Recipe
🍳 BREAKFAST
Koko Alaisa
Samoan cocoa rice: short-grain rice simmered with rich local cocoa, coconut, and sugar into a warm, chocolatey porridge.
Samoan · easy · serves 4
prep 5 min · cook 30 min
~541 cal · 9g protein · 63g carbs · 33g fat · 11g fiber · 7g sugars · 29g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Koko alaisa, Samoan cocoa rice, is a warm and comforting breakfast that reflects Samoa's own cocoa heritage. Cocoa is grown across the islands, and locally roasted koko Samoa beans give the dish a deep, distinctive chocolate flavour.
Short-grain rice is simmered slowly with the ground cocoa, , and sugar (often perfumed with a strip of orange peel) until it thickens into a rich, chocolatey porridge. The coconut rounds the cocoa's edge into something mellow and creamy.
Eaten hot from the pot, it is home food and hangover cure and childhood comfort all at once. Cocoa-dark, sweet, and warming, koko alaisa is one of the flavours Samoans abroad crave most from home.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 cup short-grain rice
1/3 cup local cocoa (koko Samoa) or cocoa powder
1.5 cups
3 cups water
1/2 cup coconut sugar or raw sugar
5 fresh lemon leaves
Instructions
1
Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, then bring it to a boil in the water, drop the heat right down and stir in the sugar, the coconut milk and the lemon leaves.
✎ Chef’s note
Lemon leaves, not citrus peel. They are what give koko alaisa its particular perfume in Samoa, and they go in whole and come out at the end.
2
Cook gently for about 20 minutes, until the rice is tender and the pot has thickened.
3
Take it off the heat and only now stir in the finely grated koko Samoa until it is fully combined.
✎ Chef’s note
The koko goes in at the end, off the heat. Koko Samoa is roasted cacao pressed into blocks and grated; unsweetened cocoa powder stands in for it, but the block has a rougher, earthier taste that is the point of the dish.
4
Fish out the lemon leaves and serve warm, scattered with toasted coconut flakes, loosening with coconut milk if it sets thick.
✎ Chef’s note
Samoans eat it at any hour: breakfast, lunch, dinner or pudding.
Samoan home breakfast, Upolu.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Upolu. Two of the most-eaten foods on the island are twentieth-century arrivals and nobody pretends otherwise. Pisupo, from the English pea soup, now means tinned corned beef and appears at every large gathering; sapasui is a Chinese-derived noodle stir-fry that became Samoan by adoption. Both sit comfortably beside taro and coconut cream.
🗺️
Samoa. Coconut runs through the kitchen in three forms: the water, the grated flesh, and the cream squeezed out of it, which is poured over young taro leaves for palusami and over raw fish for oka. Taro and breadfruit supply the bulk, and cooking is organised around the aiga, the extended family, rather than around single households.
🌍
Oceania. Oceania spans Australia, New Zealand, and thousands of Pacific islands, where the ocean and the coconut palm define the pantry. Traditional Polynesian and Melanesian cooking centers on root crops, taro, yam, cassava, and sweet potato, slow-cooked in earth ovens (the umu or mumu) alongside fresh reef fish and rich coconut cream. Modern Australian and Māori kitchens blend these deep roots with waves of Asian and European influence.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Samoa
Palusami (Baked Coconut Taro Parcels)Taro leaves wrapped around rich coconut cream and onion, baked until silky, the crown of the umu feast.
Fa'ausiWarm squares of grated-taro cake folded through a dark, salty-sweet coconut caramel, a Samoan Sunday favorite.
Sapasui (Samoan Chop Suey)Slippery glass noodles tossed with pork, soy, and ginger, the potluck and Sunday lunch Samoa borrowed and made its own.
Browse all Samoa recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Samoa meal
Koko SamoaDrink
Fa'ausiDessert
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Frequently asked questions
What is Koko Alaisa?
Samoan cocoa rice: short-grain rice simmered with rich local cocoa, coconut, and sugar into a warm, chocolatey porridge.
Where does Koko Alaisa come from?
Koko Alaisa is a Samoan dish from Upolu, Samoa.
Can Koko Alaisa be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Koko Alaisa recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Koko Alaisa safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Koko Alaisa take to make?
About 35 minutes total (5 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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