Archive for the ‘Special Events’ Category
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
It was a big beautiful day at the first annual Hawaii Cacao Festival this past Sunday January 31st at the Haleiwa Farmers’ Market on the North Shore of Oahu. A great turn out of 5000 market goers came to share in the festivities including a cacao orchard tour, recipe contest with over 40 entries (winning entries are posted at the end of the blog) and delicious samples of chocolate inspired culinary creations by local chefs, chocolatiers and of course Waialua Estate Chocolate.
Special thank yous to Pamela Boyar and Annie Suite of Haleiwa Farmers’ Market for their patience, support and get it done abilities. To Melanie Boudar, the chocolatier of Sweet Paradise Chocolate for her guidance, use of the chocolate fountains, and much assistance in getting it together. Many thank yous to 21 degrees restaurant and Palm Terrace at Turtle Bay Resort, Alan Wong’s Restaurant and Town Restaurant for providing plentiful samples of sweet and savory delicacies for everyones tasting pleasure.
Thank you esteemed panel of judges, and Skip Bittenbender of CTAHR for demonstration of making chocolate and information on how to grow cacao.
And of course a BIG MAHALO to the Waialua Estate volunteer crew including Mike Conway and Marian Chun, as well as my own home team Rebecca, Kaoru and Akari Powell, Emily and Cassidy Lanter. I couldn’t have done it without all the help and support you all gave to pull this off. Let’s do it again next year!
Below is an excerpt for the Haleiwa Farmers Market Newsletter with photos and more on the the event. Thanks Annie Suite for fantastic photos of fabulous food creations and happy faces.
Big Mahalos to all 5000 of you who joined us for the fun and delicious treats this past Sunday at the 1st Annual Cacao Festival! And big Mahalos to Alan Wong’s Restaurant, Ed Kenney & Town Restaurant, John Armstong, Ben Tabious & 21° N at Turtle Bay, Melanie Boudar from Sweet Paradise Chocolates, Ola Loa Wellness, Skip Bittenbender from CTHAR and especially Derek Lanter & Mike Conway from Dole Diversified Agriculture Waialua Estate Cacao!
 Our beautiful day started with a traditional blessing, before our guests wandered through the many booths filled with our usual farmers market offerings of the freshest locally grown fruits and vegetables and our special Cacao offerings… including Chocolate Fountains showering Waialua Estate Dark & Milk Chocolates, samples from our guest chefs, and a tent full of submissions to the Chocolate Recipe contest, where Vice Speaker Michael Magaoay, Howard Dicus (radio & TV personality… and his lovely wife!), Melanie Boudar (Sweet Paradise Chocolateir), Martha Cheng (Freelance Food Writer) and David Calciero (Chef de Cuisine for Town Restaurant) tasted their way through the entries and selected our prize winners.
Grand Prize Winner Ben Tabious and his
Chocolate Cake with Ginger Ganache and Caramelized Bananas! Wow!
Winners in the Confections Category: 1st Place Noella Montiero (Chocolate Orange Panna Cotta & Waialua Estate Iced Hot Chocolate); 2nd Place Richard Samiley (Madras Curry Truffle); 3rd Place Patti Gallagher Jones (Malie Kai Cherry Bark). Winners in the Savory Category: 1st Place Lan Thai (Crab Cake Citrus Salad with Waialua Dark Chocolate); 2nd Place: Christine Watanabe (Waialua Estate Chocolate with Cacao Nibs Panko Seared Beef with Waialua Chocolate/pozu jus); 3rd Place Arlene Boyd (Auntie Arleen’s Oahu Chicken Cacao) Winners in the Baked Sweet Category: 1st Place Sabrina St. Martin Chocolate Banana Nut Bread with Homemade Chocolate Butter. 2nd Place: William W. Kanour, Jr. (Lucky You Live in Hawaii Chocolate Cake); 3rd Place Monique Vander Stroom (Chocolate Cream Cheese Shortbread Mini’s with Waialua Chocolate dipped Sea Asparagus)
 
  
 
Tags: Diversified Agriculture, Haleiwa Cacao, Haleiwa Farmers Market, Hawaii Cacao Festival, Waialua Cacao, Waialua Chocolate
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Sunday, January 10th, 2010
Hale‘iwa Farmers’ Market
is celebrating the transformative power of Cacao- from colorful pod to delectable taste sensation- with its Hawaii Cacao Festival on Sunday January 31st!
