Kauai-based Koloa Rum Co. is considering opening a micro-scale sugar production facility as its business grows and the Islands brace for Hawaii’s last sugar cane plantation to close this year.
Established in Koloa Town in 1835, the Koloa Plantation and Mill's first harvest in 1837 produced two tons of raw sugar, with rum production beginning around this time as well.
Koloa Rum Company was founded to create world-class Hawaiian Rum. They are the first and only licensed distillery on the Island of Kaua`i, where sugarcane production was a traditional way of life. Their first batch of premium Hawaiian Rum was distilled and bottled in September 2009 which coincided with the opening of their Tasting Room & Company Store at Kilohana Plantation.
Bob Gunter, president and CEO of Koloa Rum Co., told Pacific Business News on Friday the company is exploring its options for growing sugarcane and harvesting its juice for rum production.
Koloa Rum originally got its sugar supply from Kauai’s Gay & Robinson Inc. plantation, which held its last harvest in 2010. Koloa is now a client of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., a division of Alexander & Baldwin Inc. which will close this year.
The Koloa Rum property has approximately eight acres of mature sugar cane growing on the former Gay % Robinson plantation land and are looking into planting 10 to 12 more acres near Koloa town on Kauai. They have been experimenting with pressed cane juice rather than sugar to make its rum.