Big Island: Hilo Craft Chocolate Farm Tour & Tasting Room

★★★★★★★★★★ 5.00 (110 reviews) 100% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/25

Duration3h 30m

GroupUp to 25

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Walk cacao orchards in Hilo taste Hawaii chocolate learn from locals

You’ll walk through living cacao orchards near Hilo with local guides who know every tree’s story. Taste fresh cacao pulp right off the branch, then sample over ten craft chocolates in a breezy tasting room overlooking green valleys and distant ocean. Expect real conversations, plenty of laughs, and sensory surprises you’ll remember long after leaving Hawaii.

3h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Chocolate tasting and farm tour

Drive scenic back roads to farm
Arrive at Honolii Orchards tasting room
Enjoy ocean and valley views
Learn Hamakua Coast agricultural history
Tour cacao orchards with guide
Discover cacao farming and fermentation
Explore chocolate history and craft movement
Taste diverse craft chocolates from Hawaii
Experience single-origin chocolate flavors

The Experience

I didn’t expect to get mud on my shoes before noon, but here we were, five minutes outside Hilo, crunching up Puia Road through old sugarcane land. The air smelled like wet grass and something sweet I couldn’t place — maybe the cacao trees? Our guide, Keahi, waved us over under a giant ulu tree and started talking about how this land used to be all macadamia groves and cattle. He handed me a cracked-open cacao pod. The inside was sticky and bright — not what I pictured at all. I caught myself grinning like a kid.

We wandered the Honolii Orchards rows for a while, stopping whenever someone had a question (which was often). Keahi answered everything — even the weird ones about fermentation smells or why some pods looked sunburned. There was this moment when he sliced open a pod and let us taste the pulp right there in the shade; it was tart and floral, nothing like chocolate yet. I tried to say “cacao” in Hawaiian, totally butchered it, and Keahi just laughed and said it’s tricky for everyone. The sky kept shifting between drizzle and sun — classic Big Island mood swings.

Back in the tasting room above the valley, we finally sat down for what they called the “10+ bar chocolate tasting.” It felt more like a conversation than a class; everyone tossing out flavors they thought they tasted (I swear one bar tasted like banana bread but nobody agreed). Sipping coffee between bites, you could see the ocean way out past the orchard. It’s funny — I came for chocolate but left thinking more about how much care goes into every step here. Still think about that view sometimes when I eat store-bought chocolate now.

What’s included

Your day at Honolii Orchards includes walking tours of working cacao orchards with expert guides, an immersive tasting of over ten Hawaiian craft chocolates in their scenic tasting room above Hilo’s valleys, plus bottled water and your choice of coffee or tea along the way.

Good to know

Pets welcome

Operated by Honolii Orchards