This year's event was held at the beautiful Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel.
This was our first year attending and we were beyond excited.
It's supposed to be a Chocolate Freak's heaven. We could hardly wait!
Since we love the Prince so much and have enjoyed many birthdays there, we decided to stay the night. There weren't anymore garden view rooms available when I made the reservations, so I had to book an ocean view. When we checked in we found out that they were at full occupancy, so we were bumped up to ground floor, ocean front.
We have never experienced this luxury before at this resort, so we were stoked!
We walked right out of our room and onto the beach.
A quick selfie before heading out to the gala. I don't know what kind of filter decided to mysteriously assist with this shot, but damn, our faces look flawless.
The brochure boasted luscious, smooth, rich, sweet, savory, and decadent culinary masterpieces. The festival did not disappoint.
Here's the list of all the participants and our chance to vote for our favorites.
The theme for this year's event was, Lavalicious - A Chocolate Salute to the 100th Birthday of
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. There were lots of food and beverage booths outside,
so hit those "savory" chocolate delights that had protein first.
There was plenty of time before we graduated to the sweet stuff.
These were some type of crab stacked concoction with a chili chocolate glaze.
A familiar face, Aaron Sharkey from Hilo Sharks Coffee handed out samples of Chocolate.
Delicious food samples flowed in abundance all night long.
These chili's were tempting, but we stayed clear. Moving along....
Running into friends at events is so much fun! More familiar faces.
Nohea and her fiance, hung out with us for a while. They were enjoying the selections of wine...
...while Jimmy enjoyed dark brew from Kona Brewing Co...
and I enjoyed the best chocolate martinis of my life!
Now, I do wish I would have paid more attention to how they were made!!!
This was my favorite entry. I thought the display was adorable and the mousse was fantastic.
Ballots were handed out so we could vote for our favorite Chef's booth.
We could vote for one "Sweet" Chef's booth and one "Savory" Chef's booth
for the People's Choice Awards.
I know it's probably hard to believe, given their popularity over the last few years, but I had never tried a macaroon before. Well, these were rich, but light, and melted in our mouths!
I'm so hooked. Newest obsession. I finally get what the fuss is all about.
More rich, gooey, goodness in every bite!
Time to leave our new fun friends at the Kona Brewing booth and head on inside and head on over to the giant chocolate fountain.
These delightful looking cups of rich chocolate mousse mixture were the perfect springtime treat.
Back inside to refill and mingle. Now can we go to the chocolate fountain?
Here's the list of all of the participants in this year's event.
These cuties were beautifully presented right down to the edible "vintage" sugar bottle that looks as if it's just washed up on the shore containing a secret message...
"You've got to be here next year!"
Finally, I made it! And, the taste was smooth, rich, and creamy just like I imagined!
Fresh vanilla bean products were represented too.
Okay, we are having too much fun! This was a volcano made from 400 lbs. of chocolate!
It even had red and orange colored chocolate lava oozing from the caldera complete with billowing smoke!
These girls were fun and their dessert was simply divine... Manage a Trois something or other.
Here's a close up of their lighted chocolate volcano presentation and dessert.
Gourmet Chocolate samples were available for the purest.
More and more samples! Almost never ending.
But, alas it did.
As we waddled through the lobby and down to the beach to dip our feet in the cool water,
we reflected on all of the outrageously decadent desserts we got to sample, the spirited cocktails, the amazing presentations, the energy it must have taken to put all of it together, how we danced to great music, and mostly enjoyed the fun people and energy. We felt like royals for the evening.
We highly recommend this experience, you won't be disappointed. Charitable organizations benefiting from the Silent Auction were Kona Pacific Public Charter School and ACF Kona Kohala Chef's Assn./University of Hawaii
It's a beautiful morning in paradise. Off to enjoy a hearty breakfast.
We just love eating at the Ocean Terrace for breakfast. Whether we indulge in their awesome buffet and omelette station, or order off the menu like we did this time,
we are always happy and satisfied. After this we're heading to the ocean for some sunshine, and lap up the sound of the waves on the shore before heading home.
The trip went by quickly, but what a wonderful over night get-away.
lucky we live Big Island.