Manao Chocolate is one of the top few largest craft bean to bar chocolate makers in the US today.  It was founded in 2010 by Dylan Butterbaugh, who was born and raised in Hawai‘i, as a way to build a local business from an environmentally sustainable tree crop and support supply chain transparency. 

Tamara Butterbaugh, who owns Manoa Chocolate along with Dylan, is also a chocolate sommelier. And while she’s been building out an export market for chocolate, she is also building out the local supply chain for ‘ulu, or breadfruit. 

‘Ulu is what is called a canoe crop: the crops that the original Hawai‘ians brought with them to the islands nearly 2,000 years ago. The crop plays an important role in Hawai‘ian traditional culture and was a valued staple crop until around the time of statehood in 1959, when American processed foods began to dominate the scene.  Bringing it back now closes a circle on a wheel that was broken by the twentieth century agricultural industrialization of Hawai‘i. In addition, ‘ulu is one of the only staple food crops to grow on trees; it helps mitigate climate change, and ensures a long term abundance and prosperity in the local food supply chain. The beautiful ‘ulu tree helps to sequester carbon, it doesn’t need soil tilling or weed control, and it is heat and drought tolerant. One tree can live for 50 to 100 years or more and produce hundreds of pounds of fruit per year.  

Tamara lives in Waimānalo where she maintains a 1-acre diversified farm with loʻi kalo (taro), maiʻa (banana), ʻulu (breadfruit), niu (coconut), and kokoleka (cacao)

For more info: 

• Hawaii Ulu Cooperative – Farmer-owned, ʻāina grown. There’s lots to learn on this website about ‘ulu; and you can shop online there.
• ‘Ulu Education Toolkit Guide - STEMS² (hawaii.edu) If you want to grow your own ‘ulu, here is a University of Hawai‘i education toolkit
• View by season – Manoa Chocolate Hawaii A TV series from the owners of Mānoa Chocolate, Craft Chocolate TV provides educational info for  fellow chocolate makers, chocolate lovers, and the general public on the art and process of bean-to-bar chocolate making
• Bean-to-Bar Hawaiian Chocolate Factory, Handmade in Kailua – Manoa Chocolate Hawaii You will love browsing this website for its rich info on the places and people that produce this glorious chocolate. And you can shop online for chocolate bars to be shipped to wherever you are.
• Hawaiichocolate.org - Cacao, Chocolate, Chocolatier. Website home to the Hawai‘i Chocolate and Cacao Association.

Credits: 

Created, produced, and hosted by Paula Daniels

Sound engineer: Keola Iseri and Rob Pera 

Project support: Sue Woodard

Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa

Logo: Reiko Quitevis, Sue Woodard

Thanks to our sponsor, the Hawai‘i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai‘i - West O'ahu

Thanks also to the students at Waipahu High School for sound creation (Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal) and graphic design (Ashley Alfaro, Erika Pagtulingan, Reiko Quitevis); and their teachers, Noelle- lili Edejer and Sky Bruno.