By Nina Wu

First, you take a small bite and let the extra-dark chocolate square melt in your mouth, revealing a velvety texture, and overtones of deep cocoa and berry (like a chocolate forest).

Waialua Estate Chocolate, made from 70 percent Cacao grown at the old Waialua sugar mill on Oahu’s North Shore, isn’t incredibly well-known yet, but the word is spreading.

The dark chocolate is sold at Dole Plantation and Whole Foods Market at Kahala Mall for about $22.99 a pound – 10 squares of 25-gram squares will cost you a little more than $12.

And it’s actually processed by Guittard of San Francisco, which only puts its signature on select chocolates.

If you like milk chocolate, you can also get those for about half the price.

Waialua Estate, a part of Dole Food Co., was launched in 1996 as sugarcane was dying out. Dole was looking to diversify, and did so in two ways – by planting coffee and cacao trees. Coffee is grown on 165 acres on the slops of Waialua. The Cacao is grown on 20 acres.

Ever seen a Cacao pod? They’re colorful pods that come in various shades of reds and oranges — with seeds inside.

Here’s a great photo gallery from Waialua Estate that takes you on a journey from Cacao tree to pod, seeds and chocolate. The seeds are what get roasted and removed from their outer shells, revealing the nib which is melted and mixed into chocolate.

Waialua Estate Chocolate is available at Whole Foods Market at Kahala Mall, Sweet Paradise Chocolatier in Kailua, and Dole Plantation — and you may find it in the desserts at various restaurants (think flourless chocolate cake, mmm), including Alan Wong’s. You might also want to check out Malie Kai North Shore Chocolates.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 9:11 pm and is filed under Desserts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.