The best drink in Hawaii starts with Rum that is made from local ingredients. Today, I tour the Koloa Rum Company with President Bob Gunter to see how it’s made.
The Koloa Rum Company is yet another example of how you can take the freshest local ingredients and create a product that supports the local community and environment while thrilling your customers with an outstanding product.
I found their production facility on the island of Kauai, and my expectations of a huge warehouse with large machinery was immediately proven wrong as I drove up a gravel driveway and was greeted by chickens scurrying around the front yard.
This former candy making factory now houses all operations of the Koloa Rum Company, explains Bob Gunter, President of the company. He’s been kind enough to offer me a personal tour of the facility.
The best rum in Hawaii starts with only Hawaiian sugar cane that comes from a plantation only 15 miles away! Now, that’s locally sourced ingredients! Bob explains to me that he uses only the purest crystal sugar and not molasses to make his rum. These are the two biggest differences between Koloa rum and all others.
However, the single element that sets them apart is their “crown jewel”, Bob says. The crown jewel is their huge copper still. Koloa rum is made one batch at a time so they can carefully scrutinize and adjust for the best end product.
After the crystal sugar is distilled and the evaporated alcohol is captured, it is transferred to large mixing tanks, and eventually pumped to the bottling line for filling, labeling and capping.
The end result is the rum that will always give you the best drink in Hawaii because it is made from pure, natural ingredients while supporting the environment and community and producing an artisan product that shows the focus and concern they put into it.
I love to explore natural, local foods and the farmers who are doing it correctly. But, production of local ingredients doesn’t always have to mean food. In this case, I’ve witnessed the best rum in Hawaii being made the same way any other locally sourced food product is.