We had the opportunity to experience an upcountry outing to learn about a favorite food item – Chocolate! Ann showed us cacao from beginning to finished product. All you might want to learn & more. The walkabout was beautiful with bi-coastal views of Maui and finished off with tasting a wide variety of chocolates and special chocolate drink mix. Do yourself a favor take a drive upcountry for a wonderful outing! Ann is a wonderful tour leader and more than happy to share what she has learned.
Had a great time on the Chocolate tour with Ann! She’s very knowledgeable about the whole growing and production process and I learned a lot about one of my favorite foods!! The tour lasts about 2 hours, there’s never a dull moment. She ran us through crushing the beans, using a fan to remove the unwanted parts, put them through a grinder to get the butter out, and prepared a delicious chocolate concoction for us to enjoy. And we ended with a tasting of chocolates from different parts of the world—yummy! The location has gorgeous views of the island, which doesn’t hurt either. Definitely worth making this part of your Upcountry day!
I had never really thought about, where does my chocolate come from? Hershey, PA right?!…. not correct… well how about Belgium or Germany? also way off base. I learned so much, but one of my biggest take away was learning about the 20/20 belt. The global Cacao growing region twenty degrees north or south of the Equator, those are the places where Cacao is grown, and dried, and fermented, and then roasted! (just like coffee) before being shipped to places like Hershey and made into the kisses we all know and love.
There was way too much info to re-cap in this review, but it was a very fun and engaging (not to mention Delicious!) way to learn about Chocolate/Cacao and Coffee in one of the most beautiful places on Maui bi-coastal views from an amazing upcountry organic farm wow! what a fun afternoon for everyone in my group.
My five year old daughter and I took the tour together and we were so impressed! First of all the bicoastal views are epic! Our tour guide Ann was super friendly and presented an educational experience in such an intriguing and fun way. We really enjoyed how hands on the tour was. Make sure you have plenty of room on your phone to take photos because there are so many photo ops. We actually got to make a cacao drink straight from the beans and taste it! The chocolate tasting at the end was so delicious and the chocolate tasting wheel was super cool. My favorite was the Madagascar chocolate that was creamy with citrus notes and the coffee was delicious! My daughter was super excited to go to school and tell her classmates that now she knows where chocolate comes from. The farm was magical and charming. At the end of the tour We bought the fresh lilikoi bread and can’t stop thinking about how delicious it was! Definitely i must do on Maui for people of all ages!
Ann was an amazing tour guide! She was outstanding and so knowledgeable about both coffee and chocolate. Beautifully set on Kupa’a Farms, it is a great activity for anyone who loves food and a great view. The coffee was so good we ended up bringing a bag home. Highly recommend this tour!