If you’ve traveled to just about any island of Hawaii, you know what I’m talking about. The plane lands, you grab the rental car, and head straight to Costco.
You will randomly hear folks talk about it around California – we just stock up on food at Costco. Saving money by having your own snacks on hand or grilling at your condo’s shared picnic area is a common practice. I really didn’t realize how common until we were browsing the aisles of Costco Kauai and we saw at least 3 other families that were on our flight from San Jose. (We also all ended up at Kauai Beer Co. You can read about that great place in my recap of what to eat in Kauai.)
This type of post is a little out of character for Fake Food Free (I picked up some fresh fruit, too, don’t worry), but after finding some really great Hawaiian products and realizing that a lot of people search for info about Costco Kauai, I really wanted to share what we found. It didn’t get really exciting until we stumbled into the local products section towards the front of the store. That’s where I may have gone a little crazy. Crazy meaning we ended up bringing back some unopened packages due to overbuying.
The best part is that many of these things are great for hiking, which we did a lot of to stay active in Kauai. From jerky to macadamia nuts, we found so many great things to try.
Kauai Coffee Company Hand-Sorted Peaberry Whole Bean Coffee
Let’s start with the essentials. We splurged on the specialty Kauai Coffee Company coffee and we were not disappointed. Later we found some of their coffee at the local supermarket, but not this variety. It comes in a brown bag versus the company’s typical blue bag. Single-estate, which you can visit on the South Shore. We knew our condo had a drip coffee maker, but were unsure of a grinder so we easily used the grinders at the front of the store. We started every morning of our trip with a cup of this excellent coffee.
Island Princess Maui Onion Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts
I had plans to overdose on macadamia nuts and there were plenty of ways to do it. This was one of them. They are basically like sour cream and onion chips, but in the form of a mac nut. Great for hiking when you start craving something salty.
Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company Kona Coffee Macadamia Nut Brittle
We knew it was a bad idea to buy this, but we did it anyway. Vacation, right? By bad idea, I mean I had no doubt we’d devour the bag. And yes, this was a traditional Costco size bag! We restrained ourselves better than I thought and ended up coming home with a couple servings left. But be warned, it is difficult to keep you paws off this!
Kaimana Ahi Tuna Jerky in Teriyaki
This was one of those things that we thought we’d take on every hike, but ended up having so many other snacks (and ate so much poke) that we brought it back unopened. That ended up being a good thing because it has been my afternoon snack ever since. Wild caught, made in Hawaii. It’s a little high on the sodium and sugar side, but really great as a new item to try.
Kauai Cookie Company Guava Macadamia Nut Cookies
Full disclosure, we actually didn’t end up buying the oversize pack at Costco, but the Guava Macadamia Nut variety caught our attention. We found a smaller pack at the supermarket and then again at the cookie store on the South Shore. If you like crunchy, shortbread-like cookies and have people to feed, get the pack at Costco. They are so good!
Maui Brewing Company Bikini Blonde
Due to it just being the two of us, I typically cheer out loud when I find products at Costco that aren’t in super-size packages. That was the case with this beer, the most popular one that Maui Brewing produces, according to the tour we took at the brewery a couple years ago in Maui. They had 6-packs! And it was about $2 less expensive than you’ll find at most other stores. Grab some!
Koloa Rum Company Coconut Rum
We love trying local spirits and they had several flavors at Costco. They were standard 750 mL bottles, not super-sized, and a few dollars less expensive than you’ll find in the supermarkets. We didn’t make it to the Koloa Rum Company store on the island, though. I will say that the coconut rum was really great. It was our sunset happy hour drink with a little pineapple sparkling water mixed in almost every night.
Hi Lori,
what camera are you using? Pictures are so beautiful. Love your blog!
Hi Melissa,
These were taken with my Canon 6D and my 24-105 mm lens. Thanks for the kind comments!
I love visiting the Costcos wherever we go because they are all different, especially in other regions. 🙂
They always carry so many local products. It’s definitely a fun place to explore!