Hawaiian Poi Powder 1lb Bag - Makes 5 - 6 Pounds of Hawaii Poi

It's freeze dried, not fresh. That's a reality and we have to accept that otherwise you bein' lolo. That said, it's better than I expected. I follow the directions for microwave, add mo' water, get it to tree finga' then let um sit the rest of the day, maybe getting a little biological activity going on, and suck 'em down the next day. By that time, no grittiness and the taste is more lively than the first day. Maybe takes time for the mana to wake up, being freeze dried can't be easy. There's a little sweetness, but mostly it calms that ache in my heart. The first bowl gave me a good cry, for my grief at leaving, but reality is poi is heavy, expensive to ship fresh and WE were the ones that chose to leave.

If you cook this right, its awesome. I use a double boiler method. Put a pyrex bowl ontop of a boiling pot of water. To keep the direct heat of the pot, off the poi so you dont burn it in the pot. Basically steaming in the pyrex. My pot has a pour lip to allow steam to escape. Dont get a tight fitting pyrex in pot. I did a big batch. 16 Tblsp powder, 4 cup water. Cook it on high and constantly stir it. It will be gritty at first. It will cook down and thicken. Dont panic, it will still look gritty when its like glue. Then add more water and stir again, it will smooth out after you add more water. You were basically cooking the taro fibers first, now it should be smooth. I used this same method with frozen poi. Its never failed me. Tastes like Aloha in my mouth.

The flavor is spot on. This tastes like fresh poi, not day old poi. The texture though is very gritty. I wouldn’t also recommend keeping it in the refrigerator for the next day. Only make what you plan to eat immediately. The grittiness gets worse over time. Hey, but if you’ve got some fresh dried aku, fresh made lomi lomi salmon and some sweet onions with Hawaiian salt and “chili-peppah”, go for it! Ono grinds!!!!!

Some of the reviews said the consistency of this poi is "flaky". I have to disagree on that, it's not. Of course when you first mix it with water, it IS flaky, but the instructions clearly say you need to cook it... After a few minutes of cooking, it gets smooth and "slimy" like fresh poi, and at the same time the flavor also becomes somewhat tangy. It may not be the best there is, but it's good enough.

I was born in Hawaiian, and my family has been in the islands since the 1870’s. We were raised eating poi. My Mother put poi in our baby bottles. I love poi. I know what poi is supposed to taste like, and this is not it. My immediate family moved to the mainland in the early 1960s. Over the years, it has been increasingly more difficult to buy poi, fresh or frozen, in the mainland. In the 1960s through about the 1990s, you could find a few stores which still sold poi. Well, they started to become fewer and fewer, and now, esp since Covid, there are almost none, so I saw this dehydrated poi from the same company, a reputable company, that I used to buy fresh and frozen poi from, and since the fresh/frozen is so difficult to find, I decided to buy a package for my sister for her birthday, and one for myself. Hers came first, so I passed it on to her as part of her Hawaiian birthday gift…. A couple of days later, I received my bag. I began the process of making the poi yesterday. When I cut the top off of the bag, I noticed the dehydrated poi seemed to have a weird slightly metallic smell, but I carried on mixing it as directed. I thought “maybe it’s just because it is sealed into a bag, and the smell will disappear, as I continue working with it? I mixed the poi with water, as per the instructions, and still smelled the odd metallic smell, but kept on going. After reading reviews and seeing/feeling the grittiness of the dehydrated poi for myself, even after mixing it first with water, I decided I would let it sit overnight in the fridge and cook it late last night, right before bed. I cooked it as directed, and then tasted a little bit on the spoon I used to stir it with. I still tasted the metallic taste, and still smelled it as well. I thought “maybe it will go away when the poi is cooled/cold?”, so I transferred the cooked poi into a serving bowl, put a bit of water on top, so it did not develop “a skin”, and covered it tightly/put it in the fridge overnight. Today, it was nice and cold, and looked smooth. I smelled it, and thought “Uh, oh!” I tasted it and said “Oh, no!” The metallic taste was still there, the metallic smell was still there! I knew there was no way I could continue to eat it; I had made a 2 cup bowl, and it tasted/smelled like metal. I hated to do it, but I threw the whole thing into the sink/down the garbage disposal! Look, I do not know how the poi is dehydrated, but there must be either a chemical used in the process or metal equipment used which leaches the smell/taste into the finished product, but this is not good, at all. Unfortunately, because I knew and trusted this company from past experiences of buying their fresh and frozen poi, I confidently bought two bags, which costed me slightly over $39 per bag, not including tax, and now I cannot return it. That’s a lot of money. I will try and call Amazon and see what they can do, if anything, but am extremely disappointed in this product. Take it from someone who knows and loves poi, and was born in the islands, this tastes nothing like fresh or frozen poi, and is essentially inedible.

Granted, it's not fresh poi, but it will do. The directions state to use 2 Tablespoons per 1/2 cup of water, put it in a pot and cook for 1 minute on high heat. I've found (as other reviewers) if you add the water and let it sit and "bloom" (reconstitute) for a few minutes before cooking, then cook and stir, it comes out smooth and creamy, the grit is completely gone. I make it in the morning, let it sit on the counter to cool, and by dinner time the flavor is pretty close to day old poi. This powdered poi has made this local girl living in Germany VERY happy. Perfect with crock pot Laulaus and Lomilomi Salmon. When you need a taste of home, this works very well. It's expensive, but still cheaper than a plane ticket.

I wanted to make a dairy free taro bubble tea powder (since the premade mixes all seem to have dairy), so I bought this. It is too grainy to be used directly for a drink powder, but after I put it in a Vitamix, the consistency is good. The flavor is pretty mild, but I mixed it with Suncore Foods Lilac Taro Yam powder, which improved both the flavor and color. These together made a good taro drink powder. I would not recommend this Poi powder for this purpose unless you have a high-powered blender that would allow you to make it into a finer powder like I did. Also, be careful when blending as the powder becomes very fine and hot, which could be a fire risk if you don't take breaks to let it cool down.

Poi product review. This is Ono ! Great taste and texture , easy preparation and delicious.