Waialua Old Sugar Mill Chocolate

I introduced you to the Old Sugar Mill in Waialua yesterday and today I'm showing you the second part of our tour. The first part included lots of coffee and this part includes lots of chocolate! Well, kinda... We actually spent a lot of time with cocoa beans and learned about the process of making chocolate. 

We were lucky enough to our own little tour guide (he was actually a creepy local guy and I'm not even sure that he worked there, but whatever) who showed us the ins and outs of the chocolate mill. He had a strong local accent and was a bit difficult to understand. At one point he handed us something that looked like a big fruit. I couldn't really understand what he said that it was but we tasted it anyway (totally safe, right?). I didn't really know what to expect, hence the awkward face that I'm making in the picture above. I researched later and found out that it was a cocoa plant! I guess that should have been obvious since we were surrounded by cocoa beans..! Anyway, the cocoa plant holds cocoa seeds which are covered in a fruity texture that tastes similar to lychee. Lychee is a popular fruit in Hawaii. I had never heard of it before moving here! The seeds are then left out to dry and they end up looking like the brown cocoa beans pictured above. Pretty cool, huh?

For more information visit waialuasugarmill.com or islandxhawaii.com