In 2013, Dr. Gunars Valkirs, leased the farmland that would become the Maui Kuʻia Estate cacao farm. He began work on a cacao farm operation with the first cacao plantings and blessings occurring on the 2013 winter solstice. The winter solstice marks the estate's oldest trees - special hybrids that were created by our VP of Farm & Factory Operations, Dan O’Doherty.

By the time the first ten acres were planted in 2016, Gunars had to decide how to keep growing high-quality cacao while also maintaining an economically sustainable farm. The only way to make the business viable was to make and sell chocolate, but Gunars had a bigger mission. Though the farm may have started as a hobby for their CEO, the decision to start a chocolate company was born.

Through their family foundation, Makana Aloha Foundation, Gunars and his wife, JoRene, recognized that the needs in the non-profit community could not be met by current funding and wanted to do more. They decided to invest in building a chocolate company where 100% of net-profits would be given back to the Maui community, their home.

The decision to create a mission-driven chocolate company triggered factory design and construction, which was completed in late 2019.