We loved our visit to Lavaloha! It was great for kids--interesting, and not too long or too short. Plus, there's the chocolate tasting, and you get to support a small business, which is wonderful. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone visiting the Big Island read more

Location has beautiful view and is so isolated. Tour and tasting was very interesting, however due to a recent fire at the location, we were not able to see the actual production of seeds into chocolate, but they did show a video on how it was done. Very informative guide, making it easy to ask questions. read more

Amazing!!! My family and I did the chocolate tour and they were so knowledgeable and caring about what they do. I'd recommend anyone to take the time and go out. I'm not a big chocolate person, but I've learned so much from them and appreciate the work that goes into making tasty chocolate! read more

Lacy provided a great tour that covered the chocolate making process and tasting. She was knowledgeable about the whole process. The reason I cut one star is because of the price, I don't think $40 price tag is justified considering we had other farm tours that were half the price or free and even included free samples. The samples provided here were limited and I believe as feedback it would be good to include more samples or souvenir to justify the price tag. It's a gorgeous farm though and I did enjoy the ambience. read more

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Our tour guide was Cortney. She's very knowledgeable (even through she says she's not) and funny. The tour takes you through their grove and she shows the various types of pods and trees. You go back to the house and learn about the process to make chocolate. It's part presentation and part video. Courtney will open a pod and you can taste the beans: the while squishy part tastes like apple jolly ranchers. The purple bean is bitter, so you have to swallow it fast. Then you get to sample different types of chocolates. Yum! The tour is about an hour. I think it's a good balance between information and keeping things going. I definite recommend for adults and our 6 year-old son enjoyed it. read more

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Our Farm Tour exceeded expectations! How we wish every tour guide in the world were like Jess -- soo friendly & upbeat, rattles off facts as if from a script but never batting an eye. We arrived 5min late to our 3:15pm tour and felt super apologetic to the other 5 guests for having to wait, but Jess didn't make us feel bad at all. We loved learning about the relatively young farm and about cacao as a plant. Jess cut open a pod for us to teach taste the beans. I found the beans bitter but the pulp so delicious -- that I then ate through a whole half-pod on my own! Then we went over the whole chocolate production process, which was very cool. And the samples -- nothing to say except absolutely delicious! Especially the liquid 70% -- wish I could take that home! Of course we ended up buying quite a bit from the gift shop, but gotta support that local business, right?! read more

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This was such a great informative and entertaining tour! The chocolate farm just suffered a devastating loss to one of their warehouses and this was on of the first tours. Our tour guide Courtney was a joy to have despite the unfortunate circumstances! Her humor, knowledge, and realness made the tour informative and fun!! I hope to be back for a tour in the future when they are back to full operation! read more

Lavaloha - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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Awesome!! Yes it's a drive up the mountain, yes it's a little off the beaten path but extremely worth every second and mile driven. The tour was the best tour on the big island of Hawaii. Our tour guide was so friendly, informative and entertaining. Jess was our guide and I will do it again the next time we are in Hawaii. Jess made the tour and was so interactive and knowledgeable. Fun and extremely good chocolate. Forever a fan of Lavaloha! It's a must do and must tour when you visit the big island. Must go back and we will. The souvenir shop is so much fun as well. If I could I would have bought 3 of everything. They do ship and that may break me. You have to try the 70% dark chocolate with sea salt, wow! I was not a dark chocolate fan but their dark chocolate I am. read more

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Such a GREAT tour Absolutely FANTASTIC!! We were a party of 6 ranging in age from 18-68. Loved it. Lacy was so kind and informative. We were fascinated by the tree to product tour. The property is beautiful with an amazing view of Hilo. The temps are a little cooler, so the porch is a perfect spot. Highly recommend for all ages. I would go again. Oh - the chocolate is DELICIOUS too. read more

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Chocolate farm where the chocolate is grown and processed there. Most surprising thing for me is to try cacao nectar juice with hint of lychee and lime together. Very refreshing and yummy. read more

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This was a highlight of our trip to Hilo. The chocolate is amazing. We ended up getting 10 bars of chocolate. We really enjoyed the tour. Our guide was awesome. So knowledgeable and really let us be hands on. You have to try the raw cacao bean with its sweet fruit. read more

Lavaloha - Sorting the beans. - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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At $43 this is severely overpriced. The tasting is kind of a joke. You get a few samples that are about the size of a chiclet. A better business model would be to offer free tours, provide larger samples, and they'd sell far more chocolate bars in the store. read more

Good job and very well shared information. This is a fun event to do for all including kids.

