Nani Moon Meadery - Kapaʻa, Hawaii

Mark L.

With out a doubt top tier experience. Had the opportunity to try all available options. Was recommended the royal taster flight for the regular menu and a royal taster flight for their seasonal list. TOTALLY worth it to try their cacao moon regular vs their 9 year aged version/ their regular ginger spice vs the 7 year aged blend. Really fun to compare and contrast the flavor profiles.

Each glass was 2oz so plenty to share while also encouraged to make the most of the 12 TASTERS!
Definitely try their pairing menu vegan chocolate was delicious.

You won't be disappointed by the strawberry lavender, only available on island and local.

Loved the whole experience (IMO best tasting menu on island) there is a dry, semi sweet and a sweet forward for all pallets to try. Great date outting. Walked away with 3 bottles.

Gina M. M.

Such a fun experience and a MUST for anyone visiting Kauai! The mead is heavenly. You’re in for a real treat when you stop in for a tasting. And with the ability to ship bottles back to the mainland, you can bring home your favorites without crowding your luggage. We’ll be sharing some as souvenirs, but keeping most for ourselves… the perfect evening drink as we approach the fall and winter months back home. Prices are extremely fair for such quality and love poured into every bottle. Mahalo!

Rick T.

Our first visit to Nani Moon was back in 2017 and we have been happy club members since then! Their mead is unique and delightful, and they run a very professional operation. We receive a shipment every three months, and it always arrives on time in high-quality shipping boxes. We enjoy their core products as well as the seasonal varieties they make. It’s truly a local business, not a tourist destination, and I highly recommend making an appointment to visit the tasting room the next time you visit Kauai.

Robert E.

Being seasoned mead tasters and mead makers ourselves, Nani Moon has been a spot that we tried to visit on Kauai for the past several years. However, we haven’t been able to get inside this whole time due to their shifting, odd hours or due to them simply being closed for no reason during their posted hours. Finally, we were able to visit them during our most recent trip.

Despite what other reviewers said, the hostess was friendly enough and we felt welcome. She did deliver a fair amount of sales pitches, but she was thorough in answering our questions about the mead.

As for the mead itself, we got a royal tasting set to try everything on the menu. In general, the mead wasn’t that great to drink. One issue we had was that the tasting notes were hit-or-miss when it came to accurately describing the mead. For example, we thought that the Winter Sun wasn’t full-bodied and was a bit lacking in the flavors described (side note: for the reviewers complaining that there were no traditional, non-fruited meads on the menu, this one gets pretty close). Other meads, we felt the flavor was a bit too strong, like the Buzz Squared and Deviant Beehavior meads, as their flavors lingered on our palettes for a while after the tasting (and not in a pleasant way). The other meads tasted as expected, with the Cacao Moon being the favorite. It was well-balanced and tasty.

All in all, it was a disappointing experience that is heavy on the wallet. The tasting was pricy enough, but I felt that the prices of the bottles and merch were way too high, even when considering the higher operating costs of Kauai. I can’t in good faith recommend coming here, whether you’re a mead aficionado or someone looking to try the drink for the first time.

Side comments as a mead maker: the hostess mentioned that they stopped using crown caps due to the pandemic supply issues and had to switch to standard wine corks. This switch also caused them shipping issues due to corks popping out of bottles from carbonation. I was confused by this statement since all of their meads are still. This suggests that they might be bottling the meads before they are completely finished fermenting. Since their menu notes that they do not use chemical stabilizers (very handy tools to prevent these issues), they should probably look into using either champagne corks/cages, or letting their meads degas before bottling.

UPDATE: we bought a bottle of Cacao Moon during our visit, and we got around to opening it now, a month later. Turns out the mead is carbonated, which makes their bottling situation even more frightening. I’m just thankful that our bottle survived the flight without exploding. To make things worse, this bottle of Cacao Moon tasted completely different than the sample that we tried during the tasting, even when we set some aside so that it would go flat.

A commercial meadery shouldn’t be selling inconsistent product or potential bottle bombs when many of their customers will be taking their product on airplanes. It feels like Nani Moon skipped the steps of learning how to actually make mead and went straight to selling it.

Jason S.

Fantastic meadery, in the paradise of Kauai. Every trip to the island I visit here. Never crowded, always an enjoyable time. Tips and tasting notes from the queen Bee herself, Julie.

Mark S.

I regularly have mead from various award-winning Midwestern meaderies like Second City, Pips, and Schramms. Nani Moon's product is excellent and they specialize in dry meads which I don't usually have much access to. After tasting the regular offerings and seasonal offerings, I ended up buying a bottle of the seasonal offering of "candied orange cranberry cyser". Basically, the cyser is a mix of apple juice and honey instead of water and honey which are usually used to make mead. After we chilled it, the dry cyser paired wonderfully with our dinner that revolved around macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi.
Chef's kiss!!

Gary L.

Great Meads! Stephanie is an amazing mom and mead maker using all local ingredients. Must try everything and buy bottles to bring home!

Brad E.

Wonderful surprise finding Nani Moon while I was walking around having professional auto work on a truck. I did the sample of four offerings. Really good. I'm a liquor guy but this Mead was awfully tasty.