Hawaiian Chocolate
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Tasting Notes
Aloha Olorin,Back in the mid 80s Jim Walsh left Chicago and settled in Hawaii. He wanted tostart a chocolate business and collected advanced cacao selections from Malaysia and Phillipines. These materails were planted in Keeau, east side of Hawaii island. He sort farmers who would grow and sell their beans to him. One of the farmers was a retired professor Dr. Clarence Hodges who had recently moved to Kona, west side of Hawaii island. I was on his farm when the hydralic ram dug the holes in the a'a lava field. Attached is a photo of him a year or so later. His health deteriorated, he returned to the mainland, died and his farm was purchased by Bob and Pam Cooper. They rehabilitated the orchard and built the 'Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory'. So they are not the original commercial farm but they are as the name implies the first chocolate factory in Hawaii.
