Most of the world’s chocolate starts on farms near the equator, in places like Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Ecuador. In the U.S., only one state can grow cacao commercially, which makes Hawaiian chocolate a rare thing. On the Kona side of Hawaii’s Big Island, Greg Colden and Marty Corrigan have grown it since 2008 at Kokoleka Lani Farms, five acres that used to be an abandoned rock quarry. In 2019, their cacao earned one of the International Cocoa Awards, the Cocoa of Excellence program’s top honor for growers. Salon du Chocolat in Paris hosted the awards. The Kokoleka Lani entry was a joint harvest with two neighboring Kona farms. For a young industry, it was a turning point. It showed the chocolate world that cacao from Kona could compete with any other. Today, the farm grows roughly 1,500 cacao trees and 300 coffee trees. It sells its own private-label Hawaiian chocolate bars, and it runs Kona Natural Soap Company on the same land. Visitors can tour the whole operation, from cacao pod to finished bar. Below, Greg Colden talks about leaving insurance for farming, the win in Paris, and what it will take to put Hawaiian chocolate on the global…