MĀNOA HONEY & MEAD — Attraction in Oʻahu

I was a bit iffy about this place when we were first driving up because the neighborhood looked kinda sketch but this place is definitely worth it.

My fiancée and I booked a mead tasting via their website, it was super easy.

The location is pretty easy to find but because we just so happened to go at a busy time, parking was tough. They have about 4 stalls in front of the business and they were all full so we had to find slighly far away street parking and walk in.

The tasting is conducted either outside in the courtyard or on a small table located in the (equally small) shop.

We decided to do the 6 tasting menu (plus one extra sample) and it did not disappoint.

The first was a new drink called org, and that is the only brew that comes in a can. It had a light, nice ginger-hoppy kind of taste.

The second was a pineapple mead and that was nice crisp and clean tasting... a bit stronger in flavor than the org. Very yummy and not that sweet.

The third was Punch, and it really did taste like a punch. It had lilikoi, mango, dragon fruit, and tahitian lime flavors infused into the mead. Like the name suggests, it was pretty sweet.

The fourth was the lilikoi, my third favorite of the day. It was slightly sweet with a nice crisp after taste, the alcohol flavor was barely there (how dangerous! 🤣). I can see why this is their most popular one.

The fifth was the orginal mead. This one kind of reminded me of a light honey whisky like flavor. Very good. This was my fiancée's favirote.

The sixth was the slee-ping-potion. This is a herb infused mead and i honestly thought I wouldn't like it because of the lavender but I was so shocked. It was really good! Tied for my favorite of the day. The flavor itself was a hard to describe nice muted sweet flavor, the sweetest out of the bunch but somehow it just worked? Another plus to this was the aroma, the strong honey smell was just so comforting.

The final mead that we tried was the yuzu infused one. This one had a nice and refreshing citrus flavor with a mild crisp sweetness. This is the other mead that is tied for my favorite of the day.

Overall, this was a great experience. The mead was great, the staff was very nice and knowledgeable. 10/10 highly...

Such a great value and experience! I didn't want to leave.

What a charming spot and perfect experience to top off our Oahu girls' weekend! Mānoa is off the tourist beaten path in a quaint local neighborhood — you might even think you're lost when you first get here. But rest assured: You're in the right spot and in for a treat.

If you don't have advance reservations, walk-in tastings are first-come, first-serve and quite affordable. We chose the flight du jour and added a few additional options from the full menu. Each portion was plenty for 1-3 people to share, depending on how much you want to drink. There are many great flavors to choose from, but all showcase the bright, clean taste of Mānoa's locally raised honey.

All of the staff we met were really friendly and knowledgeable. The gift shop features a DIY honey tasting bar so you can sample every version of sweetness they carry. (I did literally try every single one!) Everything is extremely affordable, especially considering how labor-intensive both mead and honey can be. Packaging is classy and makes for wonderful gifts.

The honey is harvested on-site (although the bees are elsewhere, so you don't need to worry about stings!) and the mead is also fermented and processed at this very location. If you ask nicely, they may even give you a little site tour so you can see where the magic happens.

If you want the full hive-to-meadery tour experience, Mānoa also offers a "Bees to Mead" tour that takes you from the Honey House (slash mead tasting location) to their local apiary where you'll get to see the bees that make your sweet treats. Once the tour returns to the Honey House, you'll get to refresh yourself with six craft meads and a complementary cheese and fruit plate. We didn't have enough time to take this tour this trip, but I definitely want to come...

Let's get the obvious out of the way: the meadery is in a sketchy area that's a weird mix of residential and industrial. Just look at Google street view. Parking is also a bit stressful since the streets are so narrow and there are only three stalls for the meadery. Sounds from the industrial shops nearby are hard to ignore.

As for the business itself: the workers are friendly and passionate about their craft, and the product is excellent. We did the tasting and the 6 meads were all unique and interesting. Our hostess did a great job of explaining each one. Afterwards, we sampled their honey. I especially liked the cocoa nib and ghost pepper honeys.

The one thing that I think they can improve on (aside from the location) is the online booking system. The lack of a dedicated field to input the number of people and the offered alternative of adding it to the order notes is clunky. The booking page is also ambiguous when it comes to the cost of the tasting, since it gives the cost for the reservation and notes that only one reservation per party is needed. We only found out once we got there that the cost is not per reservation,...