The Life in Business: Aaronʻs Blue Kalo
Selling poi was not as easy as Aaron Sugino thought. So, with the poi that wasn’t selling, he started putting it in his mom’s (Aunty Bea’s) cookie recipe. And that’s how he started making the “macpoichip” cookies… and that is how a business called Aaron’s Blue Kalo got started.
Even though Aaron had earned his BA degree in therapeutic recreation in 1984 and worked as a social worker, a farmland venture led him in a new direction. He wanted to purchase land in Waimea for his parent, but the realtor (a family friend) persuaded him to buy land in his home town of Hakalau and pay off the land with vegetables and fruit that he would grow. So in 1986 he purchased a little more than five acres and became a part-time farmer as well as a full-time social worker. He made his first $9 with green onions. Then he started to plant taro, corn, string beans, eggplant and sweet potato and decided to add value to his products by making poi. The rest is history.
Today he and his wife, Vinel, have a sweet little shop on Banyan Drive, in front of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, and it offers all kinds of delicious treats. Aaron’s original “Macpoichip” cookie is still the most popular. In addition, they sell crispy cookies made with the sweet potato, ulu (breadfruit), lilikoi, coconut and other non-tropical cookie ingredients. And then there are the chips Aaron makes from both purple and yellow sweet potato, taro and ulu (breadfruit). He also makes a banana bread with poi and sweet potato. Yum.
The business uses the Hakalau Incubator Kitchen to process chips, cookies and baked goods. Vinel’s sister Wendi helps out with the baking, and you can usually find Vinel in the store welcoming both the tourist and local customers. She also has a degree in accounting.
Even though Aaron’s Blue Kalo attracts the many tourists along Banyan Drive, “Our primary market is locals,” says Aaron. “We have supportive customers from Honolulu, Maui and Kaua‘i that come to visit us when they’re in town. Our biggest challenge is growth. We do not have the equipment to keep up with the demand. We have markets wanting to carry our products and people wanting to do fundraisers and we have to turn people away because we can only do so much with what we have.”
The entire family was born and raised on the Big Island. “We all have family roots in Hakalau,” adds Vinel, proudly.
Aaronʻs Blue Kalo
71 Banyan Drive, Cabana D (in front of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel)
808.935.8085
Aarons.bluekalo@yahoo.com
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