We’re home, we’re hungry and local entrepreneurs are not about to let us perish.
Products newly made in Hawaii range from oversized lilikoi cookies and custom snacks mixes crafted by a one-woman baking operation, to a pineapple-peach pie from a long-established Big Island sweet shop.
Think of it as sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy snack sustenance: a little relief from the relentless dismal news of the day.
As a college student working in local restaurants, Peter Hessler noticed the same few artificial, mass-produced syrups being used to make drinks. “I saw a big hole in the market to create something with Hawaiian ingredients that have more unique flavors than mainland flavors,” he said.
After years of experimenting and drawing praise for his cocktail syrups while working as a manager at Moku Kitchen in Kakaako, Hessler launched Pono Potions in August 2019. He’s created nine naturally flavored coffee and cocktail syrups that also can be used in desserts.
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Most popular are syrups made with macadamia nuts from the Big Island and dried hibiscus from Molokai. The hibiscus adds a deep red hue, tartness and fruitiness to iced tea and lemonade, as well as to cocktails and sparkling wine; the roasted mac-nut syrup goes well in lattes and espresso drinks, “and it’s really great to put in baked goods, or drizzled on top of pancakes or waffles,” Hessler said.
He also makes syrups using coconut, vanilla beans grown in Laie, Maui lavender, Molokai sea salt (combined with caramel), Waialua honey and ginger, and Oahu ginger and turmeric. Honolulu Haze is a combination of hazelnuts and macadamias.
“I make everything and bottle everything myself,” he said. His sister and a friend help with the paperwork.
Hessler grew up in Portland, Ore., where he worked as a chef and bartender; he moved to Hawaii in 2016. Now a senior majoring in Travel Industry Management at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, Hessler is learning about everything, from local farms, to starting a business, to Hawaiian culture.
Pono Potions won first prize out of 26 products in this year’s UH Venture Competition, hosted by the Shidler College of Business Pacific Asian Center for Entrepreneurship.
His products are used at Kai Coffee Hawaii locations, Lucy’s Lab Creamery ice cream shop and other small cafes. These clients are able to recycle their Pono Potions bottles to reduce waste.
Hessler’s goal was to distribute wholesale to coffee shops and other businesses. But since COVID-19 struck, he’s adapted his business model to attract individual consumers as well.
His syrups now come in smaller bottles convenient for home use, and he’s increased his social media presence and directs sales to his website.
He envisions adding other products. Since his company uses so many nuts, he’s already found it easy to turn some into candy; his lightly candied roasted macadamia nuts have a caramel flavor.
Hessler donates 10 cents from every bottle sold to the Hawaii Foodbank every quarter, amounting to $300 in his first endowment.
Order through ponopotions.com. Bottles are $14.95 (12 ounces) to $19.95 (25.4 ounces). Candied macadamia nuts sell for $10 (6 ounces). Or find Hessler at the Lokahi Kailua Market, 340 Uluniu St., 9 a.m. to noon Sundays.