Came from Kona side to do the tour. Well worth 1 hr 45 minutes excursion to see countryside and dramatic change in climate-Hilo gets the most rain in US! Great tour includes eating the cocoa fruit strait from tree, eating the naturally dried cocoa bean, to tasting several dark, white and milk chocolate. Definitely best chocolate I've ever had-the orange chocolate is my personal favorite and hubby liked the salted dark read more

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We loved our time at the farm. Courtney was a knowledgeable and friendly guide. The views were just stunning. Very glad we booked this tour. read more

Lavaloha - Beautiful views! - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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This is the best chocolate tour we've found on Hawaii Island. Everything from the seedlings to the chocolate bars are covered. Very informative and delicious! The tour ends in the gift shop overlooking Hilo and the coast. read more

The tour of the chocolate farm was very interesting and enjoyable. It was cool to learn about how they grow and make their chocolates. And you even get to sample some of their chocolates. I would recommend this tour to anyone. Also, the view overlooking the farm, Hilo and the Pacific Ocean is incredible. read more

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Very good tour. Reasonably priced and learned a lot. Their chocolate was quite tasty. Jess was a great guide for our group

My family and I took this tour and had a great time. The tour guide was friendly and seemed to enjoy teaching you about where chocolate comes from. We enjoyed eating from the cacao and found it interesting how floral it tasted. The property is beautiful. I would definitely recommend visiting if your considering a chocolate tour during your visit read more

Lavaloha - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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We loved this tour! I mostly wanted to take a tour to try a raw cacao fruit after having seen YouTuber Chef Nick DiGiovanni taste the fruit on a show my son was watching. But, our tour guide was so personal and knowledgeable, it really added to the whole experience. We loved seeing the drying beds for the cocoa nibs, and of course the chance to taste the chocolate was a highlight. Definitely a recommended experience! read more

Very educational and we really enjoyed the tour. The location is breathtaking, I would highly recommend it

Excellent tour with the guide describing the history of chocolate and how the farm processes pods into chocolate! Highly recommend!

Enjoyed the Lavaloha Tour in Hilo! Thanks Jess for taking us on a fun and informational adventure. Enjoyed the chocolate sampling and the assortment was delicious! Will surely recommend this tour to our Ohana and friends. Simply worth taking seeing the beautiful and bountiful Chocolate trees of Hilo. Mahalo nui loa, until we meet again. read more

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So fun and informative! I have a whole new appreciation for chocolate makers! Izzy was a great tour guide! Gave us lots of info and the samples were yummy! read more

Really cool experience. The staff were friendly and knowledgeable, and I learned a lot about chocolate. Definitely worth it!

This has been an amazing experience. Didn't even know we had this amazing chocolate farm here on our island. Learning about the different trees and how they make chocolate. And WOW. The taste of it was phenomenal. Their gift shop yessss best experience ever. Jess was an amazing tour guide very knowledgeable. She made our experience the best. Thank you Jess read more

Lavaloha - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

Took my family here for a chocolate tour they are from California. My mother is 80 and I chose this place because they have trams that you can sit in and see the tour from, all the tastings were great. Kayla was wonderful as in explaining the property and the different types of chocolate to us And how the chocolate process operates. I would recommend this to everybody. read more

Jessica took us around the farm and she was an extra fast talker so make a point to keep your ears open!! Plenty of sampling along the tour. read more

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Izzy was a great host. Telling us interesting facts and history. The chocolate was very good. read more

Lavaloha - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

I'm a chocolate lover and realized that I've never taken a chocolate farm tour yet! So when my mom planned a last-minute trip to Hilo, I googled "Hilo chocolate farm tour" and Lavaloha popped up first in the search feed. After reading many glowing reviews, I decided to book an afternoon tour for the next day-and thankfully they still had openings! Our tour guide, Jess, was a vibrant personality with so much information to share from start to finish. While also being very knowledgeable, she also took really good care of the guests, as our tour cart was stocked with fresh towels and umbrellas. It started raining right after we arrived, so the umbrellas were very helpful. I loved learning about the process of chocolate, seeing the many cocoa trees, and sampling a cocoa pod bean (slimy sweet on the outside, nutty and bitter on the inside), along with its final forms (liquid 70% was delicious). I'm usually a dark chocolate fan because mass produced milk chocolate (like Hershey's) tastes overly sweet and plastic-y-but sampling Lavaloha's milk chocolate changed my mind! It just goes to show how Lavaloha's process (and probably higher content of cacao/cocoa butter) makes it taste so much better. I'm usually not one to buy tons at the gift shop, but knowing how delicious and high quality their chocolate was encouraged me to go on a mini chocolate shopping spree-to also share how delicious their chocolate is with my fellow chocolate loving friends back at home in Oahu. My mom and I had a wonderful time on their tour and highly recommend it! :) read more

