Yellow foot Opihi! Discovered in the summer of 2003, while surfing an epic point break in County Kerry, Ireland.  Together with my three sons, we left Kauai, and in 2004, Emerald Island Opihi Company first began selling fresh frozen North Atlantic Opihi on the Island of Kauai, through a family friend and my mentor, Uncle Leo Rapozo. 

It was never my intention to compete with local Hawaiian Opihi. I am offering a delicious alternative yellow foot Opihi, to the near extinct local Hawaiian Opihi. I attended and graduated from UH Hilo. This was back in the 80's. I know firsthand how scarce Opihi was then, even on the Big Island. And I know that there is even less available today.

We first started testing our Opihi with family and friends on Kauai. Everyone liked the taste and was very surprised at how similar, and many thought identical, to the taste of local Hawaiian Opihi. And they all liked the fact that all of our Opihi are yellow foot, and a bit firmer than local Opihi.

The first time we "taste tested" with the general public was at the seafood department in the Waipouli Foodland on Kauai. Something I found very interesting occured there, and at subsequent tastings we conducted at several Foodlands on Oahu.

We set up our table in front of the seafood counter. We had a nice story board, with pictures and text telling our story and describing where our Opihi was from. The story board was on the left side of the table. So, people coming up to the table from the left saw the story board, and then the samples of our Opihi. People coming to the table from the right saw only free Opihi samples.

Soon after we set up, people started gathering around our story board, but few were sampling the Opihi. One local gentleman started asking me about the Opihi, and commenting on it not being from Hawaii. He had not yet sampled the Opihi. Meanwhile another local gentleman approached the table from the right. He saw free Opihi samples and took one. Immediately the man on the left asked the other how it tasted. He replied "ONO!" The man on the left then took a sample. He also exclaimed that it was ONO! He then proceeded to start telling our story to the other man, and eveyone else who was now gathering around our table. We quickly ran out of samples and had to go get more. That day and more since, many, many local people have thanked me for bringing this alternative yellow foot Opihi back to Hawaii.

Another thing I became aware of at that tasting, and all of the subsequent tastings and the three Taste of Hawaii's that we participated in: As people sampled our Opihi, they started smiling! It seems a rare opportinity and Blessing  to have a business that provides something good and healthy for people, that makes them happy and smiling! This makes me smile as well!

If you like Opihi, please give our's a try. I believe you will really enjoy it!

Mahalo,

Patrick Murphy

Emerald Island Opihi Company LLP

UK Partnership S0302655