Looking back on 11 Years at the Made in Maui County Festival
The Made in Maui County Festival approaches for the twelfth November in a row—and it’ll be the twelfth one we’ll have attended!
Walk down memory lane with us: As we prepare our candies, cookies, pastes, and purees for the highly anticipated weekend we’ve taken some time to reflect on our participation in all the past Made in Mauis.
2014
The very first Made in Maui County Festival was held at the MACC during our third year in business. We were recently awarded a silver sofi (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation) award for our only product line at the time—Exotic Fruit Jellies. At the time, we were still experimenting with coating the jellies in granulated sugar so that it more resembles the appearance of traditional pates de fruits. Later on, we decided to wrap the jellies in hand-sealed cellophane pouches! During this time, we also got a lease for our own commercial space in Happy Valley, Wailuku, and were working on converting the old laundromat into a kitchen.
2015
We showed up at the second Made in Maui County Festival with a new product line, Hawaii Fruit Pastes. Above is the original packaging. Our fruit jellies were still in hand-sealed pouches. We soon got a flow pack machine to hermetically seal the jellies, which greatly extended their shelf life.
2016
We launched new fruit jelly boxes in time for the third Made in Maui County Festival! In this version, monstera and other leaves overlap against bright backgrounds. Above is a clipping of a MauiWatch article titled, “Made in Maui County Marketplace Launching Online Shopping Site.” It shows what our 18 Piece Lahaina Collection would have looked like at the show—quite a change from what it is now!
2017
For the fourth festival, we moved the paste tubs into newly designed boxes. The four flavors were: Lilikoi Passion Fruit, Pineapple, Guava, and Hawaiian Chili Pepper. We hadn’t yet developed POG, Mango, and Ginger Pineapple.
2018
In January of this year, we won the Good Food Award for our Lilikoi Passion Fruit Paste. At Made in Maui that November, the box was sporting a blue award sticker.
2019
By the sixth festival, we’d launched our Hawaii Fruit Shortbread line in three sizes. We also relaunched the jelly boxes with a new design. Above is the 18 Piece Lahaina Collection again for comparison.
2020
This year, it was a virtual event due to… you know. Everyone’s products were listed on a shopping platform, and to recreate the booth experience, we sat at our computers in video calls for the day of the festival.
2021
This year, there were actually two events. The festival was held in a parking lot by the war memorial. The wind was fierce—several tents were blown away—and the turnout was low due to fears surrounding COVID. So a virtual event was hosted afterwards in the same way as the previous year.
2022
It was a relief to be back in person. Here you can see the Hawaii Fruit Purees in pouches on the left. They were launched quietly in 2020.
2023
This was the Made in Maui County Festival’s tenth year anniversary. Only a handful of vendors had been there all ten years—and we were one of them! Several new products were in development, and we brought sample boxes to gauge interest. The large white box is a Luxe Gift Set in progress. Below it is the new Shortbread Party Box. To the very left and to the back, you may be able to see first versions of our Hawaii Gift Baskets.
2024
Last year, we had a corner booth, which meant more table space. As you can see, both tables were packed to the brim! We brought quite the lineup of products.
We'll be bringing new exciting ideas to this year's event and look forward to seeing you there!
Made in Maui County Festival
Friday, Nov 7 & Saturday, Nov 8, 2025
Maui Arts & Cultural Center (MACC)
Booth #406
