Best RecipesKing Koko Samoa News Recipes

If you've ever emailed me or commented asking "Where can I buy koko Samoa?", well today, dear readers, I have the answer - King Koko Samoa!

Copyright: King Koko Samoa

Now doesn't that name bring to mind a good, strong drink?

I'm so happy to welcome to the blog Michael King who is the production specialist at King Koko Samoa. He'll share with us the story of his long association with Samoa's beloved drink, the secret to making quality koko and a promotion that could see you win 10 blocks of King Koko Samoa.

1. Please give us a brief background to your company. 
We established King Koko Company in January 2014 after several months of 
production and development. We made high quality Koko right off the bat, but we 
needed the supplies and facility to make Koko blocks in greater quantities. We’re 
now established in Utah County and selling our Koko online and in smaller local 
stores. We plan to branch out to stores in cities such as Tacoma, Sacramento, Los 
Angeles, Kansas City, and New York City. We want to make our Koko available to 
Samoan communities everywhere. 

2. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into the koko Samoa 
business? 
Growing up in American Samoa I loved the Koko. When my wife and I were 
newlyweds in Hawaii we couldn’t find quality Koko Samoa, so I started flying to 
Apia to buy all the Koko I could find. My father owned part of the airline, so I could 
fly free. He had married a Samoan woman who had family ties to large cocoa 
plantations. When she found out that I was traveling so much to buy Koko, she 
suggested that I purchase Samoan beans and make the Koko in Hawaii. She taught 
me the right way to make perfect Koko Samoa, and I carried the recipe back to 
Hawaii with a desire to bring the Koko to the Samoan community living there. 

I started importing beans from Samoa and my wife and I would roast and process the 
Koko – selling it to about 17 stores on Oahu. Every Saturday I would leave Laie at 
7AM and deliver the Koko to my stores. By the time I got back home around Noon, 
the stores would be calling for more Koko. But I could never produce enough. Local 
Samoans loved our Koko. It has been 30 years since I did that. 

Several months ago my son asked me if I still remembered how to make the Koko. I 
found that I still remembered some of the secrets that my Samoan mother taught me. 
So I knew I still had it in me to produce high quality Koko Samoa. Last fall we 
started making Koko again and things have progressed pretty quickly. 

Copyright: King Koko Samoa

3. What makes your koko stand out from the rest? 
We start with the most important ingredient: the cocoa bean. We select only the 
finest bean that has undergone the proper fermentation process. The next step is the 
roast, and timing is key. After cooling and winnowing, our nibs are 100% pure cocoa 
– no shells or fillers. We then shape our Koko into 8 ounce blocks. Our Koko is 
always fresh, and the feedback has been extremely positive. People love our Koko 
and keep coming back to the stores for more. 

Yes, I remember ordering some koko straight from Samoa once and there were burnt nibs in my drink, which annoyed the heck out of me. Glad that your company thinks quality control is important. 
4. In your opinion, what's the ideal food to serve with koko? 
Koko Samoa goes very well with any desert or homemade bread or rolls (like 
panipopo). 

5. Is there anything else you'd like to share with my readers? 
Anyone can purchase blocks of King Koko Samoa on our website: kingkoko.com. 
The website also lists local stores that carry our Koko. Our Facebook page is our best 
resource for product information, recipes, and special promotions. For example, 
when we reach 500 likes on our Facebook page, we will be having a giveaway. The 
first two people to comment on the Samoan flag picture we post will win 10 free 
blocks of King Koko. We’re inviting all our Facebook friends to invite their friends 
to like our page. 

King Koko Samoa is on Facebook so head over there and like their page so the promotion can get underway. They also have their own dedicated website where you can order online.

Also, if I were in the United States, and I lived in a community where more people were looking for koko, I would be heading to the nearest Asian or Polynesian market and asking them to stock this. Hopefully in the near future, we'll see King Koko Samoa at food festivals, farmer's markets and, dare I say it, supermarkets. 

