“Now, don’t just gobble it down all at once.”
When Will Lydgate is introducing people to his Kauai chocolate, he suggests they melt it in their mouths first, to allow the flavor of the estate-grown cacao to reach full impact on their palates. Invariably, Lydgate Farms visitors exclaim over the light, mellow taste and the lack of bitterness and astringency that often puts Americans off dark chocolate. “Never knew it could taste as good as this,” they report.
“There’s nothing intrinsically bitter about dark chocolate,” Lydgate tells them. “You’ve just had bad dark chocolate.”
Cacao nibs made from estate-grown cacao beans at Lydgate Farms in Kapaa, Hawaii. The nibs will go on to be ground and transformed into incredible chocolate.（Courtesy of Lydgate Farms）
Will Lydgate, owner of Lydgate Farms and the fifth generation of a Kauai farming family, cuts open a cacao pod.（Courtesy of Lydgate Farms）
An outspoken advocate for the nascent Hawaiian Islands chocolate industry, and the fifth generation of a Kauai farming family, Lydgate’s enthusiasm for his business is as deep and potent as his chocolate. Lydgate Farms’s 46-acre location on Kauai’s east shore, nestled in the foothills of Mount Waialeale, has 3,000 cacao trees, some as old as 20 years—making it one of the larger and older cacao orchards in the islands….