Maui Chocolate Coffee Tours is a small, local business located on Kupa’a Farms in Upcountry Maui. They specialize in the growth and making of cacao and coffee. Owner and tour guide Ann Tuomela is a chocolate connoisseur. Maui Chocolate Coffee Tours is fun for the entire family! If you are looking for an all ages experience that is fun, educational, and exciting, stick this on the bucket list!
What is a chocolate tour?
On the chocolate tour, you are taken through the steps from start to finish with chocolate making! The group will be lead through an orchard that includes baby cacao, all the way to mature trees that are blooming and fruiting. You’ll learn about all the other exquisite plants and trees throughout the gardens and orchards. The views on Kupa’a Farms are amazing! From the gardens and cacao orchard you’ll stroll up the drive to take in the most spectacular breathtaking bi-coastal views that Maui has to offer. Once you reach the top of the property, that’s where the cacao and chocolate magic really kicks in on the Maui Chocolate Blossom to Bar Tour. You will learn the entire process from harvesting, fermenting, drying and roasting.
Then, the hands-on group participation begins! You will experience the raw cacao fruit (nature permitting), roasted beans, ground beans to experience the texture change once the cocoa butter is released, and finally the chocolate drink mix before it is steeped. Since this location has a higher elevation, the temperature is not as hot as the rest of the island! You will get to manually crack, winnow and grind the cacao! This is quite an experience, especially for those who have never done it before. You will also get to explore the many flavors of chocolates from around the world coming from different latitudes. Our favorite part is tasting the chocolate!
What is a coffee tour?
A coffee tour, is similar to the chocolate tour but for the coffee plant. You will tour around the farm, seeing the coffee from the plant form all the way to it being made into coffee. If you or your family members have ever wanted to try some local coffee, this is the perfect way to do so!
The Tours
Maui Chocolate Coffee Tours is currently only accepting private groups. The group size is limited to 12, but they can accommodate up to 14 guests upon request. Smaller groups keep the experience more intimate since there is a hands-on chocolate making demonstration as part of the adventure. The tasting will include at least 2 chocolates from Hawaii, and after your tour, you will fully understand how rare chocolates from Hawaii are, and especially from Maui!
The guides explain artisan chocolate making and how it is remotely or not so related to industrial chocolate making.
Everybody is seated family style to taste 6 or 7 different chocolates from around the world, conducted much like a wine tasting without having to spit! You will sample 2-3 Hawaiian chocolates with the full explanation as to why Hawaiian chocolates are so scarce. Each chocolate is from a different latitude, except the Hawaiian chocolate. Sometimes the Hawaiian samples will come from farms that are only miles apart…with wildly different flavors.
Owner & Founder, Ann Tuomela
Ann has made Maui her home for the past 35 years. She graduated from University of Washington, Seattle, WA, with a BS degree in business and marketing, and then she moved directly to Kihei.
Most of Ann’s years on Maui has been spent educating people on wine and cheese. She owned a gourmet cheese and wine shop, Who Cut The Cheese, offering monthly wine and cheese tastings. After years of selling wine and spirits for distributors to all the resorts and fine dining restaurants on Maui, she decided it was time for a change. When she opened her doors in 2003 she wanted a place where people wouldn’t be intimidated by wine or cheese, because that was her as well…self taught. Who Cut The Cheese was a place for those with fine taste and a sense of humor! All of this translates into her whole approach and style in leading the Maui Chocolate and Coffee tour. She enjoys being an employee rather than a shop owner.
Now she has the enjoyment and pleasure in continuing to teach people in a fun and fascinating environment surrounded by people living aloha!
Our review
My five year old daughter and I took the tour together and we were so impressed! Firstly, the bicoastal views are epic! Our tour guide Ann was super friendly and presented an educational experience in such an intriguing and fun way. We really enjoyed how hands on the tour was. Make sure you have plenty of room on your phone to take photos because there are so many photo ops. We actually got to make a cacao drink straight from the beans, and taste it! The chocolate tasting at the end was so delicious and the chocolate tasting wheel was super cool. My favorite was the Madagascar chocolate that was creamy with citrus notes. The coffee was also delicious!
My daughter was super excited to go to school and tell her classmates that now she knows where chocolate comes from. The farm was magical and charming. At the end of the tour We bought the fresh lilikoi (passionfruit) bread and can’t stop thinking about how delicious it was! This is definitely a must-do on Maui for people of all ages!
If you are looking for fun activities in Maui, Hawaii, Maui Chocolate Coffee Tours is definitely one that we would recommend. We hope you enjoy indulging in some local coffee and chocolate!
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