Inside The King’s Hawaiian Factory

August 29th, 2012 by justJENN

When I was a kid I remember sitting in the back of my Grandpa’s old Datsun, I could barely see out the window but I knew whenever we were on Western Avenue because I could smell the fresh bread being baked at the King’s Hawaiian factory.

Growing up, every week my mom would buy the round loaf of sweet bread that came in the orange bag. We’d take a big knife and cut off chunks for breakfast in the morning. It was so puffy and sweet, I always wondered how the bread was made and what went on in that magical factory that we’d drive past.

Cut to some thirty years later and I finally got to find out. For the first time in the 60 year history of the company, King’s Hawaiian opened it’s doors to non-family members. Much like Wonka opening his gates to the public, as one of the chosen few I felt like I had won my golden ticket.

We got to see the bread being made from start to finish, from the mixing, to proofing and into the giant ovens. The smell took me right back to that childhood memory of driving by the factory. We watched as the little loaves of bread travelled through the maze of conveyors and headed to packaging.

For legal reasons there were several spaces where we weren’t allowed to take pictures, but I still saw enough to know I would like to move in and live in a house of bread forever. Seeing the process happen was just like being invited into Wonka’s factory, while there were no chocolate waterfalls or Oompa Loompas there were definitely hard workers producing a quality product, doing it all with the aloha spirit.

At the end of the tour we were offered the Holy Grail, the rare treat of tasting fresh bread right out of the oven! I can’t even explain how delicious impossibly fresh sweet bread is right off the line. To top it all off they offered us a spread of the same high quality butter they use in their secret recipe. Absolute heaven. In Hawaii they call that ‘broke da mouth’, indescribably good!

As the little breads traveled along the conveyor belts I remembered the words of Mark Taira as he told us of his father Robert’s first little bakery on King Street in Hilo, which was how he got the name for the bakery. Robert was an entrepreneur and had a vision, he saw the future for his family on the mainland with his unique product, always keeping in mind the aloha spirit throughout his business’ growth.

Today King’s Hawaiian has moved beyond the round loaves of Portuguese bread, to sliced sandwich bread, hot dog buns, sandwich rolls and more, as well as a large restaurant bakery in Torrance and a casual take out called the Local Place.

Just like my own childhood, I carry on the tradition and also feed my kids King’s Hawaiian bread. I make a special visit to the bakery every week to pick up the freshest bread and pastries, have dinner or order their now legendary King’s Hawaiian Paradise Cake – something that has become a tradition for all of our major family events. I even memorialized our love of the cake by drawing a picture of O.G. HOLDING a piece of Paradise Cake ON a Paradise Cake. It doesn’t get better or tastier than that. I’m also proud to announce that I’m now a featured blogger on the new King’s Hawaiian website. I feel like part of the ohana already!

At the end of the tour the Taira family treated us to a private food truck fest and a buffet of King’s Hawaiian desserts aka my dream come true. To make our trip even more special they sent us home with a giant box of every product made by King’s Hawaiian! Now here’s your chance to get your own taste of Hawaii, King’s Hawaiian is giving away one of these giant gift boxes to one of my lucky readers! Check out all that good stuff!

Just leave a comment on this post and tell me how you like to eat King’s Hawaiian bread? Maybe with Root Beer Pulled Pork or Sweet Bread French Toast? Maybe you like egg salad…Star Wars style! Or perhaps the old fashioned way, King’s Hawaiian rolls right out of the bag in the market parking lot. There’s nothing wrong with that. I might be saying from experience.

Leave a comment, you have from now through Labor Day, Monday September 3rd! Good luck, this is a fantastic prize!

*full disclosure: King’s Hawaiian invited me on the tour and provided me with product with no additional compensation. The opinions of these products and this blog post are my own. Giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. PST on Monday, September 3, 2012. A winners will be selected at random, the prize allocation will also be random. The winner will be contacted by email. Please note this giveaway is only open to residents of the U.S.

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