12th Hawaii Distiller
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Handcrafted spirits using pure Hawaiian honey and locally sourced ingredients.
12th Hawaii Distiller, perched on the sun-baked streets of Kailua-Kona, turns the island’s endless summer into liquid gold. Their mantra is simple: grab the purest Hawaiian honey, add a handful of locally sourced grains — or, more often, none at all — and let the alchemy happen. The result is a line of spirits that sound like they belong in a boutique shop but punch like a surf-broken wave. There’s Honeyshine, a honey-laden liqueur that could sweeten a battle-scarred mechanic’s coffee, a vodka so clean it could wash the grime off a Formula 1 steering wheel, a Distiller’s Reserve with the depth of a volcanic crater, and a Kona Coffee Spirit that makes you wonder if you’ve been drinking plain water all your life.
The duo behind the operation act like librarians of the barley-free world, eager to school anyone who’ll listen while handing out impromptu tours that feel more like a private briefing than a tourist trap. Their cocktails are daring experiments, and the shop shelves are crammed with locally crafted souvenirs that prove you can buy a bit of island spirit without a souvenir T-shirt. It’s a rare blend of swagger and craftsmanship, the kind of place that makes you salute the bottle before you even taste it.