A Taste of Old Hawai’i

The Kuleana Spirit of Big Island Agricole Rum

Almost fourteen hundred years ago, audacious Polynesian sailors discovered the tiny archipelago we call the Hawaiian Islands. In double-hulled canoes, they transported the essentials of life across hundreds of miles of open ocean to create a vibrant culture on these naked, forbidding, volcanic outcroppings. Today, much of that beautiful, organic culture is disappearing, trampled under the pressure of burgeoning tourism and global economics. But a few years ago, another intrepid sailor, having discovered the subtle magic of Rhum Agricole AOC in the Caribbean, decided to return home to the Big Island and redeem a portion of a fading Hawaiian culture. In the Kuleana spirit of responsibility and stewardship, Steve Jefferson, a Kama’āina “native” born in the islands, determined to recover heirloom varieties of Hawaiian sugarcane—kō—once a staple of traditional Hawaiian lifestyle—and preserve their distinctive characteristics in the silken tastes of heritage Hawaiian agricole rums. This redemptive story is as alluring and seductive as a steel guitar and graceful hula on a beach at sunset. And the rum is pretty darn good, too. Here is what a visitor to Hawai’i’s Kohala Coast would discover were she seeking a taste of Old Hawai’i.

Rum is iconic as a tropical drink, usually served these days with an umbrella and a background of Jimmy Buffett or Bob Marley tunes. It is believed not to be indigenous to Hawai’i, but rather to the Caribbean, specifically Barbados, where records dating from the 1650s refer to it as “kill-devil” or “rumbullion.” There, it was discovered that molasses, a byproduct of sugarcane refining, could be fermented and distilled into alcohol, and it is this process from which about 97% of the world’s rums are produced. But this distillation eliminates flavors from the source product, so the characteristic tastes of the sugarcane are lost. Agricole rum is different; it is the cane juice that is distilled, not the molasses. This retains the unique tastes of the source cane, just as fine wines retain the special terroir of the ground in which the grapes are grown. This was the special magic of the Rhum Agricole that Jefferson found, and what caused him to return home, determined to recover the special tastes of Hawaiian kō produced from heritage varieties of Hawaiian sugarcane.

It is well established that the first Polynesians brought with them “canoe plants,” including sugarcane, when they settled Hawai’i. Over many centuries, varieties emerged as the plants embedded themselves in the nutritional, medicinal, and even spiritual daily lives of Hawaiians. Sugar production became a mainstay of the Hawaiian economy, surviving until about a decade ago when cheap global labor shuttered the last sugar plantation, apparently dooming a thousand-plus years of island cane biodiversity. Enter Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, a native Hawaiian biologist from the University of Hawaii, whose interest in heritage canes was driven by recalling images of cartoon candy stalks ranging from hot pink to a striped apple green. Years of research, spanning oral histories to DNA analyses, yielded over two dozen Hawaiian varieties of sugarcane, each with its own distinctive flavor profile. It was precisely this reclamation of old Hawaiian culture that Steve Jefferson sought to preserve, build upon, and share. It became the genesis of the agricole rums fashioned by Kuleana Rum Works, an envisioned heritage project now emerging on the northwestern tip of Hawai’i’s Big Island. 

Although the author won’t pretend to fully understand the Kuleana Spirit, the simple, exhausting work of harvesting sugarcane, by hand, seems a part of it, and indeed, this is the first step in producing Kuleana’s agricole rum. Jefferson and his wife procured forty-five acres of raw land at Upolu Poin,t where the high mineral content of the volcanic soil offers a uniquely Hawaiian taste component to heirloom canes grown in the warm sun and cool ocean breezes that grace the western shore of this idyllic island. The cane is pressed to juice on-site, boxed, and trucked some twenty miles south for fermentation and distillation. Here, the simplicity of growing and pressing meets the magic of controlled chemistry in special yeasts and tasteful blending to create award-winning rums, both terroir-based agricole and traditional molasses-based varieties. Staying consistent with Kuleana Spirit, even in the twenty-first-century processing, artificial sweeteners, colors, and flavors are never used, yielding a modern, clean-tasting transformation of hard work and Hawaiian heritage. Bottles are hand-labeled, palletized, and sent on for distribution, each a distinctive expression of Old Hawai’i.

In sharp contrast to the basic processes of the farm and the distillery, another twenty miles down the coast, the Rum Shack offers the visitor an opportunity to unpack the subtle tastes of Kuleana’s rums while enjoying other Hawaiian signature taste treats—seared ahi, coconut curry, BBQ pork or short ribs, and huli huli chicken. While it is easy to be beguiled by these local tastes, the star of this show clearly remains the varieties and tastes of the rums: traditional tastes of mango, pineapple, caramel, dates, and spices, and the surprisingly delicate piquancy of cherries, plums, honeydew, and lemongrass in the agricole rums. This is an exquisite, ethereal experience, different but as fantastic as sipping a Montrachet, Meursault, or Chateau d’Yquem over a sun-drenched lunch in Bordeaux, or if you find yourself amongst the cool early evening shadows of Tuscany, accompanied by a Piedmont Barolo, Barbaresco, or a local Montepulciano.

Hawaiian agricole rum is the fruit of the Kuleana Spirit—hard work on carefully curated stalks, nourished in volcanic sediment, warmed by tropical sun, kissed by gentle trade winds, and lovingly fashioned into a mélange of fragrances and flavors. The synthesis of nature and nurture is no easy task, but as Steve Jefferson reminded me, more than once, easy choices yield hard lives. It is precisely the hard choices so evident here that yield an easy, rewarded life—the joy of savoring the perfume and nectar that heirloom canes offer when handled respectfully by stewards of the Hawaiian heritage. A spirit within a spirit. Kuleana, indeed!