Kokoa Bar by Ricard Chocolat

I came here for a chocolate Bon Bon making class with my cousins and I was kind of disappointed. I thought we would actually be doing something artful, like hand painting designs on little chocolates that we filled various centers or something similar. What we ACTUALLY did was melt down some chocolate in a microwave for twenty minutes, poured it into molds over a sheet of transfer paper, stuck a couple of pieces of shredded coconut, Oreo, or sea salt on the bottom, stuck it in the fridge to cool. Took a mallet to it and then put the little squares into a plastic bag and that was it. I was less than impressed. Furthermore when we were in the process of microwaving the chocolate, stirring it, microwaving, stirring, so on and so forth, we had talked about our experiences with working with chocolate. I had raised my hand that I had worked with chocolate in the past. She asked what my experience was and I told her that I had made chocolate covered fruit and instead of gradually bringing down the temperature, I added about a teaspoon of crisco to my chips and stirred it and microwaved it. Well I might as well have punched that woman in the face. CRISCO?!?! "Well if YOU choose to put that stuff in, that's your choice." Goodness lady, it was an online recipe and it's not like I was eating crisco by the spoonful out of the tub. Chill out. Turns out through the class I came to realize she was very much into whole foods and I'm just not that much of a stickler that I won't add a bit of shortening once in a blue moon. To each their own. But I did feel like a bit of a pariah.
Anyway, their merchandise was on sale (store is closing perhaps?) so I bought a sampler of the REAL bonbons that were made by the employees for mysd and my husband. They were pretty good.
Overall it wasn't a bad experience but I won't do it again.

Kokoa Bar is a local confectionery that not only sells store-made chocolates, but also has gelato, belgian waffles, espresso, and even fondue. The store is small but you can find it easily as soon as you walk up the stairs to enter the Queen Kapiolani Hotel.

I came to Kokoa Bar to use a Groupon for a chocolate making class by Richard, the owner. I was really excited to learn about chocolate, as well as designing and making my own to take home. The class was not much hands-on, but I did find it very interesting and fun for the whole hour.

Richard got down to the science and roots of how chocolate is made, from the fruit, to the bean, to the bar. He also let us sample many different chocolate products, such as cocoa butter, peanut mousse bonbons, chili pepper bonbons, strawberry daiquiri moon pies, and wasabi pea white chocolate bark.

The cocoa butter had a waxy flavor, which he let us sample because that is what white chocolate starts out as. The peanut mousse was so creamy, it was my favorite thing that we got to taste. The chili pepper filling was creamy as well, and left a little tingle of heat on my tongue. The moon pies were interesting, they had a great flavor to the filling but I did not care for the crunchy chocolate-covered cookie. The wasabi pea chocolate was an interesting concept, and not spicy at all.

I had a great experience at this class, although it was a bit disorganized in the beginning with checking in for the class, and the store is a little tight for fifteen people.

Chocolate bars and chocolate chips are sold by the pound, and there are gift boxes available for purchase. I want to come back and eat some gelato, or even try the chocolate fondue!

My friend purchased the groupon for 4 people to take the chocolate making class. The class was supposed to start at 10:30 a.m. I should first say that I had just run a 5K that morning and had no time for breakfast (my own fault) so I was really eager to start the class. It seemed the class before us went a little overboard and some lady kept yapping in the store about how good the chocolates are.. lady, we get it, they're chocolates after all. Needless to say, the class started half hour later and I was regretting the fact that I didn't eat. Apparently he was waiting for 6 other people that were registered for the class but over slept. Hey.. we should not be punished for some douche bags. We took the time to get to class on time..a little consideration?

Class: it wasn't as entertaining as I was expecting. He basically warms the chocolate, talks about chocolate making process, gives you a mold that he fills, and gives you bunch of fruit and wasabi peas to drop into the mold. I thought I would get dirtier and actually warm my own chocolate. No luck. In the end, he gives you all the chocolates you made and gives you several other samples from his shop. I don't even remember them.. guess it didn't leave a lasting impression. I heart Lindt.

There's a gelato section and a candy bar. Neither looked appetizing enough. The make your own ice cream sandwich is over priced ($6) and it's not even a big ice cream sandwich.

The hotel valet is $6... not bad for Waikiki.

Adorable chocolate shop in the Queen Kapiolani Hotel lobby. I Instagrammed the crap out of it!

I bought the groupon for the chocolate class ($49 for two, which essentially matches the price on their website right now). I wish it had been a little more hands-on, like another reviewer. It was only an hour long, and the two of us brought home 28 chocolates.

Admittedly, I'm a harsh critic - I've taught culinary science and I do a lot of advanced-amateur/semi-professional pastry work. I've been to chocolate museums and factories around the world. I didn't learn anything here I didn't already know. But, that honestly wasn't my focus - I did this to have a fun morning out with my husband and to give us an excuse to head down to Waikiki on a lovely Saturday morning and discover a place we hadn't been. And to that end, it served us well!

We picked a transfer sheet, loaded it into our mold, handed it over to Richard to fill with chocolate, then pressed bits of dried pineapple, papaya, oreo, or wasabi peas into the filled cavities. Since it's one sheet/tray per two people, singles could feel a little awkward here - or else make a new friend! Off our trays went to set up, and we got on with the rest of the class and tasting.

Richard told us about the growing, harvesting, and processing of chocolate. We tasted cacao nibs, three different cacao-percentages of chocolate, and plain cocoa butter. Tried freshly-chocolate-coated dried mango (okay), a lilikoi truffle (better), and a honey truffle (I'd go back for these - delicious!).

