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    Mauna Kea Cacao

    4.9 (17 reviews)
    Closed • 9:30 am - 11:30 AM, 12:30 pm - 2:30 PM

    Mauna Kea Cacao Photos

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    Ripe pod
    Marissa N.

    Lovely tour of a newer operation. You get to pick a pod, suck on a few different beans and sample the finished product. There's not much for sale, you'll need to go into Hilo to get the finished product. Light walking, a little buggy with a pretty view. There's a port a potty but the owner let our small party use the house bathroom.

    Cacao beans in the drying process.
    Jeff H.

    This is a must-do activity if you are on the big island!! We have been to many tours in our travels and the Mauna Kea farm tour is one of the best we have ever been on. Susan was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the process of growing and processing cacao. That enthusiasm translates in her tour and after spending an afternoon on the farm I not only got to taste some fantastic chocolate, but also learned a lot about what goes into the chocolate we love.

    How the pod is opened.
    James R.

    Susan, owner and tour guide led us on an educational, informative tour. Oh, how cacao is taken for granted. Very intimate setting. From seed to final product is awe inspiring. Tasting the cacao in it's rawest form, then walked through the entire process, in pure form, it's no wonder she has received world wide recognition. Should be a stop on every one's trip to Hilo, and the Big Island! Thank you so much for the memories, Susan.

    Homemade chocolate

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    2 years ago

    Great and informative tour by a friendly and knowledgeable host! My entire party of 13, ages 5 to 80, had a great time.

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    7 years ago

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    Ask the Community - Mauna Kea Cacao

    How much is a tour of the farm?

    $45 for adults, $20 for children aged 5 and older.

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    Review Highlights - Mauna Kea Cacao

    “Susan and Sarah were pleasant, informative, and devoted to answering all our questions about the world of Cacao...”

    Mentioned in 11 reviews

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    Honoka'a Chocolate - How big the almost fully grown cocoa pod is

    Honoka'a Chocolate

    4.8(76 reviews)
    28.3 mi

    I highly recommend this as one of the best chocolate tours!…read moreWe took the two hour tour with our family - it was a nice small group of six in total. Mike was not only an expert in all things chocolate, but he is easy to understand, he takes time to teach you and answer any questions and he has a great personality! It was pouring down rain the day we went, yet the tour was still a great success. We started out at the farm and then concluded down at the shop. You get to taste fresh cacao, nibs, cacao tea and kakao brew - of course at the shop are the full chocolate bars. Mike clearly loves what he does and enjoys sharing that love with his customers. The only down side is that after listening to Mike you will be ruined forever on eating any other general retail chocolate. So long Hershey and friends!

    (This one is about the farm tour)…read more There are three ways to experience the offerings from Honoka'a. You can buy direct from their website, stop by their retail store or go all in and do the farm tour. While I very much am not a chocolate person, and no, this tour wasn't going to change that, I am a tour person who is far more interested in how things are made/done than the actual finished product. If you're going to do the tour, head to the below link and chose a date/time/number of people. honokaachocolate.com/pages/farm-tours It's worth mentioning that yes, the price is $95 per person which to me is on the high side. We did several other food-based tours during our time on the Big Island and that number is a... big number. The front half of the tour is at the owner's house where the orchard and tasting area are located. It's not hard to find and the provided directions are perfect. You get to see the trees up close and there is a lot of great information shared by Mike about every step of the process including answering whatever questions there are about anything you see along with several tasting samples. After this wraps up, you make a short drive to the retail store in downtown for a brief look at the production equipment and a few more samples before you're cut loose to buy stuff from the store. As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not a chocolate person and nothing I sampled is going to change that. I did appreciate one of the samples more than I thought I would (Barrel Aged Bourbon Bar) but the rest were just meh, and the Cacao Tea was...not something I ever want to have again. But that's just me. I bought several bars for gifts and to the best of my knowledge all were inhaled and appreciated. Overall, I appreciate the information provided on this tour and getting down into the nitty-gritty of the germination-fermentation-weather-growing process/cycles-harvesting/drying-etc. Very Alton Brown with going all of the way down to a very molecular level of detail. If you're into chocolate as most people are and if you like to understand where the things you eat come from, this is a good one.

