Garden Island Chocolate Tour & Tasting

This tour was wonderful! Vast knowledge and chocolate sampling. Between the chocolate and the seasonal fruit tasting, you leave with a full (and happy) belly! We were shown all around the grounds at the wide variety of tropical plants growing and thriving! Sampling fruits and berries straight off the tree is a one of a kind experiance. Angie and Koa have an excellent set up to spread their knowledge and love of the cocao. Hands on learning about the chocolate growing and making process – smash and taste cocao straight from the pod!
Yes, you walk through jungle– shoes may get muddy and bug repellant is a good idea!

My mom and I had an awesome and delicious time at the chocolate tour. Your options for visiting are Mon, Wed, Fri at 9:30 am. A bit more diversity on times would have made selecting the tour a lot easier for us and our scheduled, but we made it work and it was well worth it! Even if it did take a morning of snorkeling away from us :) When you arrive and wait for the rest of the group to get there you can try tropical fruits grown on the island, many of which I had never heard of before, let alone seen or tasted.
The first part of the tour is a guided walk through with your group (probably about 30 people?), learning about cacao and other fruits grown on the island. This was a very interesting part and although our group was quiet at first, we all grew more and more comfortable and more questions and conversations happened organically. Koa and Angie will answer any questions you have so you should definitely ask them!
Cacao is not grown how you are probably expecting, orchard style or any sort of rows upon rows situation. It is a high maintenance plant and likes shade, sunlight, and protection from the elements. For that reason, it grows best in a «jungle» setting, surrounded by many other plants. This is why the tour is more diverse than just lots of chocolate plants — which could get kind of tedious anyway.
Next you sit under a tent in chairs and try chocolate (the real reason you booked the trip). They only have 6 chocolate bars for sale, 5 of which stay the same and one that alternates. Most of the chocolate you try will not be for sale, which I think is an important thing to know going into it, which they probably didn’t say explicitly enough. Aka I’ll be dreaming about that peanut butter and raisin dark chocolate for the rest of my life and never taste it again. But that’s okay! A large part of the experience is being educated about chocolate and learning the differences. The tour is not focused on sales and mass production and they earned a lot of respect from me for that. You try chocolate from Kauai grown cacao plants, and you also try chocolates from plants in other areas in the world. This is because they are really (attempting) to give you an education on chocolate production and differences in tastes from different climates.
After your first tasting session, you’ll enjoy hot chocolate made right in front of you. Then you’ll taste even more chocolate! This time it will be pure bits of chocolate, with nothing mixed in, so you can taste the differences of the cacao beans.
Overall great morning and experience in Kauai to fit in between all of your high-​adrenaline and action-​packed experiences.
P. S. Do not eat a big breakfast! It is an overwhelming amount of chocolate to eat at one time! We tried over 25 different samples of chocolates, but were told normally it is a lesser amount for the tour. Even so, it is a lot so prepare yourself (never something I thought I would need to do to eat chocolate!).

Save your money for helicopter tour.
Chocolate is not even Hawaii native and on top of that it is more of a farm tour where you see 1 cacao tree and everything else.
3 hours of commitment. take your pick.

Excellent tour, very informational. The property is beautiful and our tour guides, Koa and Angela, are very knowledgable. We learned a lot about chocolate and Kauai’s agriculture, including plants other than cacao. The sample portions were generous — we each tried a piece of about 20 different chocolates and truffles. The chocolate is decadent and delicious.
The only disappointment was the lack of bars available for sale at the end of the tour. It’s a family-​owned farm so I understand Koa and Angela can only make so many bars, but given that the chocolate is the main star of their business it seems sensible to have a decent selection available for sale at the end of the tour. My partner and I were planning to buy a bar for ourselves and for family back home, but there were only 3 – 4 varieties of bars available and most of them sold quickly. We wound up not buying anything — it was a lost sale. For a large tour group, it would’ve been helpful if they had been more prepared. Overall all, though, it was a fun and educational experience.

