future rumslingers of america: the koloa rum tasting room
Along with taking in the natural beauty of Kauai, we also enjoyed some manmade fun—namely, an afternoon at the Koloa Rum Tasting Room.
After taking a brief tour of the giftshop, our host, Jeanne, led us into the tasting room for a full-on Koloa experience with their rumslinger, Jayne. As Jayne poured us little shots of their signature rums, we chatted about the history of this award winning label and how special the island of Kauai is to the brand.
Named after the first sugar plantation on Kauai, Koloa’s rum recipe has used local sugar as a key ingredient from the very beginning. Unfortunately, the local sugar plantations on Kauai have been in slow decline, and have ultimately all closed. However, they have a solution.
Koloa is proudly bringing sugar back to the island of Kauai, and will soon begin to grown their own cane. As Koloa literally breaks down to “ko” meaning cane and “loa” meaning long, it’s clear that no other sugar cane will do–the local ingredient is a necessary component of their rum.
Jayney continued to pour us more baby shots of rum, letting us sample their four main types: Kaua’i White, Kaua’i Gold, Kaua’i Dark, and Kaua’i Spice. After each sample, she filled up the shot glass with a tiny bit more and had us pour each into a separate shot glass…
Until finally:
We each had our own baby Mai Tai!
We capped off our tasting with a slice of rum cake, topped with rum fudge, and it was about this time that I could no longer feel my face.
One of my favorite parts of the Koloa tasting was learning just how traveler-friendly the brand is. Their spiced rum comes in just under the TSA’s 90 proof cut-off at 88 proof, and Jeanne happily informed us that nine 3 oz. bottles of any Koloa rum will fit perfectly into a quart size bag. This is super helpful to anyone traveling with carry-ons only AND/OR anyone looking to get seriously wasted during their flight.
If little bottles aren’t your thing (hey, we get it), they’ve got you covered there, too. Koloa has a bottle-shaped bubblewrap cover available for purchase for anyone aiming to take a full-sized bottle back to the mainland via checked luggage.
Apparently, the TSA doesn’t like when you wrap your liquid purchases in heavy materials, so this pleases the powers that be AND keeps your stuff from getting rum-soaked. One million wins for everyone. Especially the guy who can now bring his POCKET KNIFE on board. Whatever, TSA.
As you may already know, I’m not much of a liquor drinker, and when I do opt for something with a higher proof, it’s rarely rum (I blame large amounts of Baccardi Razz circa sophomore year of college) (Ugh, I KNOW.) However, it was nice to branch out from our usual beer and wine focused excursions and imbibe in something new for our palettes. The more we tasted each little shot, the more I was able to appreciate Koloa and by the end, I felt like a straight up Mai Tai-making pro.
The tasting room is the first of its kind in Kauai and is free to anyone who cares to swing by Koloa, but thank you again to Jeanne and her team for inviting us to taste their signature rums!
xo!
the romantic
Lazy Travelers
The Lazy Travelers are two transatlantic best friends who have mastered the art of exploring a new city. Though Ashley is based in London and Carolyn is in Philadelphia, we'll use any excuse to reunite around the world. We’re professional bar hoppers, pub crawlers, and food testers, and you’ll never see us zipping around, checking things off a list of “must-sees.”
12 Comments
Britany
Oh why would you even bring up Bacardi Razz?? Colombia has forced me to try rum again but that stuff scarred me for many years. I’d be open to trying Koloa, as long as there is NO raspberry (or orange — Bacardi O) involved!
Lazy Travelers
oooh my gooddddd bacardi o. i just gagged.
Lazy Travelers recently posted..future rumslingers of america: the koloa rum tasting room
Kieu ~ GQ trippin
baby mai tai.. how cute! i love rum cakes too. looks like a fun day!
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Lazy Travelers
i’d never had rum cake before but it was soo good!
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Raul (@ilivetotravel in Twitter)
Rum – always a good thing! I like how you made the Mai Tai!
Raul (@ilivetotravel in Twitter) recently posted..Kilimanjaro Hike: Day 3 – A Lava Tower, Then All Hail Broke Loose
Lazy Travelers
i’ve never made one before but i felt so fancy with the dark rum floating on top!
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Tawny of Captain and Clark
Stop it. STOP IT. This rum is my ABSOLUTE favorite (hence all the caps). I would have paid a pretty penny for a shipment of it. So jealous.
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Lazy Travelers
i did really like it! it sounds like they’re quickly growing and expanding throughout the states, so hopefully you’ll be able to get it easily soooon
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The World Wanderer
Ughhh, Bacardi Razz…those were the days! I have a hard time drinking rum too, but this looks like something I would want to try. LOVE the bubble bags!
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Lazy Travelers
genius, right?!
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@mrsoaroundworld
Now I know what a mai tai is – I seriously didn’t! 😉
Kimmy @ AfterGlobe
I just added this to our list of things to do when we are on Kauai a few days ago. The husband and I are huge rum fans. Of course, that would not include Bacardi.
I love how you layered the rum, but what to make sure you others knew that’s not a Mai Tai. Sorry, I’m a Mai Tai snob. Did you know that the Mai Tai was actually created in Oakland, CA? 🙂
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