The 13th Ka’anapali Fresh Festival in Lahaina Hawaii has started with a bang for me. #kfresh13
As well as the other 30 or so travel and food writers invited to immerse ourselves in locavore fare.
While the youngsters went ziplining, I opted for agritourism starting with the Ocean Vodka farm and distillery at 9 am.
They’re organic, make their spirit from their own sugarcane that is irrigated with their own bore water, distill within reach of the plants and blend it with desalinated seawater from the Big Island to 80 proof which adds a slight bluish tinge to the absolutely clean tasting final product. There are no flavored versions, no fancy packaging, no upsell premium (yet) style and the whole operation is pretty homespun.
It just won a third place at a prestigious global vodka judging and I can assure you that from my breakfast tasting it is world class.
Shawn, the President and his family wanted to use clean ag land that they had to create a Maui-grown product and they found an opening with vodka made from sugar cane, not rum as is usually the way. I toured their farm and plant and was taken aback by the size and health of the cane they grow as well as the technology they used.
Shawn gave me the tour and started by explaining the five different sugar canes that are the main ingredient of their spirit
Oh and I loved that fact that the bottle we broke into was given to me for the rest of the trip, now where is it?
Just a half mile up the road is the Surfing Goat Cheese farm, but that’s another story.
