Do experience the tasting. The chocolate is dark with flavours enhanced with coconut milk, almond,…read moreand more. Very unique blend of chocolate. Locally grown and processed. We loved the cocoa, sent some home!

Experienced the VIP cacao tasting tour and enjoyed every last second of it! Mike was an amazing…read moretour guide. He built his cacao farm from the bottom up and it was amazing to witness his progress ever since 2017. He walked us through the seed germination process, the growing process, the fermentation process and everything before, in between and after that.. from seed all the way to chocolate bar. This tour is meant to expand your knowledge and change your perspective on how you think about, taste, and experience chocolate. At the end of the farm tour, you drive down to the gift shop (about a 3 min drive from the farm) to make any potential purchases as well as taste even more chocolate! What an amazing and unique experience in Honaka'a and 100% recommend adding this tour to your Big Island itinerary. P.S. my favorite chocolate bar is the barrel aged bourbon bar!! Notes of dark cherry with a bourbon finish :)

We loved our visit to Lavaloha! It was great for kids--interesting, and not too long or too short…read more Plus, there's the chocolate tasting, and you get to support a small business, which is wonderful. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone visiting the Big Island

The guide was very informative, friendly and did a good job explaining how chocolate is brought to…read moreits finished form. We saw the trees and the areas where they dry the beans. The chocolate samples were pitifully small. No one in my party of 3 felt this was a good value. For the price of tour, they should give out one small bar (valued at $8). Prices in store are very high ($8 for a thin 3" square and $15 for a bar the size of a full graham cracker sheet).

Very friendly, video they showed us was so informative explaining the entire growth harvest and…read morefinal delicious products Staff greeting us couldn't have been sweeter, just like their chocolates

We had a great tour with Bob, the owner. It was interesting to hear the process from pod to…read morefinished product. The tour is less than an hour which I imagine is to give you time to purchase.

What a gem. I happen to see it while having coffee across the way at Hico coffee. So glad I stopped…read morein for dark chocolate and stickers. Love the aloha vibes and interior. I'll stop there tomorrow for coffee!

Stopped in after a long day of running errands and could not wait to have a cold drink. Ordered the…read moreube latte latte with coconut milk. The coconut milk was so smooth and espresso was perfect amount marrying with the ube. Would definitely return. In addition to their drinks, we got a molasses dark chocolate bar which was delicious and perfect with our drinks. The shop had a lot of nice merch. I also bought a nice Puna chocolate shirt; so adorable. Great spot for cool refreshing drinks.

I'm really glad I checked, the day I had planned to visit the shop downtown, what time they closed,…read moreand I'm glad I checked at 2:45, since the answer is: 3. I'm also glad I happened to be a couple blocks away at that time, cause it would've stunk if I'd missed out! They have a whole range of great chocolates, from 55-90 percent that were all great, a fantastic matcha chocolate, great dried fruit chocolates, and one very good, *very* spicy dark chocolate (I loved it enough to buy a bar, but much more so than most pepper chocolates I've had, it does *not* play around.) Definitely also loved that they had samples of basically everything they sell. Also loved, we learned, it was actually the chocolatier himself running the shop when we were there, so all our questions were being answered directly from the source. It also worked out in that they didn't actually *have* any bars of the spicy chocolate out, as he'd just made a new batch and hadn't packaged them yet, so when he learned we were leaving the next day, he pressed one for me right then and there! How's that for great service?

So glad we stumbled upon this little gem during our travels! The owners were so friendly and all…read morethe samples were delicious. Since it was hot and we were traveling by car, we opted for the cacao nibs and THEY ARE INCREDIBLE. We had them on ice cream paired with molten lava cake and I'm still thinking (drooling) about it. Lots of options for gifts and the staff will make great recommendations.

Just wow! What an amazing experience! This review is about…read moretwo different trips to Hawaiian Vanilla Company. Our first trip was in May 2026. We went for lunch and tour. Absolutely incredible mean. Loved every bite. The shrimp crostini, salad, chicken sandwich and southwest potatoes were all delicious. However, that Jimmy Boy drink is in my dreams! So yummy! After the meal we toured the vanilla farm and learned about growing the orchids along with hand pollination. Then headed back to the guest house for ice cream and coffee. Every one was so nice and welcoming on this tasty and educational visit. Fast forward to September 2026, we wanted to go to tea but a hurricane was predicted. Since getting up the mountain could be difficult in storms, HVC closed. The storm did not hit as hard so we called to go to the gift shop. Not only did they open the gidt shop but we had a private tea! We arrived to a beautifully set table with a fireplace lit and local music playing. We started with a Jimmy Boy! My favorite!! We each had a pot of tea. Both were delicious, I bought both blends to bring home. We were served soup and salad, two chicken sliders, savory puff pastries and three small desserts. All were focused on vanilla. Again, the staff went aboce and beyond to make this event incredible. It was such a special experience. I can not wait to return in February 2027. Hawaiian Vanilla Company will be a stop on every trip to Big Island. Adore the people and my belly appreciates the deliciousness.

Great location, staff, products. They had food, drinks and were starting a tour when we stumbled…read moreupon them after missing a sign looking for a hike. So glad to take vanilla home! Clean restrooms, easy parking.

