Kōloa: The Rum of Kaua'i

Kōloa Rum is the first rum to be distilled in the island of Kaua'i, combining the best resources in Hawaii (sugar and pure water) in copper pot stills. Founded in 2001, Kōloa started producing unaged rum last year and is currently aging some in bourbon barrels.

They produce four types of rum: white, gold, dark, and spiced. During a recent tasting event, I got to try the first three along with some great cocktails made from them.

Both the white and gold rum have pretty clean aroma while the dark rum - which contained more sugar - had more of a coffee aroma. The dark rum had more of a caramel flavor and vanilla notes but all three rums were sweeter and smoother than most other 80-proofs, making it very easy to drink and great to use in cocktails albeit it lacks the complexity of aged rum. We'll have to try their aged rums in a few years.


The tasting was held at Caña Rum Bar in downtown LA and we tasted a great selection of rum cocktails made with Kōloa, starting from the Spark Plug, a version of Dark & Stormy that tasted lighter due to the Kōloa Dark and was very well balanced.

Cuban #2

Yet another good drink: Cloak & Dagger (Koloa Gold & Dark, lime, raw cane sugar)

Kōloa is currently available by special order through Hi-Time Wine Cellars at around $30.