Chocolate and Cacao Farm Tours on the Big Island

Hawaii is one of the only places in the United States where cacao grows commercially, and the Big Island has the highest concentration of farms. That means you can visit the orchard where your chocolate was grown, watch it being processed, and taste the finished product within a few miles of each other.

Tours range from quick one-hour tastings to full farm-to-bar experiences with the farmers themselves. Most are on the Hamakua coast or in South Kona, and several have won national and international awards for the chocolate they produce.

Big Island chocolate farm tours: map and price comparison

All tours on this page are plotted below by location, with price and duration listed for quick comparison. Use the map to find farms near where you’re staying before reading the full descriptions below.

Tours near Hilo / the Hamakua coast

The windward side of the island gets over 100 inches of rain a year along this stretch, which is why the corridor from Papaikōu north through Honokaʻa has the highest concentration of cacao farms on the Big Island. When the sugarcane industry collapsed here in the 1990s, some farmers transitioned to cacao as a viable alternative.

Most operations here are small-scale, certified organic or working toward it, and tours often mean meeting the person who actually tends the land. Hilo is a convenient base for nearly all of them.

Honokaʻa Chocolate Co. (Honokaʻa)

Honokaʻa Chocolate Co. runs their VIP tour from the farm on Old Mamalahoa Highway, about five minutes outside Honokaa. Founder Mike Pollard leads each session himself: a cacao orchard walk, fresh pod tasting when available, and a 45-minute structured tasting of nine award-winning single-origin chocolates. The tour covers the full process from tree to bar, including the science behind fermentation and flavor development.

Groups are capped at 12 and tend to fill at least a week out, so book ahead through their online calendar. Children under 10 are welcome, though the retail store and production facility in Honokaʻa town is a more practical option for families with very young kids. The tour runs rain or shine.

A Cacao farm tour at the Honokaʻa Chocolate Co. Next to a tour of the cacao orchard you also get to taste a variety of their own chocolate and other local products. Image credit: Sarah Anderson Photography.

Mānoa Chocolate at Honoliʻi Orchards (Hilo)

(13 minutes North of Hilo) Experience the most in-depth cacao tours on the island at the Honoliʻi Orchards. This 3.5 hour long tour is held 3 times a week and only available to adults and kids of age 9 and up.

The tour includes a visit to the orchards, a deep-dive into the fascinating science of cacao post processing (fermentation!), and a long visit to the tasting room that includes a discussion on the origins of chocolate, the key differences between craft chocolate and mass-produced commodity chocolate, and tasting of 10 single-origin craft chocolate bars, all sourced from various farms across the Hawaiian Archipelago. This tasting is our favorite, as it allows you to experience the diversity of flavors that Hawaiian cacao offers, and lets you try to taste for yourself how genetics, soil, and climate combine to create distinct flavor profiles.

In addition to the chocolate tasting, you’ll also get to try fresh cacao juice, roasted cacao beans, chocolate-covered macadamias, cacao tea, and other seasonal fruits and farm-fresh treats.

Bookings and more information can be found on the booking website.

In the orchards, you’ll explore the journey of the cacao tree—from cultivation to harvest—and discover how its precious fruits are transformed into the beloved treat we know as chocolate. Curiosity is encouraged, so feel free to ask any questions you may have! Image: Honoliʻi Orchards

Mauna Kea Cacao

(Near Pepeekeo, 10 minutes north of Hilo):  Offers 90-minute farm tours most Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm for $50 per adult and $25 per child.

During the tour you will: see a working cacao farm with 1,800 cacao trees; Learn how award-winning cacao is grown, harvested, fermented and dried; Open a cacao pod and taste fresh cacao; See do-it-yourself chocolate making equipment; and Compare chocolates made from their single-estate cacao by award-winning bean-to-bar chocolate makers to their home-made chocolate.

More information on their website.

Hilo Sharks Cacao farm

(in Papaikou, 10 minutes north of Hilo): offers personal walking tours of their farm where they plant cacao seedlings and from which they harvest and process cacao pods every month. Learn how they grow, harvest and process the cacao into chocolate, and enjoy free samples of our various chocolate products and 100% Hawaiian coffee.

The tour lasts about 3 hours and reservations are necessary. Costs are $75 for adults and kids 10+. Children of ages 3-9 are charged at $40. More information on their website.

Lavaloha / Mahilani estates cacao farm tour

(10 minutes west of Hilo) Lavaloha grows cacao on 24 acres of a working 1,000-acre farm outside Hilo. Their 1-hour tree-to-chocolate tour runs in small groups of 8 to 10 people via electric bus, covering the orchard, the processing area, and a tasting of seven chocolate varieties including the rare Criollo.

One stop in the orchard has the guide cracking open a cacao pod so you can taste the fresh pulp. It’s citrusy and tropical, nothing like finished chocolate, which surprises most visitors.

Tours at Lavaloha stop in the orchard to examine the pods up close. The farm grows three varieties, including the rare Criollo.

Ua Hānai Orchards (formerly known as Hawaiian Crown) farm + factory tour

Recently rebranded as Ua Hānai, this orchard is one of the older cacao farms on the Big Island with over 35 years of operation. Their 110 acre farm is home to 1,200+ cacao trees and is located just north of Hilo (2.5 miles) with spectacular views of Hilo Bay. At the farm tour you learn about cacao’s life cycle, harvest, fermentation, drying, and flavor creation. Tours end at their factory / shop in downtown Hilo where you can see how the cacao is made into delicious chocolate.

