No Longer Joking

[KauaiHiker]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I've been farming since 1970.

Well, then I take back what I said about you not being a farmer. Now I see that you wrote you weren't a "beginning farmer." I understood you weren't a farmer at all (like me, I'm neither a beginning farmer nor an experienced farmer). The skills you listed for yourself were making and marketing candy. It would've helped your pitch to be clearer on that fact.

As for "candy," I think of the chococlate coated confections are usually created with inferior chocolate because the flavor isn't so dominant. I was more thinking of the growing pure-chocolate consciousness in the US. Plus, the coated bon-bon market is pretty saturated with tourists buying up the various Hawaiian Host chocolates. Sure, you could be selling a *Hawaiian* chocolate bon-bon, and you'd get some traction with tourists here. But the mainland is already blanketed by giants like See's and local favorites in seemingly every state (Esther's in Ohio).

A data point for you: my friend growing and processing cacao on Kaua'i says he would have to sell it for way more than the market would bear if he packaged his chocolate at 70%. So he has to mix in various cheaper ingredients (coconut milk or mac nuts). But even with blended ingredients, I'm thinking you can probably leverage the Hawaiian origin much better in the quality/organic chocolate bar market across the mainland.

[hotzcatz]

It also depends on how big of a chocolate business he's thinking of. A small hobby business would be a good start so you'd be able to figure out if a larger business would be viable. Start small and grow.