Maui company honored for its cacao and dark chocolate | News, Sports, Jobs
Ku‘ia Estate chocolate turns in a ball mill Wednesday. When closed and spinning rapidly, the mill full of stainless steel ball bearings crushes and melts the cacao particles down to 15 microns, which is about a quarter of the width of a human hair.The company received the Gold Award in the Asia-Pacific Region in the International 2021 Cocoa of Excellence Awards in December and was also named a winner of a 2022 Good Food Award in a dark chocolate category last week.
A Lahaina farm-to-bar chocolate maker recently received a pair of awards for its dark chocolate products and the cacao used to make it.
Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate was named a “Producer of Excellence” and given the Gold Award in the Asia-Pacific Region in the International 2021 Cocoa of Excellence Awards, announced virtually from Rome, Italy on Dec. 16. It was also named a winner of a 2022 Good Food Award in a dark chocolate category on Friday, the company announced.
The local chocolate producer was judged against 231 other samples from 53 different origins in the Cocoa of Excellence Awards. All producers sent dried cacao samples to France, where they were processed into liquor and 66 percent cacao dark chocolate was made from each of the top 50 finalists by a single chocolate maker. In the Asia-Pacific Region, there were 13 finalists; eight were awarded Golds and the other five Silver or Bronze awards. One other producer from Hawaii, Lydgate Farms of Kauai, won a Silver Award.
An in-person ceremony for the Good Food Awards, in which Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate was honored for its dark chocolate, has been rescheduled for March 4 in San Francisco. The company was previously named one of 351 finalists out of nearly 2,000 entries nationwide. Another finalist from Maui is Pauwela Beverage Company in the beverage category.
Gunars Valkirs, Maui Ku‘ia Estate Chocolate founder and CEO, holds a tin of his company’s award-winning chocolates Tuesday afternoon. “The two awards are unexpected this early in our development,” Valkirs said. “I always expected to make world-class chocolate, but I didn’t expect it this early on. It’s very satisfying and I’m looking forward to great things in the future.” The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos
“These awards validate what we have known all along: that we can produce world-class chocolate from farm to bar,” Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate founder and head chocolate maker Gunars Valkirs said in a news release. “I could not be more proud of our chocolate company and our amazing team.”
He thanked Vice President of Farm and Factory Operations Daniel O’Doherty and cacao farmers David McPherson and Palani Wright.
Located at 78 Ulupono St. in Lahaina, Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate gives 100 percent of net profits to Maui nonprofit associations.
For more information, visit mauichocolate.com.
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