Tours run several days / week, more information on their booking page.

Hamakua chocolate farm tour

(8 minutes north of Hilo) The Hamakua Chocolate Farm is located in Papaikou- a small village just above Hilo on the tropical Hamakua coast.

During a 3 hour guided tour you get to see their farm, gardens and cacao processing facility, and enjoy a chocolate tasting experience.  The tour includes tasting the fruit of the cacao pod, an explanation about cacao growing, harvesting, fermentation, and drying, and the entire chocolate making process from tree to finished chocolate bar.
Tours are $99/person, last 3 hours, and are organized twice a week. Bookings and more information on their booking website.

The 3 hour Hamakua Chocolate Farm tour takes you through their farm, gardens and cacao processing facilities. Image credit: the Hamakua Chocolate Farm.

Kulike Organic Cacao Farm Tour & Tasting

(near Hakalau, 20 minutes north of Hilo): Offers 1.5-hour farm tours twice a week  1 pm. This is an off-grid, organic permaculture farm with approximately 400 cacao trees and many other tropical fruits grown in several permaculture styles including mixed and conventional orchard, food forest, and hugelculture. You can add on a visit to their beautiful waterfall and even collect eggs from their Korean Natural Farming chicken coop. At the farm tour you 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. In-season fruits from the farm are sampled with chocolate.

Tours will be personalized based on interest and are $40/pp – but a minimum of 2 bookings are needed for a tour. Note that they are off the beaten path, 10 minutes up a winding, narrow paved road with some 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.

More information on their website.

Chocolate Tours in the Puna District

Puna runs southeast of Hilo along the lower East Rift Zone of Kīlauea. It shares the windward island’s wet, volcanic climate, which suits cacao well, but the farming community here is smaller and less developed than the Hilo/Hamakua corridor. Pāhoa is the main town and closest hub.

There’s currently one cacao tour operating in the district: Puna Gold Estate in Leilani Estates.

Puna Gold Estate

Located in Lelani Estates near the town of Pāhoa, the Puna Gold Estate farm organizes 1-hour tour of their 3-acre coffee & cacao estate, followed by a complementary chocolate tasting of their homegrown and made chocolate.

Tours are priced at $35/adult or $50 if you want to include a tasting. You can find out more about the farm tour and make your booking on the Puna Gold Estate website.

A visit to the on-grounds waterfall is included in the tour.

Tours in South Kona

South Kona is coffee country, and that shapes the chocolate tours here: several farms grow cacao alongside their coffee trees, using the natural canopy for shade. The leeward side is drier and sunnier than the windward coast, which produces different growing conditions and a different flavor profile in the finished chocolate. The tour options here are fewer, but here is where you’re likely to taste both crops on the same farm.

Original Hawaiian Chocolate Farm (Keauhou)

Bob Cooper and his wife run this small family operation on their working cacao plantation in Keauhou. The tour moves through the full bean-to-bar process in sequence: you walk the orchard, cut open a fresh pod to examine the seeds, then follow the beans through drying, roasting, and processing before watching the hand-molding in the on-site factory. Tasting covers three varieties: milk, dark, and criollo. The criollo is the one to pay attention to: it’s a rarer cacao type that produces a noticeably less bitter chocolate than the variety most commercial brands use.

Tours run Wednesdays and Fridays at 9am and 11am. Advance reservations are required, and directions to the farm are provided only after your booking is confirmed. The walking paths are shaded and include chairs at stops, so it’s manageable if mobility is a concern. The on-site shop is open Tuesday through Friday, 10am–3pm, if you want to buy chocolate without the tour.

Admission is $30 for adults (13+), $12 for children ages 6–12, and free for children 5 and under. More information and booking information on the booking website.

Kuaiwi Farm

While better known for their Kona Coffee farm tours, they also grow cacao on their certified organic farm. You can join them for a chocolate candy making class, combined with a farm tour and tasting. Classes include unlimited chocolate tasting and a goodie bag. Reservations are mandatory at least three days in advance.

See their website for details.

Where can you buy Hawaiian Chocolate?

There are several producers on the Big Island that make chocolate from locally produced cacao and sell it. You can find this chocolate at local farmers markets, in any of the “Island Naturals” food stores, in most other convenience shops and even in the local boutiques in the island resorts.

You can also order it online and/or ship it home through the websites of many chocolate producers mentioned on this page, see for example the websites of Honokaʻa Chocolate Co, Hakalau Chocolate, or the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Farm.

A gecko tastes cacao beans on a cacao farm on Hawaii’s Big Island. Photo credits: Jay Jones / For the LA Times

Bonus: Vanilla Farm Tour and Tasting

Because chocolate and vanilla go so well together we’d like to point out that you can also take a tour of a local vanilla farm!

Vanilla production is fascinating. The beans are the fruits of an orchid that only blooms for one day only, during which the flower must very carefully be hand pollinated. There is much more to learn about vanilla farming, and the Hawaiian Vanilla Co. organizes farm tours that can also include a lunch during which you can taste foods and drinks that include their vanilla.

The Hawaiian Vanilla Co is located close to Honokaʻa on the northern Hamakua coast, you can find more vanilla farm tours on our BIG overview list of Big Island farm tours.