Kō Hana Distillers sits on a former sugar plantation in Kunia, Hawaii, making rum the way it used to be made on the islands. Founded by Jason Brand and Kyle Reutner in 2014, this operation brings Hawaiian rum production back to its agricultural roots using estate-grown heirloom sugarcane varieties. Brand, who previously worked in renewable energy, and Reutner, with a background in agriculture, decided to revive Hawaii’s rum-making heritage after learning that the islands were once home to numerous rum distilleries. They farm their own sugarcane on Oahu’s central plain, growing varieties that date back centuries but had largely disappeared from commercial production. The distillery occupies a 12,000-square-foot facility where they control everything from seed to bottle, operating custom-built copper pot stills designed specifically for their fresh cane juice fermentation process. Instead of using molasses like most rum producers, they press fresh sugarcane juice within hours of harvest, creating what they call ‘agricole-style’ Hawaiian rum. The operation runs more like a working farm than a typical distillery, with sugarcane fields surrounding the production facility and harvest schedules dictating distillation runs. Their approach connects directly to Hawaii’s pre-Prohibition distilling tradition, when sugar plantations routinely produced rum as a secondary product.