Every town has a few businesses that show up in the background of everyone’s life. The cookies at the office party. The gift box you grab on the way to the airport. The sponsor name on the back of your kid’s team T-shirt.
In Hilo, one of those businesses is Big Island Delights. This year it turned 30, and this fall the family behind it opened a new chapter in a new home.
Started with cookies in 1996
Jeff and Carla Takamine started Big Island Delights in Hilo in 1996. The idea was simple: make really good cookies and confections, with premium ingredients and macadamia nuts grown right here in Hawaiʻi.
It worked. Over the years the company grew far beyond its first cookies, adding locally grown coffee, bagel chips, local teas, gift baskets and a whole shelf of Hawaiʻi-made treats. Walk into the shop and you’re likely to find the playful stuff too: chocolate-dipped animal crackers, pretzel rods and fortune cookies covered in sprinkles, li hing mui gummy bears, granola studded with mac nuts, and boxes of cookies wrapped with bows for every occasion.
A business known for giving
Ask people in Hilo about Big Island Delights and they don’t just talk about cookies. They talk about Jeff and Carla.
The couple were known as humble, low-key and endlessly generous. The Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce has said that hundreds of nonprofits, sports teams and Boy Scout troops benefited from their giving over the years. Hawaiʻi County Mayor Mitch Roth called them some of the most generous people he had known. Friends remembered Carla sharing treats from the bakery with everyone around her.
Hilo lost Jeff and Carla in 2023, and the whole island felt it. Their family has carried the business forward, along with the spirit they built it on.
Thirty years, one roof
For years, Big Island Delights operated out of a spot on Kanoelehua Avenue. In 2026, its 30th year, the company moved to 374 Kinoʻole Street in Hilo, a new home where the bakery and the retail storefront finally share one roof. That means the cookies you buy are baked just steps from the counter.
On September 21, 2026, family and employees gathered for a traditional blessing of the new space. “This new home means so much to our family,” Jeff and Carla’s daughter, Christin Takamine, said in the announcement.
It’s easy to see why. A new building is a statement that a family business intends to stay. After 30 years, Big Island Delights is saying it plainly: we’re still here, and we’re still baking.
How to enjoy Big Island Delights
- Stop by the new shop on Kinoʻole Street and taste around. There’s usually something new on the shelves.
- Grab omiyage before you fly. A box of cookies from Hilo is the classic gift for friends and family off-island.
- Think of them for events. Boxed cookies wrapped in seasonal colors make easy gifts for offices, weddings and parties.
- Buy local, give local. Every box supports a Hilo family business that has spent 30 years giving back.
Some businesses sell a product. The good ones become part of a place. Big Island Delights has been part of Hilo for three decades, and its new home says it plans to be part of it for many more.
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Visit Big Island Delights
Where: 374 Kinoʻole St., Hilo, Hawaiʻi Island
Founded: 1996
Hours: Call or check their social media for current hours at the new location
This spotlight draws on reporting from Big Island Now, West Hawaii Today and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Photos are illustrative and were not taken at Big Island Delights. Top photo: Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.