Enter your favorite original chocolate recipe in the Cacao & Chocolate Recipe Contest.
A chance to win an Escape Club Membership from Turtle Bay Resort for the grown-ups and a private surf lesson from North Shore Surf Girls for the keiki.
Judges will include Vice Speaker Michael Magaoay, radio & tv personality Howard Dicus, freelance food writer Martha Cheng, Cookie-man Wally Amos, and Hawaii chocolatier Melanie Boudar.
Prizes for five categories: Baked Goods, Confections, Savory, Keiki Creation, plus the Hawaiian-Chocolate Grand Prize awarded to the most outstanding recipe in all categories using local Hawaii chocolate.
Sample the delicious creations from Town Restaurant Chef Ed Kenney and 21 Degrees North Chef John Armstrong.
Discover a whole new world as you hop the E Noa shuttle to visit the Waialua Estate Cacao orchard.
Learn about cacao’s nutritional benefits from Ola Loa Wellness. Visit with Wanda Adams, author of The Island Plate I & II, and Entertaining Island Style, and have her sign your personal copy of her books.
Learn how to make your own chocolate liquor from Skip Bittenbender of CTHAR. ( UH College of Tropical Agriculture) Buy a cacao tree for your yard- sales to benefit the Urban Garden Center.
Fun activities for kids include: decorating Mr. Cacao Heads, face-painting, and crowning yourself king or queen of the festival in your own artistic crown-creation! Everyone can enjoy the live music while relaxing in the 75- seat café.
Hawaii Cacao festival At the Haleiwa Farmers MarketRecipe Contest: Drop off: 8-9 a.m.; Awards: 11:30
Recipe Tastings: 11:45 a.m.
Chef Demos: 9a.m.-1 p.m.
Kids Activities: 9 a.m. - 1p.m.
Shuttle to Cacao Orchard leaving throughout the event.
Call Pam Boyer for additional info 388-9696
or visit the Haleiwa Farmers market
Tags: Haleiwa Farmers Market, Hawaii Cacao, Waialua Chocolate
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Saturday, November 14th, 2009
 Melanie stirs it up A couple weeks ago, local chocolate expert Melanie Boudar, of   Sweet Paradise Chocolatier, held a Truffle class at her store in Kailua, Oahu. Feeling the need to get creative with chocolate, I signed up with my daughter Cassidy, to spend a couple hours on Sunday learning something new and making elegant treats for our friends and family.
Chocolate is often consumed in its bar form, or eaten as a confection or pastry produced by an experienced chef or chocolatier. It is something of a personal jump to go from simply eating a chocolate bar to actually working with chocolate.
 Ganache To measure out the right proportions of chocolate and other ingredients, melt and stir them and then hand work with the thick, viscous mass is an altogether different experience.
There are guidelines to follow when mixing chocolate with other ingredients, particularly liquids that will interact with the fats in chocolate and will affect consistency and texture. There are temperatures to be be aware of, ratios, timing, combination of ingredients, etc.
 Cassidy Concentrates on Chocolate At first it can seem a intimidating; what if I make a mistake, ruin a batch, gum it up, make a mess… Well, yes, that will probably happen at some point. That’s part of the process. Chocolate is an adventure; take chances, make mistakes, don’t take it too seriously. In time, understanding and technique will improve.
 Truffles setting up But with Melanie’s guidance, we worked our way through 3 different receipes without incident. By the end of the class, we had produced a raspberry infused truffle, a ginger, cinnamon infusion and a coffee truffle with a dark chocolate / milk chocolate ganache.
 Chocolate treasures Some of these were simply rolled in cocoa powder in the traditional soft truffle form, and others were dipped into a liquid chocolate to make a crisp shell couverture enrobing the soft ganache. Our creations, though not quite professional, proved very attractive and flavorful and were well appreciated by our friends and family.
