Aloha! When in Kauai, cookies are actually spelled ‘Kookies’, at least when you visit Kauai’s oldest and original ‘Cookie’ factory! In this post I’m combining two of our day outings: the Kauai Kookie Factory, and the Kauai Coffee Company. We stopped at both places on different days while touring around taking the helicopter ride, and our catamaran tour, both of which I haven’t posted yet.
While there are two locations of Kauai Kookie shops on the island, we went to the original Kauai Kookie factory. This small family-owned business has been serving ‘Kookie’s since it opened in 1965. While the cookies are made there, you can’t tour the factory, but can smell the delicious cookies as you walk up to the gift shop there.
You can also view some boxes that are being ready to be shipped as you walk up the entranceway. This small shop sells not only their ‘kookie’ products in a variety of gift packagings, but also T-shirts and other memorabilia as well.
While we’re not ‘Cookie people’ as we try to watch our sugar, we couldn’t resist trying the Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut, which we were given a sample; fresh and warmed up from the counter-top toaster oven. We ended up purchasing several boxes of the Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut (for friends and family of course!) as well as a couple small canisters of their Kauai Rooster Kookies, with Kauai’s namesake Rooster shaped cookie made of Chocolate Hapuna Coconut.
Steve (DOS) being the shopper he is, also bought us ‘dirt-dyed’ Kookie T-shirts, and a Kookie cap. If you’re a cookie-nut, or even if you’re not, the Kauai Kookie Factory is a delicious place to visit, which won’t take very long, but leave you with sweet memories!
The other factory we visited was the Kauai Coffee Plantation. This was an actual working coffee plantation and factory, (the largest coffee farm in the US), that offers self guided outdoor walking tours. While we didn’t do the tours as we stopped here on the way back to our hotel the day of our Waimea Canyon trip, we definitely stopped by the tasting room and gift shop!
The outdoor deck-covered tasting room offers their many varieties of coffee, each with free sampling cups. You might be a bit wired-up after trying to many coffees, but we limited ourselves to a few small sips of several full-bodied and medium roasts, and a flavored coffee: chocolate macadamia nut (can you see a pattern here!).
There is also a small cafe should you want a bite to eat.
The on-site coffee museum (free) offers lots of Hawaiian coffee nostalgia and memorabilia items, and is a quick self guided tour, adjacent to the complimentary tasting room, while
off the tasting deck you can see the coffee plantation, and/or tour it if you have the time.
And before leaving we made our coffee purchases in the gift shop.
For the coffee nut, this is a fun stop you can do before or after sightseeing the Waimea Canyon, Poipu Beach or even from the airport. Enjoy your cuppa Joe! Mahalo!
GREAT FUN.