At the end, our trays of chocolates were pulled out of the chiller, tapped them out on a tray, and we bagged them up to take home.

I'm not sure our chocolate was properly tempered, as our bonbons have none of the characteristic snap of tempered chocolate and are much more fudge-like. That said, their 72% chocolate is delicious - we'll still eat them! :)

My latte was good, if a little pricey, though the milk-foaming was press-a-button-and-leave-it automatic. Staff was friendly, even though it took our group a while to wake up. Most ingredients are locally-sourced, which I'm a huge fan of. There is an advanced class that gets into the ganaches and filled truffles. Their gift boxes were lovely and truffle flavors are local and interesting - and I would definitely return to purchase them as gifts.

Parking available directly across Kapahulu at the Zoo is hard to beat - $1/hour.

My son and I came after our zoo visit. Both thirsty and craving for something cold and this was like an oasis in a dessert!
The lady at cashier was kind. We ordered a small for $4.00 to share and she let us choose 2 flavors. We had banana with mac nut and passion fruit. It's like sorbet - not too heavy and refreshing.
They also sell coffee and certainly those cute looking hand-made find chocolates! I will definitely return especially after visit to the zoo!

Got the Groupon deal for the chocolate making class. Overall...Had a fun time with my mom at Richard's chocolate Bon Bon making class. Was lucky to be in a small class ---only 3 people ---so it was much more pleasurable. Glad I didn't read any of the reviews prior to coming as it would have colored my experience.

Richard explained the essential of making chocolate, was interactive during the class, gave us samples of different Bon Bons, and answered a lot of questions. Also watched a video explaining the cocoa plantations, tried different types of cocoa, and even played with cocoa liquor.

Richard is very passionate about chocolate and his business. I think he probably put in lots of hours and hard work into his business....so I commend him for work.

Got to take away personally made chocolate Bon Bons to enjoy and share. =)

I had a medium cup of ice cream before breakfast. It was half Hawaiian pineapple and half Maui mango. Pineapple has tiny pineapple chucks mixed in and is not very creamy, definitely tastes very refreshing and healthy. Mango is excellent too, flavorful and creamy, yet still feels lighter than the Haagen-Dazs mango ice cream.

I would have given it 5 stars, if the staff looked happier and the ice cream cups were a little bigger.

Before buying Living Social or Groupon vouchers I usually check Yelp reviews because I don't like to show up places and be a sad panda, but when I got the notification of a Living Social deal for chocolate making classes I figured "sure why not" and went on my merry way.

The night before the class I started reading the reviews and became very very afraid of encountering the chocolate version of the Soup Nazi upon entering the store. Reading through some reviews they made it seem like the owner of the shop was a giant dirt bag who made people feel like terrible people.

When my friend and I arrived to the shop, we were greeted by a man who chattered with us about where we were from, where he was from, where he went to school and the fact that he shared the same disdain I had for the midwest. He checked us in for the class, and we ordered coffees to drink while we waited for the class to begin. Imagine my surprise when he put on his white chef top and he was the mystical evil shop owner Ricard.... Yep...not evil or mean at all.

Ricard taught the class about tempering chocolate, the difference between chocolates and the need for cocoa butter. We were given trasfer papers for our bonbons and got to make molds, Ricard filled our molds with chocolate and we got to fill them with our choice of pineapple, papaya, cookies and salts. Ricard grows a lot of his fruits at home and spoke about his philosophy of trying to use as much local product as possible.

This class is not very hands on but the advanced class which I inquired about will be a lot more hands on where you learn to make ganache, and to fill candies with different flavors and experiment with them as well.

In the class we also got to taste three chocolates the espresso filled, honey filled and the green tea filled and they were really great. I'm glad that the shop is a drive from my home because this would be a problem habit for me.

All in all this was a very enjoyable class and I am really unsure why the shop owner has so many bad reviews for his personality. He was very nice to everyone and definitely not a meanie. My friend and I will definitely be looking into taking the advanced class and eating more chocolates.

Located in the Queen Kapiolani Hotel in the lobby, Kokoa Bar was forgettable. I really wanted to give this place a better review. I really really did! It's not often that you find a local chocolate maker. I love Manoa Chocolate and had very high expectations about a store in Waikiki.

Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the chocolate. I tried 4 different bonbons, but could not differentiate between the flavors. We also bought some fudge, and it tasted to me more like an oversized chocolate bar instead of an actual fudge taste and consistency.

Luckily the lovely Aussie lady working the store kept this from going down to one star. She was so friendly and knowledgeable about the entire store. She was such a great person to meet.

However for the price we paid for the chocolate, this did not meet my expectations.

It's sad to see that Ricard still hasn't changed after all this time and so many bad reviews.

I'll be straight forward! Unpleasant experience. I purchased the groupon for a chocolate making class. Didn't actually make any chocolate. There was a total of 9 people crammed inside a little studio size candy shop. The "chocolate making" process is each person gets to pour melted chocolate into a mold. And watch a short video. Also Richard is very short and rude when asking questions. We arrived early to our "class" that was suppose to start at 10am but didn't go inside till 10:15am because we were told to wait outside without a kind explanation as to why when clearly other people are inside.

Don't waste your money!! Buy yourself some yummy chocolate elsewhere. Even the ones we got with our class didn't stand out above the rest. I'll stick to sees candy!!