Think about a crystal-clear, crackling plastic bag of Hawaii-made potato chips, and the red and yellow graphics spelling out the brand name.

What your mind’s eye is showing you may depend on your age and the Hawaiian island upon which you were raised, or even the district of the island where you first encountered the crunchy, salted treats.

You may have thought about Maui Potato Chips Factory’s Kitch’n Cook’d brand, or the separately owned and operated Kitch’n Cook’d chips made in Kona.

The very first one in Hawaii though, was Hilo-based Atebara Chip Co., founded in 1936.

Depending on where it was depicted, the brand’s red and yellow "potato man" wore a coconut papale (hat) and a lei, or a chef’s toque, alongside the words "Atebara’s," "Hilo Hawaiian potato chips" and so on.

The potato chip bags were redesigned for a time but have since been brought back to the market to honor customers’ familiarity with and nostalgia for the packaging.

Atebara’s potato chips, as well as the taro chips that saved the company’s life through a potato scarcity during World War II, are still made the same way, and the company is still family-owned and operated, though not by Raymond Atebara’s descendants.

Nimr Tamimi and his father-in-law, accountant Clyde Oshiro, bought the company in 2002.

The two didn’t want to lose yet another source of Hilo omiyage, or traditional gifts people buy when traveling to take home, Tamimi said.

Under Tamimi’s leadership the company has introduced a wide swath of goodies, including varieties of cookies, chocolates and chocolate barks — some of which are studded with potato, taro or sweet-potato chip bits — and macadamia nuts in various flavors, including furikake.

Perhaps the most unusual chocolate bark the company makes is its Fire and Ice Bark, which is Hawaiian chili-pepper-infused white chocolate marbled with peppermint-infused white chocolate; it sells for $7.

Other bark varieties incorporate ginger, coconut, Hawaiian coffee or lilikoi flavors.

The company produces a line of chocolate barks bearing a butterfly design and chocolate crunches in butterfly shapes exclusively for sale by Neiman Marcus, an arrangement for which Tamimi expresses gratitude, as he does for the gift shops in upscale hotels and resorts that also sell his products.

Tamimi feels strongly about running the business as sustainably as possible and maintaining as small a footprint as possible. Russet potatoes aren’t grown in Hawaii, but the taro and sweet potatoes are Hawaii-grown and sourced from small farmers, as are many of the flavoring ingredients the company uses such as lilikoi and coffee. The macadamia nuts the company sells are from Hamakua.

Waste oil is turned into fuel by Big Island Biodiesel LLC, and food waste goes to a piggery and not to a landfill, he said.

The company’s chips, whether potato, taro or purple sweet potato, are still made the Atebara way, with only two additional ingredients: canola oil and salt.

Some limited-time flavors, such as the currently offered Hawaiian chili pepper potato chips and taro chips, are offered exclusively at the company’s shop on Manono Street, where the business has been located since the infamous tsunami of 1946.

While Hawai’i Island Gourmet Products’ taro chips and sweet potato chips can be found at retail stores around the islands, and its chocolates and cookies can be found in upscale hotel gift shops around the islands, "we try to keep Atebara’s potato chips" available exclusively in Hilo, he said.

Tropical chocolates are a growth category for Hawai’i Island Gourmet Products, Tamimi said, "and we want to go bean to bar," so the company will be growing cacao on land recently purchased in Waiakea.

His passion for Hawai’i Island Gourmet Products is relatively recent.

Tamimi also is known in engineering circles in Hawaii and on the mainland, as his Hilo-based Engineering Partners Inc. has offices in Nevada and Florida. It provides services in a range of engineering disciplines including civil, mechanical and structural, he said.

While Oshiro now focuses on his own business, it was the desire he and Tamimi had to maintain a part of Hilo’s history for having the first chip company in Hawaii that has driven the company to keep going through difficult times and changing consumer buying habits.

"I wanted my kids to grow up eating Atebara’s potato chips and for other kids in Hawaii to be able to eat them, too," Tamimi said.

"We’re very grateful to the community for supporting us," he said.

WHERE TO BUY

Hawaii island

>> Hawai‘i Island Gourmet Products’ Manono Street gift shop

>> KTA

>> Hilo Airport

Oahu

>> Marukai

>> Don Quijote

>> Times Supermarkets

>> Honolulu Airport

Maui

>> Safeway

>> Longs Drugs

Kauai

>> Big Save (sometimes)

Buy Local runs on Aloha Fridays. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.