Sweet Paradise has tasting, pairings and trainings from time to time and also has a store at the Kings Shops at Waikoloa on the Big Island. To learn more see the website www.sweetparadisechocolate.com
Tags: Hawaiian Chocolate
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
 Pam Boyar, North Shore Farm Tour, Waialua Coffee Back in mid-September, Haleiwa Farmers Market managers Pam Boyar and Annie Suite
 Pam inspects the coffee organized one of several North Shore Farm Tours, showcasing some of the farms, fruits, vegetables and other produce being raised in the Waialua district of Oahu.
A small group of 30 people visited several farms including Dole Pineapple, Waialua Estate Coffee and Cacao, Twin Bridges Farm and North Shore Cattle Company for a sampling of the diversified agriculture happening in the area.
 Mike talks about Waialua Cacao North Shore Farm Tour Participants were able to meet and talk with the farmers, learn about the operation and taste the fruits of their labors.
Mike Conway provided background on Dole’s Pineapple operation and Derek Lanter talked about Waialua Coffee and Chocolate while Mike presented the cacao orchard.
Events like these farm tours are one of the ways Waialua Estate is doing outreach and teaching the community about coffee and cacao production on Oahu. With one small step at a time our coffee and chocolate is being discovered, appreciated and talked about.
We appreciate everybody’s interest and support and look forward to more tours as we grow and organize our operation. 
Tags: Haleiwa Farmers Market, North Shore Farm Tour, Waialua Cacao, Waialua Coffee
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Saturday, September 26th, 2009
As the final stop on their Hawaiian Coffee research expedition, the Puerto Rican Coffee Delegation spent the afternoon at Waialua Estate Coffee with Mike and Derek. The delegation consisted of small and large coffee farmers, roasters,
 Puerto Rican Coffee Delegation memebers marketing agencies, agriculture department representatives, university professors and others associated with Pureto Rico’s coffee industry. The tour of Hawaii’s coffee producers in Kona, Molokai and on Oahu was organized by Shawn Steiman of Coffea Consulting.
 Mike talks about the Waialua Coffee operation Looking to Hawaii as a model for ideas and inspiration in premium coffee production, the Puerto Rican Coffee Association hopes to improve quality in its own local industry and attain a higher position in the world market. Waialua coffee was happy to be included on the tour and to provide a helping hand in the spirit of the specialty coffee industry.
Tags: Puerto Rican Coffee Delegation, Waialua Coffee
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Saturday, July 25th, 2009
 Derek and Emily at Hawaii State Farm Fair Waialua Coffee and Chocolate were among the many farm products featured at at this year’s 37th annual Hawaii State Farm Fair held at the Bishop Museum July 18th and 19th, 2009. The farm fair is sponsored by the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and celebrates agriculture in Hawaii highlighting the farmers and ranchers who bring locally grown produce to our markets, restaurants and home tables. There was a great selection of vegetables, flowers, livestock and prepared food available and there were many educational booths teaching the 15,000 plus visitors about various aspects of farming in Hawaii including crops, aquaculture, animal husbandry, water and soil conservation and much much more.
At the Ag-Tastic Expo a coffee pavilion was set up to provide samples and information on the variety of coffees produced
 Shawn Steiman, Hawaii State Farm Fair Coffee Pavillion throughout the state of Hawaii. Visitors could taste for themselves coffees from 20 different farm offerings, each with unique differences and cup characteristics. Dr. Shawn Steiman hosted the booth with the help of several coffee growers, roasters, and dedicated coffee drinkers (myself included).
 Dr. Coffee all caffeinated and happy
Tags: Hawaii State Farm Fair
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
At a special event on Thursday June 25th, Hawaii Chef Alan Wong and his staff from Alan Wong’s Restaurant in Honolulu prepared a Hawaiian luau for the White House Congressional Picnic bringing a taste of Hawaiian cuisine to the Nation’s capitol. Dedicated to promoting Hawaii’s farmers and local produce, Chef Wong selected a number of Island grown products to showcase at the event including Waialua Estate 70% cacao Dark Chocolate in desserts prepared by pastry chef Michelle Karr. We are honored to have been selected to represent the special taste of pure Hawaii grown cacao from Oahu and chocolate made in the USA. To see more of this story please follow the link below. Aloha, Derek
http://www.shareyourtable.com/features/2009/luau
Tags: White House Luau
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