Koloa Rum Company Cocktails

In light of the state’s last sugar plantation shuttering this year, Koloa Rum Company is finding new ways to produce its award-winning Hawaiian rum. According to President and CEO Bob Gunter, the company is experimenting with using cane juice and cane syrup as a substitute for sugar in its handcrafted, single-batch rum and Hawaiian Kukui Brand jams and jellies. Depending on how the swap affects the product’s flavor, aroma and consistency, Koloa Rum may even have to venture into small-scale raw sugar production. It’s too early to tell, Gunter says, but with nearly three years’ worth of the sweet stuff stockpiled from Hawaiian Commercial Sugar, he is confident about the company’s ongoing transition to utilizing its own cane in one form or another.

Having been involved in the design, buildout, commissioning and licensing of two other Hawai‘i distilleries prior to Koloa Rum, Gunter has long recognized the company’s value and opportunity as the first and only distillery operation on Kaua‘i. “We knew from the beginning that we could never compete with major brands in price,” Gunter says. “But we could compete in quality and also leverage the uniqueness factor, which is that we are made in Kaua‘i.” Hawai‘i’s unique identity and high-volume visitor traffic has been instrumental to the company’s success. “Hawai‘i is, in and of itself, a huge brand,” Gunter says. “That’s how we began to expand distribution outside of Hawai‘i.

Visitors would try our rum, then go home and call or email us wanting to know where they could buy it.” Based on demand from retailers on the mainland and beyond, Koloa Rum is now distributed in 22 states as well as four countries outside of the U.S.

Koloa Rum has also begun expansion back home. The company is planning to construct a distillery, tasting room, café and museum in Koloa, where it originally sourced its sugar, and convert the current distillery and tasting room in Kalaheo into an aging facility. The new property will include certified-organic farming operations on 10 acres of sugar cane and several acres of guava, pineapple and other indigenous crops.

“People are rediscovering rum,” Gunter says. “Rum had sort of a blue-collar reputation, but now people are realizing that good, high-quality rum is not only very flavorful, but it’s very versatile and works so well in different types of cocktails. You’ve got this wave of mixologists really pushing the envelope, and it’s helping to bring rum to the forefront again.”

Mix up one of these Koloa Rum cocktails crafted exclusively for Pacific Edge by Stir Beverage Catering owner Chad McDonald.