If you came to West Maui, and didn't go chocolate tasting at Ku'ia, did you really visit Maui?…read more I mean, I had an amazing time on my vacation in Ka'anapali - but this was the absolute foodie highlight, better than any restaurant and a lot more reasonable! We skipped the pricey farm tour (we did coffee farm tours last year and are farmed out) and went straight to the chocolate café. They will give you a five piece tasting for free, either a dark, milk, or sugar-free flight. But why would you come here and just take... When you can also give back to folks in Lahaina rebuilding? So we got two free flights, one milk and one dark. My sweetie added on a drink, a pastry, and some very tasty chocolate and salted caramel gelato. I went with a make your own alcohol pairing, which was so much fun and very reasonable. For about $17, I got a shot of coconut rum with two chocolate pairings and a shot of premium Martiniquan JM volcanic rhum Agricole with another two chocolate pairings. And then I still had my free five pieces. What an amazing taste adventure, for cheaper than the price of a cocktail at a hotel bar or even a locally owned foodie place? I don't want to mess up your tasting - so you pick your favorites! But I normally don't like rhum agricole - and the pairings were such an amazing flavor adventure. Honestly, this is my number one recommendation in West Maui. Give the folks some business and have an amazing time! Oh, and they have jazz on Sunday nights' but I'm sure it's more crowded than than popping in during the day on a weekday. And also: the second floor tasting room has panoramic views of the ocean and around Lahaina. Check them out!

We booked the Maui Kuʻia Estate Chocolate farm tour and tasting as a family activity; me, my wife,…read moreand our two boys and I honestly enjoyed this WAY more than I expected to. It starts at their building in Lahaina, which has a little café/coffee shop, plenty of chocolate for sale, and a rooftop experience that looked interesting but we didn't get to try. By the time we finished the tour, the kids had reached the "we have successfully experienced enough things today" portion of the vacation. Fair enough. From there, you take a fun little ride out to the cacao farm, and that's where this became much more than "let's go eat some chocolate." Our guide, Andrew (I'm about 95% sure I'm remembering his name correctly!), was fantastic. He seemed genuinely interested in cacao, the process, the company, and what they are doing there. That makes such a difference. He talked about how cacao is grown and processed, the history behind Kuʻia, and a little about founder Dr. Gunars Valkirs and his rather fascinating path to chocolate. Then, of course, there was the tasting. Lots and lots of little squares of chocolate. This is educational work I was willing to undertake. Unfortunately, I can't tell you which particular varieties were my favorites because apparently I was too busy eating them to take adequate scientific notes. What I can tell you is that there really wasn't one I disliked. What surprised me most was how much flavor there could be in chocolate that wasn't buried under a mountain of sugar. The differences and complexity of the cacao actually came through, and it made me think about chocolate completely differently. The chocolate sample they gave us back at the counter was also fantastic, as was the coffee drink we ordered. My only regret is that we didn't buy more chocolate before leaving. Be warned, though: apparently this tour has side effects. I went in expecting a fun Maui family activity where we'd learn a few things and eat some chocolate. I left wondering about cacao varieties, fermentation, processing, climate, chemistry and several other questions that absolutely nobody in my family asked me to investigate. It's been a few weeks and I'm still going down the rabbit hole. Five stars. Great guide, fascinating process, excellent chocolate, fun for the family, and potentially hazardous to anyone predisposed to acquiring new interests while on vacation.

Puna Chocolate Company is one of my favorite local chocolate artisan shops, conveniently located in…read moreDowntown Hilo. Since my time away, they have beautifully renovated the interior to have a sit-down booth area. I love the abundance of nene decor honoring our state bird, along with high quality chocolates made in Hawaii. The store clerk was very knowledgeable and described how each cultivars of chocolate differ in their taste profiles. We had the horchata 50% milk chocolate bar, and I don't have a picture because we devoured it in one sitting! Overall, Puna Chocolate Co. is an elegant, delightful, and elevated experience that rivals big names like Big Island Candies and Dandelion Chocolates in San Francisco. Highly recommend in stopping by!

Apparently I was wrong about the service! Lol. The owner angrily ranted at me about how there…read morewasn't any AI in his shop, despite the fact that when I visited, nearly every single poster on the walls advertising events either utilized AI generated art or was wholly generated by it. You'd think that as the owner of a small business, he'd want to support the many local artists to create promotional material and consider customer comments with some grace and humility, but I suppose this isn't that kind of place. Genuinely embarrassing for the owner and the company he's representing.

When I'm in Hilo, I always love visiting Big Island candies. It's always fun seeing the factory…read moreprocess and seeing the cookies dipped, but what I enjoy most is the complimentary samples. This place is a piece of heaven. Those cookies, brownies and rocky road are things I dream of. I do prefer dark chocolate over milk, but milk chocolate stuff is really yummy too. Who am I kidding if only milk chocolate dipped cookies in front of me I'd totally take them. The packaging is also beautiful, but if you just want cookies for you or to make goodie bags save a little money and get the bagged cookies vs boxed ones. And if you have any product questions, make sure to ask the friendly staff.

Bigger of an operation now compared to back when I was growing up in Hilo. But they have always…read morekept the fact that you can walk in and see the workers hand dipping cookies and whatnot. They've not changed much besides having newer items here and there. They've classic chocolate dipped shortbread cookies are always a winner. Best part about visiting is that you get samples of their products if you just ask kindly! The staff are always so friendly and helpful. I wish they would bring back the Peanut Butter Crunch Bars!