This is an amazing small family & co-​op operation. The tour exceeded our expectations and had a strong focus on the growth, cultivation, and makeup of the cocoa plant with plenty of tasting involved :). Very educational and interesting if you’re a foodie or chocoholic.
This may also be one of your rare opportunities to visit and partake of chocolate that has been produced by the same party involved in the growing and fermentation process (!), vital pieces of the chocolateering process that VERY few retail producers around the world have control of.
Our whole family (2 kids under 6) love it!
Check ‘em out!!!

Did not think it was worth the high cost, but overall very informative and lots of great chocolate to taste.

Worth the $$! A lovely «mom and pop» business with amazing chocolate and fruit. The tour started with a welcome fruit and truffle sampling (best fresh jackfruit I’ve enjoyed), followed by a walk through the farm and intro to many of the plants and trees, and culminated with a wonderful chocolate tasting — several flavor combinations and limited origin bars, with an intermission of drinking chocolate (the recipe is in the photos) and plenty of well-​planned palate cleansings. Come hungry!

Fantastic Tour! Angela was an excellent tour guide, making it very apparent that her goal is to fully inform her guests about Chocolate, from the cacao pods to the finished product. She also introduced us to different fruits– including treating us to jack fruit, which she cut right from the tree for us. There was so much sampling of different blends and varieties of chocolate even my chocoholic husband got his fill. Mostly though we thoroughly enjoyed the tour. One of the best things we’ve done in our many trips to Kauai. Highly highly recommend!!!

Such an informative tour! The guides were amazing and their pride in their work is so evident. And boy do they know how to make some delicious chocolate!

The tour began with some tropical fruit tasting (longan, jackfruit, pineapple, etc.) then a look into the plants and trees. Learned a lot about how cocoa trees grow and processed, as well as parts of the cocoa pods and seeds. The tour guide literally removed the pod from the tree and opened it up in front of us. A plus is that we also saw many other kinds of fruit trees in the same area that the guide pointed out. I enjoyed the tour a lot. The chocolate tasting was very extensive (my first time trying single variety chocolate since most commercial chocolates are blends). They make many dark chocolates so it’s a plus for me, and also made for us to taste hot cocoa from scratch.
Visited March 2016

Not what we expected. 2 hours of touring plants not related to chocolate then an hour of taste testing super tiny samples of dark chocolate only. Most tasted gross. Not a fan. On the plus side, Koa was very knowledgeable and answered all questions. Probably a botanist’s dream but not a chocolate lovers delight.

Just finished our chocolate tour and absolutely LOVED every minute of this beautiful organic farm adventure. We tried about six or seven different exotic fruits right off the trees before we sat down for the chocolate tasting. The chocolates were out of this world delicious and we tried so many our heads were buzzing when we left! Our guides were also the farmers and makers of the chocolate. Such hard workers and all around cool people! We would highly recommend this to everyone, it was worth every penny and more.

Awesome tour! Lots of information about the local fruits and all about cacao trees, harvesting, fermenting and roasting! We had the opportunity to sample multiple kinds of chocolates made at the farm. It was especially nice because it was hands on and interactive.
This tour has a real Kauai vibe to it, relaxed, informative and delicious! highly recommend!

This tour is so worth the price of admission and the tour guides are the coolest, nicest people who are so passionate and genuine. We arrived early and got started with delicious jackfruit, starfruit and zapote. Once everyone arrived, we were given a tour and walked around while being educated about all the fruit trees and sampling more starfruit, a tree with red berries that taste like peanut butter, and then smelling Cacao shell shavings. Once we were done walking around we sat down and we were given 20 chocolate bar tastings while each one was explained in terms of how they are roasted and fermented. My wife and I were floored by how deep and delicious all the chocolate was. We bought 7 bars and then left knowing more than we ever imagined about chocolate making which is awesome since we are both huge chocoholics. I highly recommend you come here!

