Nani Moon Meadery — Attraction in Hawaii

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...

We really wanted to like this place. We really wanted to support "local".This place is not local at all and has zero of the positive qualities we have found in other small business around the island. Everything from the location which is hidden in a random strip mall by an abandoned building to the interior which was just a complete mess. It's very cluttered on the inside and there's a lot of little notes demanding that guests do not take pictures and other "rules". The smell inside this place also was enough to make us walk out immediately. It was like a chemical smell mixed with rotten fruits. The lady that was working when we came in was not pleasant at all. She was rude and demanded that we buy all her attempts of up-selling us on macadamia nuts and bottles to go. My friend kind of felt bad for her so bought a bottle to take to her Mom back home because we didn't like the flavors but thought maybe someone else might appreciate a gift from Kauai. We didn't realize until after we left that the mead bottle was sealed with some sort of black duct tape. The bottle was leaking so we threw it away before we got to the airport. What a waste of $38! I will never return to this location and will definitely spread the word so no one else ruins their afternoon on such a magical island. My friend is also considering filing complaints because if she didn't catch the leaking bottle sealed in duct tape, she could have taken it on the plane and that could have been really bad...

On a positive note, we very much enjoyed the Wine Shop across the street. The owners were friendly and the whole vibe was what...

The older white lady behind the counter (hostess) was…Rude. Omg. It came out of Left Field! It was pretty bad. 😔 As soon as we walked in, we were not greeted, and and asked rudely if we were there for a tasting. We then felt awkward just standing around waiting for the host. Fast forward, we're tasting the Mead, I asked the Hostess how long Mead lasts for after opening a bottle of it…she snapped out on me! I was shocked. And embarrassed. I immediately felt uncomfortable! At that point, I was confused and felt awful. The wines are only okay. Honestly, this place is nothing to write home about. Spend your money elsewhere. #wasteofmoney I had an awful experience and felt out of place immediately walking in with my guy BFF. This was the only place on the Island I will never go back to. My best friend and I visited quite a few places during our week-long vacation. Every other business and even the people were so nice! I hate to say it, but this was the only place that did not make guests feel welcome! Don't waste your time or money on this place go somewhere else to ensure a great experience! Lastly, It is very crammed in there as well. An Uncomfortable place, staff, and atmosphere. But the customer service...