Organic Cacao Farm Tour & Tasting

Service Description

Visit our off-grid, organic permaculture farm with ~500 cacao trees and many other tropical fruits grown in several permaculture styles including mixed and conventional orchard, food forest, and hugelkultur. Kulike Farm is located 20 minutes north of Hilo up a winding, beautiful country road. At the farm tour you will learn all about growing cacao organically – from regenerating the soil, life of the tree and harvesting, fermentation and drying, to processing into two-ingredient chocolate. Hakalau Chocolate is unique among chocolate-makers in that we use only honey for a sweetener, so our chocolate is 100% local, no imported ingredients. We use only locally grown fruits and spices for flavors, including our own cinnamon, Hawaii hot chili pepper, and macadamia nuts. You will get to sample all of these chocolate flavors and more, along with cacao-hull-spice tea and cacao nectar, dried apple bananas, and crack-your-own macadamia nuts. We have a minimum of $80 per tour (i.e. at least two people at $40 each). If you would like a private tour, or a tour at a different time, just contact us and we can work it out, arrange for payment, and cater the tour exactly to your interests. Directions will be emailed once you have registered; plz let us know which direction you will be driving from. Note that we are off the beaten path, 10 minutes up a winding, narrow paved road with areas of limited visibility. It is a beautiful drive but you should be comfortable with pulling onto the grass as you drive uphill to let cars coming down the hill pass. Children under 3 are free. The tour is long for a toddler, but they always seem to enjoy it! ADD WATERFALL/FARM TOUR: To add on visiting more of the farm, including our waterfall in a bamboo grove, Korean Natural Farming chicken coop (can collect eggs), feeding tortoises, and seeing (possibly sampling) fruit trees throughout the farm, the cost would be ~$45 per group so just let us know and you can add that payment on once you are here. Tour is rain or shine, and it rains here a lot so just in case, please bring rain gear; we also do have umbrellas. Please wear walking shoes as we will be walking up a small hill, which can be slippery. You may also wish to bring a hat, sunscreen, and mosquito repellant. If you are staying at our Airbnb (Forest Hale), tour rate is reduced to $45 for whole group. Extra purchases: To buy chocolates and other farm foods, we take cash, Venmo, Paypal, checks, and credit cards.