A Visit to Ko Hana Agricole

Full disclosure, we were in Hawaii recently and went to visit the Ko Hana Agricole. We were interested in this distillery for two reasons, (1) our neighbors at the Taugwonk Facility are rum distillers and (2) we watched an episode of Taste Makers that featured the Ko Hana distillery. The distillery is located in Kunia, on Oahu.

We sighed up for their tour and was met by Chiffon, who took us on the winery tour. Their name is Hawaiian for Ko "sugar" and Hana "work. She explained that they grow around 34 varieties of sugar cane that was brought over by the Polynesians when they came to Hawaii. Outside of their tasting room, they grow the various sugar cane that they use in their rum.
We then went into their barrel room where Chiffon explained the various barrels that were used to age the rum.

As we exited the barrel room, we were fortunate enough to see some fresh pressed sugar cane juice being pumped into their outdoor tanks, where it is fermented. After fermentation, the alcohol is put through the distiller. There are various cuts that are made in order to get just the most concentrated portion that would be free of other products such as methanol and ethyl acetate.

Then it was time for the tasting! It's very difficult "taste" rum so what I did was merely to sniff the rum and very carefully take a very small sip.

I learned that the Ko Hana rums come directly from the sugar cane juice, as opposed to other rums that come from molasses. Chiffon explained that there are only three ingredients that go into the making of a Ko Hana rum: cane juice, a special yeast selected to ferment cane juice and water.
We enjoyed our visit and came home with a souvenir that we plan to share with Veritable Distillers.