During one of our free afternoons while vacationing in Maui, Peter and I decided visit Maui Ku’ia Estate Cacao’s (MKEC) in Lāhainā where they were offering chocolate tastings (9 tastings for only $10!). We picked a few from their menu and took the little squares to their open rooftop to enjoy.

To appreciate MKEC’s selection of chocolates, it’s worth understanding the company’s backstory. CEO Gunars E. Valkirs began developing the farm with Dan O’Doherty in 2013. They started by planting cacao trees on the west side of Maui with windbreak and shade trees to protect the first ten acres. It took three years to fully develop. The second ten acres followed in 2017 and 2018. Unfortunately, Hurricane Lane and a Lahaina firestorm in August 2018 defoliated the entire cacao farm. After extensive pruning, the farm managed to harvest in 2019. The resulting small batch of chocolate was delicious. While MKEC is still committed to producing Maui-grown cacao, the farm’s growing capacity is limited to small batches. As MKEC continues to develop and expand, the company is importing unique cacao beans from an award-winning single-family estate in Ecuador and from the wild Amazon of Brazil to supplement its chocolate production. This is why MKEC offers a selection of chocolates made with not only Maui-grown cacao but also has chocolates made with cacao from South America.

The 9 chocolates we picked can be broken down into three overarching groups:

• Top row: Dark chocolates. The first made with cacao from Costa Esmeraldas, an award-winning single-family estate in Ecuador. The second made with cacao grown on MKEC’s farm. The last was made with cacao found in the Brazilian Amazon.
• Second row: Dark milk & milk chocolate. Again, the first made with cacao from Costa Esmeraldas, with the second made using Maui-grown cacao. The last was the only milk chocolate we sampled, flavored with Maui Mokka Cappuccino.
• Third row: Flavored dark chocolates. All of the flavored chocolates were made with cacao from Costa Esmeraldas. MKEC had a variety of flavors, but we decided to go with the most tropical ones (in our opinion). Calamansi is a citrus fruit also known as Philippine lime or Philippine lemon. It was a new fruit to us that we discovered shortly before while camping in the Ho’omaluhia Botanical Gardens on Oahu.
  • After tasting everything, we got a bonus tasting of their “POG” flavored chocolate. POG stands for passion, orange, guava and is a common mixed-juice flavor in Hawaii.

My favorite grouping was (not totally surprisingly) the dark chocolate. The first dark chocolate made with Costa Esmeraldas cacao had the most familiar flavor profile to me. The taste starts out slightly acidic and bitter, but as the chocolate melts, it gives way to mellower tones of caramel and toffee. Meanwhile, the Maui-grown dark chocolate had a much brighter flavor. It really seemed to channel the tropical flavors associated with Hawaii (bananas, pineapples, papaya, mangoes, etc.). Even though this wasn’t a flavored chocolate, I was getting hints of guava as it melted in my mouth. The last dark chocolate was not at all what I was expecting. I thought it’d be a return to the flavors of the first chocolate from Ecuador. It was so much fruitier and, in fact, tasted like blueberries! I was very much reminded of the chocolate covered blueberries and acai berries from Brookside. It was a very unique treat. Of the three, the one from Brazil was definitely the most interesting to me, whereas Maui-grown chocolate was a bit too tropical for my palate.

Given this, perhaps it’s not surprising that the flavored dark chocolates were my least favorite group. In general, I do not like adding fruit to chocolate much. (In the typical assortment boxes of chocolates, I always disliked the ones with raspberry filling.) The only fruit flavor I enjoy with chocolate is coconut, which usually comes in the form of a dry, textured mix-in rather than an essence that is just blended into the chocolate. All of the tropical fruit flavored chocolates from this tasting just distracted from the underlying cacao flavors. For me, I think I would prefer to eat the actual fruit – so fresh and juicy in Hawaii! – separate from the chocolate and fully appreciate the flavors of each on its own.

The dark milk and milk chocolates were quite good! Chocolate snobs typically turn away from anything besides the most unaltered dark chocolates. I guess I’m not a chocolate snob, because I’ve found that I actually enjoy the balance between the more complex flavors of a dark chocolate and the smooth texture that the bit of extra milk adds in dark milk chocolates. The Askinosie 62% Dark Milk Chocolate (made with goat’s milk) was the first labeled “dark milk” chocolate I’ve ever had, and it remains one of my favorite chocolates. Between the Ecuadorian and Maui dark milk chocolates, I still preferred the one from Ecuador. Again, it was closer to the more traditional chocolate flavor profile that I seem to prefer over the tropical taste in the Maui chocolate. I was most surprised by the milk chocolate in this group though. With the added Mokka cappuccino flavor, I really felt like I was eating a tiramisu in chocolate form. Unlike the tropical fruit flavored dark chocolates, this cappuccino addition melded very well with the underlying creamy milk chocolate. I could easily see this piece being a crowd pleaser. I know my sweet tooth was fully satisfied by this dessert chocolate.

Peter and I had a great experience with this chocolate tasting, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who ends up visiting Maui. I was really able to appreciate how the terroir can effect the flavors of cacao in chocolate – much like how it impacts the flavors of grapes turned into wine. While Maui-grown chocolate might not be my favorite, it was fun discover how different the tastes of cacao produced in separate parts of the world could be. I also fully respect everything that Gunars is doing at MKEC. While the farm has not yet turned a profit, he is committed to donating 100% of future net profits to non-profit initiatives. He is essentially investing a large amount of personal capital into a passion project that will ultimately will go towards funding philanthropic work. And he is doing it in a sustainable way that will benefit the land, the employees and the community. It is inspiring work to see. Check them out, support what they’re doing, and get some delicious chocolate! They also make for great holiday gifts.

https://mauichocolate.com/