Chocolate of the Day
Lonohana Estate Chocolate
Kanahiku 70% Dark (bar)
Good +++
Weight: 1.15 oz. (32.5 g.) / 2.3 oz. (65 g.) in total bar
Calories: 178 calories (estimate) in 1/2 bar
Cost: $16.00 for 1 bar
Purchased from: Lonohana website, online order
Aloha, and welcome to Day #6 of Chocolate and Hawaii Theme Week.
This Hawaii Kanahiku 70% Dark (bar) was made by Lonohana Estate Chocolate, LLC (Honolulu, HI). (Kanahiku, Lonohana's signature 70% bar, is the Hawaiian word for seventy.)
Balanced and complex aroma and flavor notes for this included: rich, flavorful dark chocolate, sweet green, faint molasses, dried fruits (fig, date, berry), honey, and very faint (barely detectable) slightly over-ripe pineapple.
I really liked the authentic and rich, chocolate, fruit and botanical flavors and the long, complex and almost undulating fruity and sweet "green" finish that included (but was not limited to): very faint honey-banana, green tea, honey-ed tropical berry). All this from just two ingredients: cacao and sugar.
Savor this bar slowly to appreciate the chameleon-like fruit shimmers; and enjoy a bit of virtual travel to a Hawaiian cacao orchard that was transformed from a nutrient-depleted sugar plantation to a rich productive orchard almost 15 years ago.
Maker's tasting notes/description
"This was the first bar we ever made at Lonohana, back in 2014, and it has only become more complex with the orchard's additional years of maturity."
"Our careful roast ensures that this chocolate holds its balance of flavors, with deep cocoa undertones and bright berry fruit, and an almost everlasting finish--a trademark of our beans from our cacao farm on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii."
Ingredients: (Lonohana) Estate cacao and organic cane sugar
Allergen-related information: (Vegan) Made with just two ingredients (cacao and organic can sugar). No other information listed on wrapper.
*Senaca Klassen, Lonohana founder and chocolate maker, planted cacao trees in what had been"nutrient-deprived" soil (previously abandoned sugar cane land). He improved this soil into using regenerative agroforestry and sustainable farming practices.
The cacao tree planting began back in 2009. After crafting chocolate from tree to bar, it must be gratifying to taste the fruits of one's labor over the years. Thank you!
