Andrea Smith, owner of Aloha Alfajores, knew she wanted to specialize in a unique dessert when she first started her business in 2020.
“I’m an immigrant; I came here because of my husband,” says Smith, who is originally from Colombia. “I wanted to do something very unique that is hard to find. I decided to start with alfajores, which is a cookie that comes from South America. It’s originally from Argentina, but it’s found in all of South America — Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil.”
The dessert features two crumbly, shortbread-like cookies sandwiched together with a sweet filling — and for Smith, that’s dulce de leche.
“This (our alfajores) melts in your mouth,” she says. “It’s super soft, and it comes with our dulce de leche, which is the milky caramel.
“Dulce de leche is the main flavor in South America,” she adds. “That’s why pretty much everything I make has dulce de leche. We can make it (alfajores) with different flavors, but our signature is dulce de leche.”
Aloha Alfajores officially opened in June 2020, and Smith rented out various kitchens. Customers often direct message the business on Instagram to order, or they order online.
Since starting her business, the menu has expanded to include dulce de leche brownies — a blend of chocolate, caramel and cheesecake — crème brulees and frescas con cremas. The latter features a combination of strawberries and cream with layers of alfajores.
“They have the cookie crust as the shell, and a little touch of dulce de leche,” Smith says. “We also have our rice pudding, which is a very Latin American dessert; our frescas con cremas has alfajores inside.”
While renting out kitchen spaces, Smith was looking for her own commercial kitchen. She says she started the search a long time ago, but remembers feeling discouraged.
“It got to a point where I was going to give up and sell my business,” she says. “The day I got two people interested in my business, I felt something in my heart … something was telling me not to sell it.”
Smith resumed her hunt for a kitchen space and started looking up possibilities on Facebook Marketplace. That’s when her current space on Mango Avenue in Wahiawa popped up.
“I found two locations — one in town, and this one — and I talked to the guy here,” Smith says. “He was like, ‘Just come and see it,’ and it happened within a week. I was like, ‘OK, if it’s going this way, it’s meant to be.’”
Smith clarifies that the commercial kitchen space is not a café or storefront — yet — but it’s a step in that direction.
“It’s mostly our production place,” she says. “We produce for events, for distribution, and for people that want to come by. Hopefully, if everything goes well and I get more of a budget, I can design it better—I would like to have a little place where people can sit.”
Besides the packaged desserts at her kitchen, Aloha Alfajores is at Ala Moana Center on most Saturdays (Mauka wing second floor, near Target) and her products are distributed at retailers like Mari’s Garden, Taqueria el Ranchero, and Teapresso’s Ewa Beach and Keeaumoku stores.
“We also do shipping nationwide; we have a special box of cookies,” Smith says.
As her business celebrated its five-year milestone and Smith looks ahead to 2026, she says she is hoping to further establish her business’s new kitchen location and expand its distribution locations.
“Our business is very unique; it’s something that’s hard to find somewhere else,” she says. “This is a place where people can come and get something completely different.
“Business owners — or anyone — don’t give up,” she adds. “Keep going and following your dreams, even though it can be hard.”
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CONTACT
Aloha Alfajores
52 Mango Pl., Wahiawa
alohalfajoresllc.com
Instagram: @alohalfajores
Kitchen space open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, Saturdays
Limited parking available in front of the business; street parking also available
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
