"I need a good Spiced Cacao for my coffee shop," my friend lamented. "I've never found the perfect one."
Curiousity piqued, I had to clarify. "You mean something like Mexican Chocolate?"
"Yes, but better," he replied.
"I can do that. Let's go." Grabbing the keys, we headed down the hill to Mana Foods. There we bought every kind of cacao, lots of spices and anything else that looked like a possible ingredient. Returning to our Hali'imaile ohana, I started to play. A little of this, a smidge of that. Brew a sample. Taste testing. Feedback. Repeat. More of this, less of that, two smidges of the other. Brew. Taste. Feedback.
Repeat the sequence 82 times and you've recreated the birth of what was originally called Aunties Cacao. Then it became Aloha Spiced Cacao - Chili. The recipe travel to Sedona, and beta testing began. When the shop sold, the recipe returned to Maui, and the rest is a combination of client input, happy accidents and perseverance.
Having never turned a recipe into a business, it's been a fun, but steep learning curve. Input from you, family and friends has resulted in a base recipe which is not only vegan, it's lactose, gluten and dairy free. That evolution has continued and our flavors include Chili, Original (minus the chili), Espresso, Mint, Lavender,
You can now get a samples of all our flavors in the Sample Gift Box, and don't forget our famous bacon crack is available in Chili Chocolate, Mole and Maui 3C Creole.
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