About

Who We Are

Maui Fruit Jewels is a line of gourmet fruit candies, based on the French confection called "pates de fruits", produced and distributed by Maui Epicure LLC, a company founded in 2012 by Lin and Chris ter Horst on the island of Maui in Hawaii.

Lin is a native of Shanghai, China, and immigrated to the USA at a young age.  Lin grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University (CT), an MBA from Columbia Business School (NYC), and a diploma in pastry arts from Le Cordon Bleu (London). Prior to receiving her pastry training, Lin held a number of positions in financial services and internet marketing in New York City. In 2008, life's unpredictable turn of events brought Lin to Beijing, where Lin started out as an investment banker, and ended up teaching pastry-making classes and making wedding cakes that were featured in a leading bridal magazine in China.

Chris is a native of The Netherlands with a background in industrial engineering.  Chris worked in Rotterdam and was an active water polo player, rower, and survival run enthusiast.  In 2008 Chris moved to Beijing, where he studied Chinese and joined the Beijing Hash House Harriers, where he met Lin.  In 2011, while working as a supply chain manager for a German hydraulics company in Shanghai, Chris raced in triathlons in China and Taiwan, winning top prizes as an amateur .  In 2012, Chris began to train full-time, and can now be found climbing up the Haleakala on his bike, swimming in the ocean or the pools on Maui, or running alongside the sugarcane fields, when he is not managing the family business or training in Canada with his coach Lance Watson.  In 2013 Chris began racing the 70.3 half-Ironman distance and has qualified to race in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship Triathlon in Las Vegas in September.

Why Fruit Jewels

Pates de Fruits, literally translated as fruit pastes, is a popular gourmet confection commonly found in confectionery shops and chocolatiers in France.  It is made by cooking the fruit puree or juice with sugar, glucose syrup, pectin, and an acid such as lemon juice or citric acid to a high temperature, until the mixture is reduced to a thick paste, and poured into molds to set, before it is cut into small pieces and rolled in sugar.

In 2008,  enrolled as a student in the pastry arts diploma program at Le Cordon Bleu London, Lin became fascinated with the pates de fruits in a technical demonstration class, overwhelmed by the exquisite flavors these little fruit jewels imparted, with an intensity so pure and astonishing that resistance became futile.  Over the years at The Fig Tree in Beijing, a beautiful commercial kitchen Lin built to teach the art of pastry making to the local Chinese and expatriates, Lin practiced her hand at making delectable French macarons and decorating fancy wedding cakes and sugar cookies with chocolate and royal icing, among all the other amazing pastries and confections.  But she never forgot about the pates de fruits, those exquisite jewel-toned delicacies that practically melted in her mouth.

In 2012, Lin and Chris got married in Shanghai after a three-year long distance romance and moved to the paradise island of Maui, where they dreamed of a new beginning.  Chris found an ideal place to train, while Lin can finally begin to live out her fantasies of making pates de fruits using fresh exotic fruits, vegetables, wines, herbs, and spices, and offering them to the world.

Our Production Facility

We make our products at the certified commercial kitchen operated by Lokahi Pacific on Maui.