Many thanks to Michael for visiting us. His company is taking us one step closer to having this wonderfully unique Samoan product available to the masses. 

You see, I believe that Koko Samoa deserves a higher profile in the cooking world - it needs recognition not just as a drink, but as an ingredient. So, *stepping down from my soapbox*, with my fingers crossed (toes and eyes as well), I hope King Koko Samoa is the company that can do this.

Best RecipesKoko Samoa Suppliers News Recipes

Since this site has been up, I've had a lot of enquiries for koko samoa suppliers. I know of three excellent sources that ship overseas and I'm going to tell you about two of them. (The third source is my sister D, and somehow I don't think she'd appreciate you guys emailing her for koko).


The first source is an internet vendor called ParadiseGypsy (catchy name right?). She sells Samoan goods such as crafts and jewellery, as well as our beloved koko samoa. The great thing about her koko is that it arrives at her place warm and unset - in other words, it is super fresh. She actually has to wait for it to harden before she can ship it off to you. This freshness is probably why she sends volumes of koko to the States and Australia. 


Of course, she also does smaller individual orders. She tells me that she can provide other local foodstuffs that are not on her website and has even, on occasion, shipped Vailima! I have ordered koko from her in the past and found both the price of her koko and the sending costs to be very reasonable (she ships via American Samoa). Check out her website and send her an email if you are interested in ordering. 

The second source for koko samoa is Wilex Samoa, who export a range of cocoa, coconut and chocolate products. Since 1996, this company has been doing amazing things with koko samoa, such as creating boutique chocolates with coconut, nonu and other tropical fruits dipped in French cognac. All their products are GM free (not genetically modified) and arrive packed in retail bags. Visit their website, or email Eddie Wilson, who is the Managing Director, for more details on their products and shipping.  


Now all you koko-heads out there, you have no reason to be using powdered cocoa for your next koko alaisa. Buy the real thing and support some local Samoan businesses. Yay!

Best RecipesKoko for the masses News Recipes

I experimented with another recipe today using Koko Samoa. I call these Koko Popo Brownies. The jury is still out on whether these are any good, but if I get the 'go ahead' from my tasters, the recipe will be posted up here.

Now, let's play a little "what if?". 
Imagine that one day in the future, you walk into your local supermarket to buy some cocoa because you've been dying for some Koko Popo Brownies. 


In the cocoa section, you see Hershey's Dark Cocoa Powder, Droste, Van Houten. On the shelf below that is Valrhona, Ghirardelli, and Scharffen Berger. You look further down, trying to find a name you can pronounce, and down there, right next to the Nestle and Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix is - could it be? No way!...you rub your eyes in disbelief and look again. Sure enough, it's Koko Samoa! You grab a box and happily skip home to bake your brownies...

Do you think we'll ever see the day when we can buy koko samoa anywhere, everywhere?


Here are some ideas I came up with for making this possibility a reality:


Control the quality
Make sure the koko quality is high and consistent. I get so disappointed when I buy a lump of koko that is filled with burnt nibs.


Change the mould
Enough with the styrofoam cups already! While the cup-sized block of koko represents good value for money and is easy to produce, it's not a sophisticated enough mould for international marketing, unless the cup is dedicated packaging and is used as a marketing ploy (ie. 'For a hot cup of goodness, try Koko Samoa - cup included'). Also a lump of koko is not user-friendly. People these days want instant drinks, ones that are easy to prepare and require minimum effort.


Which leads me to my next suggestion: 


Offer single serve tablets
I felt a little stupid making a recipe for koko samoa (the drink) because it's not really something Samoan people measure. But the feedback has been that it's a useful recipe. People who didn't grow up drinking the stuff were unsure about the proportions of koko to water to sugar. So how about selling a bag filled with tablets of koko that are just enough for one cup. If you want to make three cups of koko, throw in three tablets. What could be simpler than that?


