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at Dole Cannery Shops, 650 Iwilei Road, Honolulu
Added By: Amy Hammond
The Hawaii Chocolate Festival takes place on Saturday, February 22, 2014 from noon to 5 p.m. at Dole Cannery Shops. Local purveyors of all things chocolate are gearing up for this premier showcase of Hawaii-grown chocolate products while chocolate-lovers are getting ready to taste their way around this sweetest of celebrations.Your admission ticket not only gets you into the Festival to browse, learn about and shop for all things chocolate, but it also is your passport to 10 chocolate samplings of your choice from some of the state’s top chocolatiers. Tickets are $20 in advance online at www.HawaiiChocolateFestival.com or $25 at the door.
Special features this year include guest speaker Doreen Pendgracs, a chocolate travel blogger and author of Chocolatour: A Quest for the World’s Best Chocolate , and two chocolate molding classes, sponsored by Hawaiian Nougat.
A Chocolate Dream Tree provides Festival-goers the opportunity to purchase a chocolate charm from the tree which reveals a prize valued from $25 up to $250. A portion of the proceeds benefit Halau O Na Pua Kukui, who will also perform at the event.
With more than two dozen exhibitors the Hawai‘i Chocolate Festival is the ultimate experience for chocolate connoisseurs who can sip and savor chocolate and chocolate-infused everything from chocolate beer to chocolate bacon.
Among this year’s participants are:
Aloha Chocolate Company, Bit of Sugar, Choco Le'a, Eat Honolulu, Earth Friendly Distilling Company, Hawaiian Crown, Farm Lovers Farmer's Markets, Hawaiian Nougat, HI Tea-Shop , Hokulani Bakery, Honolulu Cookie Company, Kokolani Chocolates, Kona Bar, Kona Brewing Company, Made in Hawaii Foods, Madre Chocolate, Manoa Chocolate Hawaii, Naughty Cow Chocolate Liquor, Padovani Chocolate, Primo Popcorn, Olomana Tropicals, Sozo International, Sugar Lips Cookie Company / Rainbow Falls Connection, The Indigenous Soap Company, The Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, Tiki's Grill and Bar, Twisted Shotz, Waialua Estate,
There also will be ongoing live entertainment, educational and informational displays about locally grown cacao and how it is transformed into chocolate; a chocolate-inspired spa; tropical plants at the Chocolate Garden; and the Chocolate Tea House, a place to enjoy tea sampling. It all adds up to one sweet way to spend an afternoon!
Hawai’i is the only state in the U.S. currently growing cacao, and the mission of the Hawai`i Chocolate Festival is to stimulate global interest in Hawai’i’s chocolate industry. The festival partners with farmers, local business, educators and government to showcase and highlight chocolate products made exclusively from Hawaiian-grown cacao beans as well as other chocolates of Hawai`i.
