Traveling is about adventure and finding unique, local things like a distillery on Kauai that we cannot stop talking about! On our most recent trip to Kauai, we stumbled upon Hanalei Spirits in the grocery store and hadn’t heard of it before. Straight to the internet, I went to see who they were and of course, if we could visit while on the island.
I was happy to find their website offers tours of the farm by appointment and happily filled out their request form. The products available were intriguing, including traditional vodka, rum, and gin, and some local products including Okolehao and Lilikoicello. I just had to try the lilikoicello if it was anything like limoncello!
Visiting the Farm
Visiting Hanalei Spirits is not your traditional tourist trap. There are no tour guides, busses filled with people, or standard operating hours. It is a true family-run, small business distillery made out of an idea and the passion to create something magical. And yes, that something magical is the warm welcome we received from Vindi and Grant when we arrived at their distillery – and the lilikoicello! We’ll get to that later.
So what is the tour and tasting then? Vindi shares their story of how each item is carefully crafted from their farm. From the sugar loaf pineapples that harvest for about two seconds a year, to the taro, ‘ulu, and hand-pollinated liliko’i, each brings incredible flavors to the products. Imagine using a makeup brush to pollinate enough liliko’i for a batch! That’s dedication.
After walking the farm and understanding how the ingredients are cultivated, you move into their distillery to see the art of distilling. Vindi shares how Grant created several machinery pieces, the stills, and how their copper stack is split due to the roof height. Each bottle is hand-filled, corked, and hand-labeled – aiming to get the sticker as straight as possible before handwriting the batch number on top. Listening to the process, obstacles, and devotion to this process, you understand how dedicated they are to their craft.
Following the how, you get to try! I hope your taste buds are ready to be thrilled because you get to try their hand-crafted spirits and the best is saved for last!
Aloha Spirit(s)
As mentioned, the tour and tasting meant tasting. I expected one or two tastings, but not Vindi! We tried all of the Hanalei Spirits. Each is packed with unique flavors, notes, and surprisingly smooth and unexpected finishes. In no particular order, here are the samplings we got to try.
- Hanalei White Rum – made with sugar cane and fresh tropical rain from Kauai.
- Hanalei Dark Rum – made in charred white oak barrels picking up hints of vanilla and chocolate finishes.
- Hanalei Sugarloaf Pineapple Rum – made from local, organically grown white sugarloaf pineapples offering the freshest tasting rum.
- Tutu’s Gin – made with the love and heart of the family matriarch, Tutu, showcasing notes of grapefruit, lime, ginger, and juniper.
- Taro Vodka – made with locally grown taro.
- ‘Ulu Vodka – made with tropical rain collected from the center of the island.
- Okolehao – a Hawaiian traditional drink made the old-fashioned way.
- Lilikoicello – made with hand-pollinated liliko’i.
Each pour was different, offering sweet notes, rich flavors, and a complex tasting that made us question if we in fact were gin drinkers after sampling Tutu’s Gin. A gin so wonderfully paired that you could not only drink it straight, but with no chaser – who are these people!? While I initially was most excited to try the sugarloaf pineapple rum after discovering the pineapple on our previous trip, my instant favorite as well as everyone else with us, was the Lilikoicello.
The best was saved for last, and I can attest that the Lilikoicello is DIVINE! We grabbed a bottle to take with us, but should have bought two. The smoothness, sweet notes, and unique flavors made this one our favorite. Delicious to drink over ice on a warm summer day.
They also sliced some fresh starfruit for us to taste while we sipped on the delicious spirits – straight from the farm!
From our 'ohana to yours
By the end of the tour, we were not strangers, we were friendly faces. Vindi welcomed us onto her family farm for a lovely afternoon we cherished and could not stop talking about. After the tasting, there is time to purchase spirits as well as locally harvested dried fruit, stickers, cups, tumblers, and shirts. They were happy to answer more questions, chat, and discuss the process – my husband has ideas of creating a still now, and they were happy to share in that discussion.
Why should you visit?
Finding Hanalei Spirits and visiting their farm was the highlight of our trip! Their tag line: from our ‘ohana to yours is more than just a slogan. It is the warm welcome, the funny banter, and the delicious spirits created on a local farm! Until next time, cheers.
