turning them into luxurious chocolate bars and other chocolate products. This company is a joint-venture between childhood friends that was started in 2008 and has continually grown to include its own chocolate factory and now its first retail store.
During Lonohana Estate Chocolate's Grand Opening, we were able to experience a few of its proprietary chocolate drinks, in-house made cookies and a wide selection of handcrafted milk and dark chocolate bars. The drink menu includes Chocolate Thai Iced Tea, The Koko-Colada and a very special hot chocolate. There were about 8 dark and milk chocolate bars with varying flavor ingredients. One thing for sure, when you sample their chocolate, the aroma, snap or break and melt of each chocolate will convince your taste buds of its fine quality.
We purchased some cookies and a bar of Providencia Dark Milk Chocolate which we'll be eating soon. On the way out, I played their prize drawing and won a container of their Cacao Salt (I chose their Ginger Cacao Salt). I look forward to using that Cacao Salt in a baking project.
Oh, in addition to purchasing these fine chocolate bars at this retail store, you can purchase them online or join the Lonohana Chocolate Club. The Chocolate Club also includes Limited Edition bars (incorporates Hawaii-grown inclusions such as cocoa nibs, fruits, salts, spices and nuts) to the pure chocolate bars.
Come on in and support this LOCAL chocolate business with Worldwide acclaim.