Noms Phenomenon: Local Candy Brand Explodes

Part of Noms’ appeal is its colorful packaging. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino

I’m a Noms addict.

No matter how much I try to free myself from these li hing lemon peel gummy clutches, I maintain a three-bag-a-week (sometimes four) habit. Whenever I hit my neighborhood Longs Drugs store, I make a beeline for the candy aisle to see if Bursts are back in stock. If so, they go straight into the basket. If not, I happily settle for Clusters.

I’m not alone.

Pursuing the source of my compulsion, I’ve just interviewed Kamalani Dung—the Olympic softball star who’s also one of Noms’ owners—and now I’m sitting in the courtyard of Salt at Our Kaka‘ako with a boxful of the colorful candies. An older lady hurrying past stops, backpedals, and stares at my stash. “I love those,” she says wistfully. I hand her a bag.

The previous evening, I asked the Longs Kāhala clerk who was scanning my Bursts whether they sold a lot of Noms. “See that shelf over there?” she smirked, pointing at a half-empty rack. “We just stocked that this morning.”

Here’s quantifiable proof of mass addiction: Hawai‘i Candy Factory, the company behind Noms, has been selling more than 50,000 bags a month, according to Dung.

Wait, what?

SEE ALSO: Zingipop Brings the Fizzy and Fun to Craft Soda

It started in a Mililani garage during the pandemic: A group of millennial friends, some of whom were working remotely from home at various 9-to-5 jobs, were looking for a new hobby. One of their aunties had a killer recipe for li hing lemon peel gummies. They started mixing batches, and “friends and families had a super heavy reaction to it,” Dung says.

The requests for more gummies were overwhelming. Inspired, the friends stepped up their garage production and created colorful, cartoony packaging. They named their creations Noms and began selling them at farmers markets, pop-up events and craft fairs. Everywhere, the reaction was the same: “Oh my God, so good.” Soon, Noms were being sold in mom-and-pop candy stores.

Then Foodland called.

“We found Noms at a craft fair in Hawai‘i Kai back in August 2022 and asked if we could sell the products at a few of our Foodland stores,” Careese Matsuwaka, Foodland’s general merchandise category manager, emailed in response to my query. “The Noms candies were so popular, we asked to sell them at all of our stores beginning in March 2023. Today, Noms is available at all 30 Foodland and Sack N Save stores statewide, and to date, we have sold more than 300,000 packages.”

Longs, Times Supermarkets, 7-Eleven Hawai‘i, ABC Stores, Don Quijote, Aloha Gas stores and other retailers followed. Shops in Guam and Las Vegas are stocking them too. Noms never reached out to any of them—they came to Noms.

“It’s crazy how fast it’s grown,” says Dung, who still plays softball professionally. She joined Hawai‘i Candy Factory about a year ago as its spokesperson, drawn to the brand because of its local roots. Everyone behind it is born and raised in Hawai‘i, she says. Of the nine owners, Dung, 26, is the youngest; the oldest is 32. “We’re still stumbling and figuring a lot of things out. We’re definitely experiencing growing pains, but we’re having fun with it.”

The owners of Noms. Top row: Jordan Oshiro, Kamalani Dung, Kolby Chow, Fred Zaha, Keenan Shigematsu. Middle row: Micah Yoshino, Jennifer Lau, Justin Shigematsu. Bottom row: Daniel Paglinawan, plus branch manager Reginald Griffin. Courtesy: Hawai‘i Candy Factory/SHUTTERHAUS HAWAI‘I

If you’ve never tried Noms and are wondering what’s the big deal, it’s a li hing lemon peel thing. Sweet-sour magic. Like many locals, I grew up eating crack seed and li hing everything, so my taste buds were primed. Then there’s the packaging—cool and playful, like the name, which riffs off the sound of someone eating something really good: “nom-nom-nom.” I tried Noms for the first time at a craft fair in 2022. Now here I am, telling you all this.

In late 2023, the company was building out a new Kapolei warehouse that will serve as its factory and headquarters. I didn’t get a chance to tour it because of the construction, but in my imagination, it’s the Hawai‘i version of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Instead of Everlasting Gobstoppers, there will be Bursts, Peach Rings and Dino Eggs.

SEE ALSO: A World First: Sparkling Māmaki Tea by Manu Brewing Co.

As amazing as Noms’ growth is, its marketing is almost exclusively by word of mouth and social media. Its Instagram, @hawaiicandyfactory, features a sheriff character who appears in laugh-out-loud skits. In one Reel, he’s chasing a Noms thief through downtown Honolulu in slo-mo. It’s not exactly slick, but it’s undeniably Hawai‘i.

“Our fan base is heavily local,” Dung says. “We do a lot of hard work to put a lot of local flair into the products and the design. And I think everyone can feel the genuineness. Staying authentic is pretty much what holds Noms together.”

The way I see it, Noms staying authentic is helping Hawai‘i stay authentic. “The coolest part about it is just that if we ask most local people, they know exactly what Noms is,” Dung says. “It’s becoming part of the culture of Hawai‘i.”

There’s something to be said for mass addiction.

hawaiicandyfactory.com, @hawaiicandyfactory