Cacao Farm Tour on Hawaii’s Big Island

Have you ever wondered where chocolate comes from? We toured a cacao farm during our vacation to Hawaii to find out the answer! This was one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable activities we did on this trip, and it has a solid standing as one of my Top 3 activities. Let me take you with us and show you what it’s like to take a cacao farm tour on Hawaii’s Big Island.

Originally, we hadn’t even considered taking a tour on a cacao farm. It wasn’t until we were on the island planning out our route for the next day that the location for Mauna Kea Cacao Farm popped up on Google Maps and we spontaneously booked a tour. But even with a tour booked, we almost missed out on this opportunity (I’ll take full blame for that).

When we started driving up to the farm on the day of the tour, we were already running late — I am notorious for this. Then the backroad we were on was abruptly closed off because the bridge was out. The new route set us back an extra 20 minutes, putting us at 30 minutes behind our tour time. The tour was only an hour long to begin with, so we almost gave up and went back to the Airbnb. BUT Ethan was persistent in getting us there just in case we were still able to join.

I accidentally directed Ethan to take a wrong turn and we ended up off-roading in our rental car through the backfields of a farm. By the time we finally made it back to a drivable road, we were feeling pretty discouraged.

Then we got a phone call from Susan, one of the owners of Mauna Kea Cacao Farm, asking where we were. In an odd twist of luck, the other half of our tour group also was running late and got turned around, so we ended up arriving before them! We were able to enjoy the full tour and it was worth every wrong turn and bump in the road.

The cacao farm tour walked us through the entire process of cacao harvesting and prepping.

Step One: Harvest the pod

We started the tour by walking out to the cacao trees and learning how to identify a ripe pod. The ripe pods are bright red or orange in color. Ethan and I each took our turn cutting our very own pods from the tree.

Step Two: Crack the pod

We brought our pods back to the house where we used a nifty contraption to break open our pods. Inside the cacao pod were a bunch of small fruits surrounding the cacao bean. Each pod has a slightly different tasting fruit, so we all shared to see the differences. I personally thought the pulp of the fruit tasted like a green apple Jolly Rancher, which took me by surprise. However, the raw cacao bean was very bitter when you bite into it.

Step Three: Ferment the seeds

Susan explained how the beans need to be fermented in order to bring out the chocolate flavor we are familiar with. This process usually takes about a week, maybe a couple days more. The beans start a purplish color and turn reddish when they are done fermenting.

Step 4: Dry the beans

The beans have to dry out in the sun, which can be tricky when you live on the rainy side of the island. So Susan and her husband John, being the engineers they are, created an easy way to store the beans if it started to rain. They can just lift the end of the table and all the beans fall into the whiteish contain at the back of the table where they stay protected from the rain.

Step 5: Roast & grind the beans

Lastly, the beans are roasted, peeled and ground until they are the familiar smooth chocolate we know. Susan had a variety of chocolate brands for us to try, all made from their cacao beans. She even had a homemade batch ready that they made 100% from their cacao beans. All of them were absolutely delicious.

If you have the opportunity to take a cacao farm tour on Hawaii’s Big Island, I’d highly recommend stopping at Mauna Kea Cacao. Susan and John were delightful and very passionate about what they do. I loved the opportunity to learn something new about a different region and have a whole new appreciation about where my chocolate comes from.