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As Salt at Our Kaka‘ako continues to expand, it connects the community more and more with artisan shops that present fine products made locally.
One that opened quietly a few days ago is Lonohana Estate Chocolate, which takes its small-batch chocolates from bean to bar. Its grand opening is Friday.
At any given time, the shop rotates eight to 10 selections from its lineup of about 15 bars. On Monday the choices included chocolate with cacao nibs, chilies, Molokai salt and ginger and orange essential oils.
The majority of bars are made with cacao grown on Lonohana’s 14 acres on the North Shore; other cacao beans are sourced from Hawaii island growers and farms in Ecuador and Honduras.
While paying a visit, try samples of about half a dozen selections and learn firsthand how much depth of flavor a little piece of chocolate can deliver. Then figure out which is your favorite. Brace yourself. Top-quality, artisan chocolate does not come cheap: 2.3-ounce bars range from $12 to $20.
But here it is a case of “You get what you pay for.” Even a bar labeled “dark milk,” with 50 percent Hawaii cacao, is rich with chocolate flavor even as it bears the creaminess of milk — the best of both worlds. If you like salt, the Salted Milk bar is heaven.
The store will soon serve sipping chocolates in cold and hot preparations. And for savory preparations, Lonohana offers a lineup of finishing salts mixed with items such as coconut, lemon and turmeric, each starting with a base of cacao nibs.
Lonohana Estate Chocolate is at 344 Coral St. in the Salt complex. Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Wednesdays and noon to 7 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays; closed Sundays. Call 286-8531. Visit lonohana.com.
— Joleen Oshiro, Star-Advertiser
NEW INSTACART SERVICE EASES SHOPPING STRESS
If a busy lifestyle has you racing from one task to the next, here’s a service that will give you a chance to breathe: Instacart, the nation’s largest grocery delivery service, which launched last week on Oahu and in Kahului.
How it works: Set up an account at instacart.com, then shop via the site for items from Foodland, Times Supermarkets, Safeway, Costco, CVS and Petco. Pay with a credit card, and an Instacart shopper will pick up your order and deliver it to your door.
Fee is $5.99 per order, and delivery can be scheduled as quickly as an hour after ordering (for 10 items or less) or up to a week in advance. Orders must be at least $10. Note that during busy hours a higher “busy pricing” delivery fee could be applied.
A few words of caution: Safeway and Times items are marked up for Instacart service, as are many Costco items. At Costco, for instance, a rotisserie chicken purchased for $4.99 at the warehouse is $6.09 via Instacart. Four pounds of Kirkland organic ground beef is $21.99 at the warehouse, $24.39 delivered.
But there are ways to save. Monthly ($14.99) or annual ($149) Express memberships come with free delivery on orders of at least $35.
Some 140,000 isle households have access to Instacart.
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