Loved our tour here. It’s so much more than just chocolate — they talk all about different tropical plants and fruits. The chocolate tasting is intense — we left feeling so full. We’d recommend this tour to anyone visiting Kauai.

Dark chocolate lovers unite! Go tour the organic gardens & enjoy the warm family hosting offered by Koa, Angela & their son. Nothing short of delicious! Time and money well spent!!! We’ll be back, probably w/​each visit to Kauai. Tell your friends & help support this lovely family as they provide you, their guests w/​some of the best chocolate on the planet! I’ll be having some shipped to the mainland perhaps now on a semi regular basis. Their chocolate is a habit worth developing & encouraging others to do the same. Go see for yourself– you won’t be disappointed! ENJOY: D
Kim/​PDX/​OR

This place made a believer out of me. I am a big fan of Venezuelan chocolate but I might — might — have found a contender for my new favorite.
The tour has basically two parts:
1. Walking around their property looking at different types of tropical fruit trees and tasting their fruit. This is pretty cool. I have eaten a lot of tropical fruit in my life and still found some new ones that I’d never heard of.
2. Eating a dozen or more different types of their chocolate. Which is amazing, by the way. This is the main event. Your socks will be knocked off.
The owners (including one SF native!) really know their stuff about chocolate. You may, like me, think that you know plenty. You’ll probably learn more.
Be warned that if it’s humid there may be bugs. Bring big spray. They may have some if you forgot to bring it.
There is also a really pretty garden store nearby and a famous juice stand called Banana Joe’s.
Gluten free notes: no gluten added to any of this stuff as far as I can tell. Chocolate is naturally gluten free. Enjoy!

If you love dark chocolate this is the tour for you. I am not a big fan of dark chocolate, but I attended the tour because my husband loves dark chocolate. It starts off with trying different fruit. Then you walk around which seems like someone’s backyard and see how the different fruits you try in the beginning grow. It is pretty informative. Once you finish looking, tasting and smelling different fruits then the chocolate tasting begins. It was too much chocolate for me. Make sure you wear sneakers, and bring your bug spray. I went at 9:30 am and it was pretty warm. The tour guides were really nice. I personally would not do it again. If you have to use the bathroom go across to a souvenir store.

This is the ultimate tour for any chocoholic or fan of tropical fruit. You will be warmly greeted by Koa and Angie who take you on a tasty and informative tour of their little farm. They point out the various fruits, herbs and spices growing on the property and you sample along the way. Many of these you are unlikely to have ever had before such as egg fruit and the pulp of the cashew fruit.
Settling in to the first half of the highly educational chocolate tasting, you will enjoy a dozen or so chocolates that have interesting additions such as Chinese five spice, coconut green curry or banana. Hot chocolate is prepared from vanilla beans (harvested from the farm), nutmeg and cinnamon. Finally another round of another dozen chocolates some as high as 95% cacao. This session of chocolate tasting focuses more on single origin chocolates so you learn to taste the difference between chocolate grown in African versus Central America, for example.
The tour is delicious, educational and highly engaging. The two who run it are good teachers who care deeply about chocolate as a nutritional culinary experience more so than a sweet candy treat. I was unsure if the price of the tour would be worth it but came away feeling it was worth every penny. A great experience.

This is a solid tour to learn about Chocolate and other fruits grown on the island. We don’t think Koa was very excited by the people in the group and you could tell by the way he was taking us on the tour. Although it was a good learning experience he just didn’t seem that passionate. Angela was extremely passionate and knowledgeable.
We ate a lot of fruit and a lot of chocolate. They told us how all of their small batch chocolate is grown and produced.
I do think its worth mentioning because I am use to farm tours being more manicured, but don’t expect to see a clean and well kept place on this tour. There is a lot of tall grass, left over fruit on the ground, unkept grounds, branches, limbs and plants to walk through.
If you don’t like being rained on (its Kauai) bring rain jacket and maybe bug repellent.