2025 Christmas Manoa Kahalu’u 70% Dark Bar

From the Maker

Ingredients

cacao, organic cane sugar, cocoa butter

• Gluten Free and Dairy Free

• For maximum flavor, store and eat chocolate at a dry 70° F (21° C)

Weight: 2.1 OZ

About the Bar: In Hawaiian, the word Kahaluʻu means “diving place” or “dripping trough”. It’s a fitting name for this small town on the East Side of Oʻahu Island (just 20 minutes from our Chocolate Factory). The steep Koʻolau mountain range cradles the shallow waters of Kāneʻohe bay, making for excellent year-round diving, fishing, and farming. Back in lush Kahaluʻu Valley, farmer, Ben Field is taking advantage of these idyllic growing conditions.

Born and raised in Kahaluʻu, Ben is following in the footsteps of three generations of plant cultivation. While offering fermentation and drying services for small cacao growers (Mānoa Chocolate included) across the Island, Ben has been working on his own crop as well. On his family land he has planted approximately 800 cacao trees. As of this year the trees are now able to produce enough fruit for a new single origin Kahaluʻu chocolate bar. 

Ben and his family’s estate is not only a beautiful cacao farm, but an oasis of endemic plant life and other food crops. The family also grows banana, turmeric, taro, breadfruit, ginger, sapote, grapefruit, and a vast endemic plant nursery. Many of these crops are interspersed among the cacao, creating a thriving agroforestry system.

Manoa’s Story
Bean-to-bar is a movement in chocolate, much like the growing craft beer industry, in the sense that we are moving away from mass production. With this quality over quantity model we craft only the finest dried beans into chocolate all under one roof.

Bean-to-bar makers are also defined by the fact that we direct trade with cacao farms around the world, paying socially responsible prices for quality. In contrast, the vast majority of cacao for the world's billion dollar chocolate industry is sourced from West Africa. Most commodity beans sourced from this region are priced so low that farmers cannot afford even basic living necessities. This creates human rights issues on a massive scale that include human trafficking and child slavery that are directly tied to the sale of cacao.

Craft chocolate is the opposite, rather than sourcing cheap to blend from a variety of regions, we source cacao at high prices and tell the story of where the chocolate is grown.

SOURCING: This is the most important step. You cannot make quality chocolate without quality cacao. We ethically source the finest cacao beans from Hawaii and around the world.