Those with a sweet tooth are driving from all over the island to check out the Maui Sugar Shop, tucked away off of Front Street in the shops next to Sale & Pepe in Lahaina.

But it’s not just because the ingredients are clean and almost all organic with no food coloring and no wheat. And it’s not just for people with celiac disease or those who are gluten intolerant.

The reason people are flocking there like bees to a hive is that the desserts are bursting with flavor. Stock up and enjoy. Not only on the freshly baked and aromatic desserts, but pile up on gluten-free quiches, breads and Belgian waffles, too.

“We use only all-organic butter, milk and sugar,” says owner Zane Monteleone, who runs the small and colorful bake shop with his wife, Cynthia.

“No one here is distributing organic butter or milk wholesale, so we fly everything in,” Zane says. “We also fly in 30 different flours as all have different flavor profiles. There is absolutely no wheat cross contamination. No wheat is is in here.”

Born-and-raised in Lahaina town, Zane graduated in 2000 from Lahainaluna High School. He was on the opening team of Star Noodle as a bartender, remaining there until he opened the bakery.

Zane is also a 12-year veteran wrestling coach at Lahainaluna, and he proudly says that both his boys and girls teams reently brought home two Hawaii state titles, and his oldest daughter was among them.

“We have three kids and we want to eat right,” Zane says. “My wife has always been a label reader, and she helped us make dietary changes. She started making incredibly clean cream puffs, and people said, ‘You should sell these.’ So I jumped on board. Now that we’re gluten-free, I see a definite rise in my energy levels and I’m less cloudy. I don’t get kicked out of the bedroom for being too gassy anymore, either.”

According to William David, M.D., in the book, “Wheat Belly,” wheat is the one gluten that dominates the American diet and it’s no longer the sturdy staple our forebears ground into daily bread.

“Today’s wheat is genetically altered to provide processed-food manufacturers the greatest yield at the lowest cost; consequently, this once benign grain has been transformed into a nutritionally bankrupt, ubiquitous ingredient that causes blood sugar to spike more rapidly than eating pure table sugar, and it also has addictive properties that cause us to ride the roller coaster of hunger, overeating and fatigue.”

Zane and Cynthia opened the bakery last October and now Zane works days and gets to spend more time with his kids. He loves to make special occasion birthday and wedding cake deliveries to Central Maui, as they bake 15 to 20 a week.

“People who do a tasting say they are so dense and flavorful, you would never know they’re gluten-free,” he says.

Satisfying whoopie pies are a vegan take on old-school moon pies. Cynthia’s cream puffs are similar to French pate a choux, but with 6 grams of protein and 8 grams of sugar, they don’t spike on diabetics who eat them. Brazilian pao de queijo cheese bread is attracting surfers from that South American country on their lunch breaks.

“Pao de queijo is the traditional Brazilian muffin with coffee enjoyed as a midday snack,” Zane explains. “We also do organic drip coffee from Maui Oma Coffee Roasting Co. And cold toddy coffee that comes in a jar. If you bring the jar back, you get $1 off of your next cup.

“We have a really cool breakfast menu from quiche to cinnamon rolls. We use fresh lilikoi from Upcountry as a glaze on our muffins and more. We have a passion for good ingredients. People who come in keep coming back because they care about their bodies. They’re happy, because we care about them, too.”