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    Honoka'a Chocolate
    Honoka'a Chocolate
    Honoka'a Chocolate

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    OK Farms

    OK Farms

    4.4(9 reviews)
    8.0 mi

    The best family!!! OK Farm Tour is more than it sounds…read more We started at the farm store with coffee tasting, a bathroom stop, and signing waivers. Then we jumped in a big van and not only learned about the farm but had two waterfall stops that were the highlight of the trip. It could really have been called a waterfall farm tour. There were two pavilions overlooking two different waterfalls (Rainbow Falls and I think Waiau Stream) both from the private property side so you normally wouldn't get this view. They had bug spray but plan for mosquitoes by the waterfall lookout, cause you know...lots of water = a few mosquitoes haha. We got to taste the best Starfruit, Longan (my favorite and the perfect depth of flavor that I grew up with on the Big Island...no other longan can beat it), raw Mac nuts and 70% chocolate nibs!! We had the best snacks. Also tasted oranges, got to sniff a curry leaf, and see the fresh cloves and mace on spice row. Our tour guide Kent was awesome, maximized our time at the waterfalls, and took some cool group photos. I only thing that would have made it better would have been to pick fruit to take home. I need to come back when the other fruits like lychee are in season but honestly longan is my fav. I've been buying OK Farms fruit from Safeway and love it but nothing like eating fresh at the farm. Also picked up those chocolate nibs at the store, longan to go, Ola moisturizer, shortbread cookies, starfruit, and a few more fabulous things.

    The OK Farm tour is a great way to learn about post sugarcane agriculture in Hawaii. Cassie was…read moreour tour guide and was very informative of the OK Farm history teaching us about all the crops growing on the farm. The in season fruit and macnuts were a nice treat as we overlooked the best view of Rainbow Falls!

    Photos
    OK Farms
    OK Farms - Rainbow falls

    Rainbow falls

    OK Farms - Rainbow Fall was one of the stops

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    Rainbow Fall was one of the stops

    Pali Nana Farms - Pali Nana hayride

    Pali Nana Farms

    4.5(13 reviews)
    9.7 mi

    Highly recommend! We went horseback riding on on first day and we were the only ones on the tour…read morefor the time slot we selected so it felt very private and nice! One most favorite part of our tour was having the chance to pet and hold the baby piglets, which were just born a few days before we arrived - such a rare precious experience that we will absolutely never forget! The drive up to the farm was also beautiful! The horse trails had magnificent views through the eucalyptus forest and of the ocean. We saw black bamboo, wild bamboo orchids and a lot of tree fruits growing. In the trail, there was fresh guava so we had a chance to sample them, which is great since they are not available in grocery stores. The tour also had fresh, wood-fire pizza for lunch - super yummy! The only thing I may have liked to see is a live demo of the chocolate tour rather than just a verbal explanation of how the process works - we are definitely more a visualist and would've liked a more hands on experience with how to make chocolate.

    Unfortunately we did not have a great experience despite great reviews. Not only was the tour guide…read morerunning over an hour late, (we understand things happen) but our "chocolate tour" was a 15 minute discussion with no actual demonstration or sampling by a young gentleman who while very nice, had a strong odor. The barn was quite messy, dirty, (we understand it's a barn) but it was very different compared to other reviewers pictures. There were two men working in a 4 wheeler loudly while we all stood around and waited an hour for our guide. The actual horseback riding was pleasant and nice, it was quite rocky for the horses but beautiful. We had pizza after that was very good, however the tables we ate at were quite dirty, watching him prep with no gloves was also quite surprisingly and we weren't offered any drinks except for the bottle of water we had during the horse back ride. We were informed that they are selling the company and transferring owners so I imagine it has gone downhill BUT they should not be accepting new reservations in the mean time. Especially for the price, comparatively the price is more expensive due to the pizza and chocolate but it is not worth it. Until they fix their environment and seem more organized I would recommend going somewhere else. I reached out to the email twice and have yet to hear back...

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    Pali Nana Farms - Pali Nana guides are the absolute best!

    Pali Nana guides are the absolute best!

    Pali Nana Farms - Ocean view rides

    Ocean view rides

    Pali Nana Farms

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    Mauna Kea Cacao - attractionfarms - Updated October 2026

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