Add sugar
Instead of selling tablets of just koko, why not pound the sugar together with the koko. That way, there's no guesswork in how much sugar to add to your drink - one tablet takes care of everything except the milk, which is optional.


Add flavouring
How about having plain tablets and flavoured tablets? I've seen organic vanilla beans being grown in Samoa, as well as ginger, and chilli. These could be added to the tablets for an extra layer of flavour. The Mexicans do it with cinnamon and almonds, so why can't we? 


Offer two grades of koko
Why not have finely ground and coarse (eg. with pegu) koko. Not everyone is a fan of pegu (nibs), so a finer koko might appeal to those that want the taste of koko without the accompanying sediment. 


Give the tablets a unique shape
My final idea is to give the tablets of koko a catchy shape - How about little cacao pods? Or mini Samoan fale (houses)? Tiny coconuts?


What do you think? And do you have any ideas to add? Jot them below and maybe a Samoan koko producer will stumble across our ideas and do something to raise the culinary profile of this wonderfully unique ingredient.


http://panipopos.blogspot.com

Best RecipesKoko Araisa video News Recipes

By panipopos

As soon as you add Koko Samoa to boiling water, a chocolatier-than-chocolate smell fills the room. It's a smell that takes you back home to when you were a little kid lapping up your bowl of koko araisa, and running back to the kitchen for more. It's a warm smell, reminiscent of cosy family nights in, or weekend breakfasts, or afternoon tea at church. Even the smell of cold koko araisa brings back memories of after school snacks, leftovers at a cousins house, or just those times when I would sneak in a cup before everyone else woke up. You know what Koko Samoa smells like? It smells like home.



http://panipopos.blogspot.com

Best RecipesKoko Samoa - Samoan cocoa News Recipes

By panipopos

It's here! It's here!

My koko Samoa is finally HERE!

Thanks to my beautiful sister, D, I have two quality blocks of koko samoa standing on my kitchen table. I mean REAL Samoan koko! On my kitchen table. I feel like throwing a party because I haven't had Samoan koko since...I can't even remember the last time, and now it's right HERE.
On. My. Kitchen. Table.

Those who have never tasted it are probably asking "What's the big deal about koko samoa?".

Well, you will only appreciate my answer if you are a chocoholic, or a coffeeholic. Because koko samoa is the best that both these beverages have to offer.

Koko samoa is made from Samoan cocoa beans, considered a premium cacao bean because there is no trace of bitterness in it's products. This makes it ideal for drinking.

But koko samoa is the kind of drink that you either love or hate. You'd love it because of it's deep chocolatey aroma and flavour. You'd love it because it packs one hell of a caffeine kick. You'd love it if you grew up with it because it's a smell and taste that is unique to Samoa and Samoans. On the other hand, you'd hate it if you didn't like chewing on grinds while you drink. You'd hate it if you drank it as a kid, then forgot to brush your teeth before you went to school, and then spent the day grinning and laughing your head off before realising you had all the grinds stuck in your teeth. And you'd probably hate it if you were the one that was always stuck pounding the beans.

Nevetherless, koko samoa is truly an original, local product. Samoans pick their own beans, roast them, pound them and then leave the grinds to dry into hardened blocks. Whenever the desire for koko samoa comes up, part of the block is chipped off or grated and then mixed with boiling water and sugar for a hot, satisfying drink.

Koko samoa is so integral to Samoan life, that the cocoa plant is protected by law. The Cocoa Disease Ordinance of 1961 makes it illegal to bring any cocoa plant or seeds into Samoa that might carry pests that threaten the locally grown trees. (After blight almost wiped out the country's taro industry, I bet they're taking this one seriously.)

When I finally stop sniffing my blocks of koko and put them down, I'll take photos and start cooking with them, because this, my friends, just took our blog to a whole other level.

http://panipopos.blogspot.com