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What a fun tour! We were just passing through Hilo and joined a tour somewhat last minute, and I'm glad that we did LOVED learning about cacao from tree to chocolate bar and having the opportunity to taste it every step of the way Their chocolate really is delicious! We bought a couple of bags to take home as gifts, & for us, the hubby liked the white chocolate the best and I loved their orange dark chocolate read more

Lavaloha - We got to try the cacao pods fresh! - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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For my birthday, my husband and I island jumped to Hilo. We arrived to a very beautiful view overlooking the mountains and the ocean below. Parking and navigating to the location was pretty simple and we got here in time to check in for a quick glimpse of the gift shop. Our tour guide, Nick, was such a source of knowledge and patient with all of our questions. We got started on the tour in time and there was enough room for us to sit comfortably in the cart- no over crowding at all. We shared the tour with a family and he was able to make it entertaining for both adults and the kids. We learnt more about chocolate than we expected and embarrassingly thought about white chocolate for the rest of the day more than we would like to admit. I ended with buying the white chocolate with ube and chocolate and should have bought two bags. We ended the tour bonding with the duck in the center garden walking by the stream and adoring the hydrangeas. Thank you for making my birthday a one to remember! read more

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On time, price is right. The driver was nice and knowledgeable, the view was beautiful. Very interesting. I wish I saw pigs but didn't. It's ok. read more

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We had such a great experience on our tour! The tour guide was so knowledgeable and it was soo cool to see the steps it takes to make chocolate. I had no idea how much went into it. I highly suggest this to anyone visiting the island. read more

Lavaloha - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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We found this place on Yelp and it sounded like a good way to explore what Hilo has to offer, so off we went. It never occurred to us (me) that we needed to make a reservation for the tour, so when we arrived we found that the day was already booked. We just did not connect the dots between a tour and needing a reservation for some reason. The tour costs $39 per adult and $7 for a kid which seems expensive so maybe it is for the best. We instead walked around the grounds a bit and explored the gift shop, buying some dark chocolate, which was very good. You get 2 oz for $12.99. The owners were very friendly. The drive itself is not far from Hilo but much of the road is unpaved once you depart from the highway. read more

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We had a wonderful time learning how chocolate is cultivated and made! And the best part was sampling all that chocolate goodness! Definitely a must do while in Hilo. read more

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Our guide was amazing. She knew so much and explained everything to us easily! Chicokstd was really yummy! Great little tour I recommend!

Their chocolate is amazing, and this tour was definitely the best I've ever been on. It was very thorough, interesting, and fun! I would 100% recommend it. P.S. Phil is amazing read more

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my family had a wonderful tour at Lavaloha on Thursday July 20,2023!! Leigh was our very informative tour guide!! Leigh spoke clearly, answered questions quickly and was a delightful guide!! we love her enthusiasm of chocolate!! We loved ALL flavors of Lavaloha chocolates!! A wonderful tour and tour guide!! read more

Lavaloha - A beautiful view from the site!! - Chocolatiers & Shops Near Me - Hilo, Hawaii

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We heard great things about this place So it's our last day visiting and decided to stop by to pickup some chocolate. To our surprise they have so much different stuff from chocolate, coffee, tea, hot sauce, shortbread and etc. from what I seen. We were Greeted by Cole and kylee that provided great customer service and had a wealth of knowledge about the various products and how it's made. They were so sweet by allowing us to sample some of their chocolates. We got some of of there coffee that they grow 100% Hilo coffee bean, extra dark chocolate 90%, dark chocolate orange zest, sea salt, white & matcha chocolate cacao nib We had a blast and most definitely be back to pickup more of you foolks great snacks Next time we'll schedule an appointment for your folks tour Thank again read more

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