Honolulu Weekly

Aloha Tofu / In the mythology of the American dream, the small, family-owned business grows as each generation continues to build on the founders’ dreams. The reality, of course, can be different, as ambitions and opportunities change with the times.

Paul Uyehara, president of Aloha Tofu and the third generation of his family to run the business, continues the tradition, but he faces a new reality.

“With the previous generation, all six brothers and sisters participated in the business,” Uyehara says. “There are some choices I’ve had to make…[though] my preference would to be on the floor making tofu because it’s simple.”

Working six 14-hour days a week sounds daunting, but Uyehara says that’s typical for those who run small businesses–even for ones as established as Aloha Tofu, which is celebrating its 60th year of operation. With a loyal team of factory employees–average employment duration: 10 years–the company has weathered tofu scares (1999 saw an 80 percent drop in sales) and factory relocations.

But as of late, things have been looking up. Last year saw a factory tour with Sam Choy for Sam Choy’s Kitchen as well as an episode of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. A redesigned Web site with appetizing photos and regularly updated tofu recipes has also boosted the company’s image. Uyehara describes his job as more messy than dirty and he says he wouldn’t call it dangerous, either, despite the fact that he lost the tip of his right middle finger while working a few years ago. Uyehara bashfully says it was because he was doing “something dumb.”

Inside the factory

For those who grew up eating fresh soy products–soy milk, tofu, dried bean curd soup and the almost infinite list of other soy products–the smell of the factory is comforting. It’s subtle and carries a comfortably warm (well, comfortable if you’re not the one ladling heavy pots of hot tofu curds into giant molds) scent of unsweetened soy milk. Unlike sausage, where it’s often said that seeing the process of making the cased meat is an unpleasant sight, the Aloha Tofu factory feels clean.

“We use a lot of water,” says Uyehara.

So much, that the constant wash of water through several parts of the factory almost makes the place feel like a tofu water park. Viewing the factory line from a bird’s eye view first to get a sense of the process invokes a child-like wonderment, where seeing how things are made is almost like watching elves at work in Santa’s toy shop.

On the floor, Uyehara starts from the cool storage room, where bags of non-GMO soybeans from the Midwest are stored (there is no local soybean-growing industry). He also points to a giant bucket that contains Big Island-produced nigari, otherwise known as magnesium chloride, which acts a as a coagulant for the tofu.

Each soy product requires a different manufacturing process, and Uyehara chooses to explain the process of creating the firm tofu–the company’s signature product. The beans are soaked overnight, drained, then ground with water and separated into soymilk and okara (pulp), which is sent to pig farmers for feed. The nigari is added to the soymilk in carefully measured amounts, then the mixture is set, broken up again and scooped into molds and pressed. The resulting block of tofu is put into a tank of cool water and sliced into 36 blocks of tofu, at 20 ounces each. After moving through more cool water, the tofu is packaged and shipped the same day.

While Aloha Tofu sells a number of soy products both in-factory and at certain stores, customers can visit the factory with their own containers to buy fresh soymilk or yudofu–incredibly soft tofu before it is pressed and set–which are currently available only at the factory.

Green eggs and…tofu?

In recent years, Aloha Tofu has become more energy efficient, in part due to help from a Department of Energy energy-efficiency center at the University of Washington. In addition to the installation of a photovoltaic tank system, specially designed skylight fixtures that channel sunlight, insulated pipes, white ceramic coating on the roof to reflect sunlight and solar fans, Uyehara thinks that Aloha Tofu is one of the first companies in the state to have a device that controls the refrigerator fan speed. With all the greening aspects of the factory, Uyehara is now also looking to find a way to reuse the factory’s water for farming.

The tofuture

With a renewed sense of morale for the factory’s 60th anniversary, Uyehara has a number of products ready to release soon, like tofu coolers, a cookbook and half-size tofu blocks.

“The one thing people complain about is that our tofu is too big,” he says with a smile.

As for community involvement, Uyehara says that while the company has always sponsored events with temples and churches, he wants it to have a bigger presence in the community this year, as a way of saying thank you for supporting the company all of these years. One of the first sponsored community events of the year is the youth-targeted Tofu Haiku contest at Kapolei library.

As for the fourth generation of Uyeharas, this Uyehara has the same attitude that his parents did. He wants his two sons to choose whatever they want to do. Like his parents did with him, Uyehara took one of his sons on a day in the factory at about age 10. While initially so excited that he couldn’t sleep, after a long, hard day, Uyehara says his son decided that he didn’t want to work in the factory.

“He had the same feelings I did,” Uyehara says. But no matter what the next generation decides, Uyehara is dedicated to continuing to make the company as strong as possible–for whoever takes over after he retires. In that trajectory, Uyehara is a true-blue tofu man.