Maui’s Kupu Spirits introduces canned cocktails

First it was craft beer, then small-batch sodas. Now Garrett Marrero and Maui Brewing Co. are ready to introduce ready-to-drink canned cocktails made with spirits produced on the Valley Isle.

Kupu Spirits debuts this month with three initial offerings: gin and tonic, whiskey ginger and whiskey cola.

“As we’ve grown and matured as a company, we’ve realized there are always different occasions to drink,” brewery owner Marrero said at a launch party for the brand in Waikiki last week. “Sometimes you want cocktails, sometimes you want beer. We’re working on a hard (spiked) water as well.”

Both canned whiskey cocktails use liquor produced on Maui. “Just like our beers, we’re trying to build Kupu using local agriculture to support our local farmers,” Marrero said.

After distillation, he said, the whiskey is also aged for “no less than 808 minutes” in virgin American oak barrels that come to Maui from the mainland.

Kupu’s gin uses a grain-neutral spirit base also imported from the mainland, which Marrero’s team uses in conjunction with a variety of botanicals to create the finished product.

“We use local ginger. The cola uses local honey and local vanilla bean. The tonic uses local lemongrass,” Marrero explained. “We’re basically trying to take what we did in beer and make an authentic, Hawaiian craft product with the same principles of sustainability, authenticity, integrity, innovation, flavor and complexity.”

Marrero also confirmed last week that Kupu eventually will offer age-stated whiskey, adding that the distillery is in the process of growing corn to use in making it.

“We have 180 53-gallon oak barrels filled with whiskey aging in a secret place on Maui,” he said.

Kupu’s canned cocktails are starting to show up on store shelves, and should be available soon statewide in places that already sell MBC’s beer and sodas. These include Whole Foods, Safeway, Foodland and Tamura’s Fine Wine & Liquors. Marrero said he expects to begin distribution to the mainland next year.

TASTING NOTES

What to expect from Maui Brewing Co.’s new line:

All of the canned cocktails clock in at about 7 percent alcohol, but they are deceptively smooth going down.

The sweetest of the three is the whiskey cola, with lots of vanilla notes tempered by a slight oak flavor imparted by the whiskey.

The whiskey ginger, which uses fresh local ginger, is more spicy than sweet.

And the gin and tonic is what you would expect — light, crisp and refreshing. Pour it in a glass and add a lime wedge, and nobody would accuse you of serving a canned cocktail.

— Jason Genegabus, Star-Advertiser