Hakalau Choco-letter August 2026: 6-bundle sale
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Hakalau Choco-letter
August 2026
Aloha Chocolate Lovers!
August has been a wild and stormy month... and hurricane season is still rolling a string of strong swirls across the Pacific. The impact of near-miss hurricane Lala was pretty rough on many farms. We didn't have too much damage other than some toppled trees and a lot of broken branches. But our off-grid systems kept us in power throughout, and we are still making beautiful batches of premium chocolate! Scroll down to see some of the props we put in place to save special trees; how we make our fresh cinnamon; and a sale on mixed-6-bar bundles.
Propping up trees that were knocked over - here are two of the smaller macadamia nut trees and their new support system.
Theobroma bicolor
This one is our lone "Jaguar cacao," grown for making a frothy drink from the beans or drying and eating them as crunchy snacks.
Macadamia Nut
This was our biggest loss, our best macadamia nut tree was broken by a falling peach palm - wah! We harvested hundreds of nuts, pruned it, and propped it - we'll see how it fares.
The up-side: an enormous pile of tree trunks and branches ready for chipping into nutritious mulch!
Cinnamon: from Tree to Powder
A few months ago we harvested cinnamon from our Ceylon cinnamon tree, and also planted a young Ceylon tree nearby. Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) is often called "true cinnamon," to distinguish it from Cassia cinnamon. Ceylon has a delectable sweet flavor and is loaded with beneficial healthful qualities.
Harvesting Cinnamon
Dan pruning a section off the Ceylon cinnamon tree so we can harvest the delicious inner bark.
Future Cinnamon!
Young Ceylon tree in the foreground, thank you Steven for the birthday gift!
Peeling inner bark
We scrape the outer grey bark off with its moss and lichen, then score it and peel, all with a small paring knife. We have to do it all the first day or the inner bark becomes too attached.
Creating strips to dry
This process results in strips ready for drying. (Also, stiff hands!!)
Drying Strips
You can see how the cinnamon naturally curls into the familiar rolled-tubes you buy as cinnamon sticks.
Finished Cinnamon
We pulverize the dried sticks into as fine a powder as we can. This powder gets swirled into liquid honey and then straight into your chocolate bars!
Cinnamon - 6 Bar Bundle
A farm favorite blending our own Ceylon cinnamon with honey-sweetened cacao for a warming, healthy, and uplifting treat.
$73.00
Sale - Assorted 6 Bar Bundle
Experience tree-to-bar chocolate made with just organic cacao and Big Island honey. This bundle includes six bars of your choosing, ranging from 1.9 to 2.2 ounces each.
$92.00 $84.64
Thanks everyone for your support.
We hope you are all thriving.
If you have any comments or questions, please send us a note via the "Contact Us" feature on our website.
Aloha,
Rachel and Dan
Instagram - @kulikefarm
https://www.kulikefarm.com/shop
Kulike Farm, PO Box 100036, Hakalau HI 96710
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