Learn the inside story of how chocolate is made at Maui Ku‘ia Estate Chocolate from Founder and CEO, Dr. Gunars Valkirs. Gunars has been involved in every aspect of the company from planting the first trees in 2013 to designing and building the factory to making our chocolate up to the present day. The Chocolate Factory Experience is your opportunity to learn how cocoa beans are turned into our award-winning chocolate!
Gunars will guide each VIP group of chocolate lovers in an hour-long deep dive into chocolate making in our factory. During your experience, you will learn about every step of the process, and you will taste samples from intermediate steps that are not available for sale. After the factory walkthrough, you will be given chocolate samples for a self-guided tasting in our upstairs, open-air pavilion. Three of the chocolates will be from our Maui grown beans and four others will be yours to select! For an additional charge, you can enjoy alcoholic beverages to pair with your chocolate (or anything else from our café menu). A captioned video of our farm to factory process will be running continuously. And your experience does not end there! You will be given a $25 gift card for use in the store or online.
The complete experience including chocolate tasting takes about 90 minutes and is available every day, Monday through Friday. The Chocolate Factory Experience is $100/person, guests must be at least 10 years old, and guests must wear a hair net (supplied) and closed toe shoes when in the chocolate factory. Food safety regulations do not allow any exceptions.
International Cocoa of Excellence Awards give MKEC-grown cacao highest honor.
