Overview
Big Island Meadery is a tasting-room-style meadery in Keaʻau on the Big Island, not a full-service restaurant in the usual sense. The core draw is honey wine made on site from local honey, with the business presenting itself as the Big Island’s first meadery. It also sells honey, small retail items, and some food alongside tastings, so it works more like a beverage stop with light eats than a conventional lunch or dinner destination. (bigislandmeadery.com)
For travelers, it is most interesting if you want something distinctly local and different from the usual coffee, poke, or brewery stops. The setting and product line are tied closely to beekeeping and island-grown ingredients, which gives the visit a stronger sense of place than a generic tasting room. (bigislandmeadery.com)
Cuisine & Specialties
The food and drink focus is mead, including flight tastings and bottles/growler fills for take-home purchase, with honey sampling and some food available on site. The official site also lists a rotating Saturday food-truck lineup, while the tasting room serves some daily food items as a companion to the meads. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Overall menu style: mead tasting room with retail honey, light food, and occasional food-truck support rather than a broad restaurant menu. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Notable specialties: mead flights; traditional meads in dry, semi-sweet, and sweet versions; seasonal/flavored meads such as Roselle, Lilikoi Ginger, Not Toddy, Cocoa Vanilla, Caldera Cocoa, Guava Meli, Jabo Meli, and Chipotle Bochet; honey tasting/sampling; local honeycomb; and honey cheese board reports from travelers. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Price expectations: reviewers describe prices as affordable/low for the amount you can sample, and the official site sells tasting-room bottles, so this feels more like an easy-going tasting stop than a high-ticket meal. (tripadvisor.com)
- Dietary usefulness / limitations: the public evidence suggests some flexibility for snack-style visits, but there is not enough reliable source material to confirm robust vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, or allergen-specific planning beyond the honey-based core. Because mead and many snacks are honey-forward, this is likely a weaker fit for visitors avoiding honey or alcohol. (bigislandmeadery.com)
Notable Features & Ambiance
This is a newly built tasting room tucked just off Highway 11 and 130 in Puna, with a “lush jungle” setting emphasized on the site. In traveler reviews, it comes across as a relaxed, personable stop where staff or owners spend time explaining the meads, and the space is comfortable enough for lingering rather than just grabbing a quick bottle. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Service model and seating style: tasting-room counter service; no reservations necessary according to the website; visitors can sample meads on site, and reviews suggest casual sit-and-stay-while-you-taste conditions. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Atmosphere and decor: small, personal, locally rooted, and oriented around honey and mead; the site highlights a newly finished tasting room and local merchandise, while reviews describe it as a “hidden gem” with a friendly vibe. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Amenities / practical features: tasting flights, honey sampling, honey retail, merch, tap club membership, and scheduled events/food trucks. The site also says it is open Tuesday–Saturday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Best fit: a short scenic stop, an afternoon tasting, or a low-commitment visit for travelers curious about local craft beverages. (tripadvisor.com)
- Weaker fit: visitors wanting a conventional sit-down meal, a large food menu, or a late-night dinner stop. The evidence points to a tasting room with light food rather than a full restaurant. (bigislandmeadery.com)
History & Background
Big Island Meadery grew out of Kilohana Honey, the honey/beekeeping business run by co-owners Vanessa Houle and Devin Magallanes. The official “About Us” page says they are beekeepers who turned years of experimentation into the island’s first meadery, using their own honey and locally inspired flavors. (bigislandmeadery.com)
Review Sentiment Snapshot
What People Love
Travelers most often praise the friendliness of the owners/staff, the chance to sample multiple meads, and the sense that this is a genuinely local, passion-driven operation. Reviews also repeatedly mention the value of the tastings and the fun of trying unusual flavors; a few visitors specifically call out honey cheese boards, honey sampling, and the relaxed atmosphere as highlights. (tripadvisor.com)
Common Gripes
There are not many clearly recurring negative themes in the available evidence, which is itself notable given the small review count on Tripadvisor. The only mild caution that appears is that some meads may run sweeter than certain visitors prefer, and one reviewer noted the place may be a bit off the beaten path. These are lightly supported rather than strong complaint patterns. (tripadvisor.com)
Practical Visitor Tips
- Hours: Google Places and the official site both point to Tuesday–Saturday, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM; closed Sunday and Monday. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Reservations: the website says no reservations are necessary for tastings. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Best time to go: daytime works best, especially if you want a relaxed tasting and time to talk story. Saturday is likely the most active day because of rotating food trucks. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Ordering tip: if you like variety, ask for a flight; if you want to take something home, the site notes bottles/growler fills and tasting-room-only sales for most mead. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Location note: it is in Keaʻau on Shipman Road, just off Highway 11 and 130, so it is more of a destination stop than a walkable town-center visit. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- Food expectation: plan on light food or food-truck support, not a full restaurant menu. (bigislandmeadery.com)
Verification Notes
- Official name, address, and website are consistent across Google Places and the official site: Big Island Meadery, 16-313 Shipman Rd, Keaau, HI 96749, website
https://www.bigislandmeadery.com/. (bigislandmeadery.com) - Google Places shows the business as operational, and the official site is active; no closure signal was found. (bigislandmeadery.com)
- No phone number was surfaced in the provided Google Places data or the official pages reviewed. (bigislandmeadery.com)
Sources
- Big Island Meadery official home page —
https://bigislandmeadery.com/— Retrieved 2026-04-01. Most useful for current identity, hours, tasting-room format, food-truck/event posture, and the “first meadery on the Big Island” framing. - Big Island Meadery “Buying Mead” page —
https://bigislandmeadery.com/pages/buy-mead— Retrieved 2026-04-01. Most useful for current hours, location, tasting-room-only sales emphasis, and the list of mead styles/flavors. - Big Island Meadery “About Us” page —
https://bigislandmeadery.com/pages/about-us— Retrieved 2026-04-01. Most useful for ownership/background, Kilohana Honey connection, tasting-room description, and the meadery origin story. - Big Island Meadery honeycomb product page —
https://bigislandmeadery.com/products/honey-comb— Retrieved 2026-04-01. Useful for confirming retail honey/honeycomb offerings and the site’s ongoing Tuesday–Saturday operating language. - Tripadvisor listing for Big Island Meadery LLC —
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60590-d26830482-Reviews-Big_Island_Meadery_LLC-Keaau_Island_of_Hawaii_Hawaii.html— Retrieved 2026-04-01. Most useful for traveler sentiment, sample-price cues, honey cheese board mention, and a quick read on what visitors actually do there.
