Take a Tour and Enjoy Lunch at a Vanilla Vineyard on Hawaiʻi Island

I’ve never found anything plain about vanilla. As a kid, I favored the richness of Baskin-Robbins’ French vanilla over gaudier rivals like Pink Bubblegum and Oregon Blackberry. And that small flat bottle of vanilla extract I’d use to make chocolate chip cookies was more than just an ingredient—it was something to savor. I’d inhale the perfume of a brimming teaspoon, then watch it transform creamed butter and sugar into something even more delicious.  

But it wasn’t until I was an adult that I discovered vanilla comes from vanilla beans, produced by orchids that only grow in a limited range, just north and south of the equator. Similar to growing saffron—the only spice more expensive than vanilla by weight—vanilla requires painstaking pollination and has to be harvested by hand. Fortunately, Hawai‘i is close enough to the equator for those vanilla bean-bearing orchids to grow, and since 1998, the Reddekopp family has been cultivating them.  

Jim and Tracy Reddekopp founded Hawaiian Vanilla Co. in Pa‘auilo, on the lush slopes of Hawai‘i Island’s Hāmākua Coast. I first visited the farm in early 2023, three years after Jim Reddekopp’s untimely passing. Reddekopp, a Honolulu native with a background in tourism and a Native Hawaiian mother who loved orchids, had worked with the late Kona orchid expert Tom Kadooka to develop his crop, initially sourcing Vanilla planifolia from Lyon Arboretum in Mānoa Valley on O‘ahu. Meanwhile, Tracy Reddekopp created vanilla-based products, recipes and farm experiences to showcase their aromatic harvest.  

Hawaiian Vanilla Co. invites visitors to its vineyard on Hawaiʻi Island to learn about the farm’s history and growing this crop.
Photo: Sarah Anderson

Their son Ian, who grew up pollinating blossoms and now runs operations at the farm, led my breezy one-hour tour. These days he has professional guides to lead the tours, but the format hasn’t changed. It starts with a short, paved walk downhill from the airy café and gift shop—where loaner umbrellas stand at the ready (this is the rainy side of the island, after all)—to the actual farm. From there, visitors spread out among the narrow rows of flat-leafed, green orchid vines climbing up bamboo poles and along horizontal metal wires in the shade house, a large tent with black netting arched over steel poles.  

The tour covers the history of the farm, the current state of the vanilla market—the majority of the world’s vanilla is still grown in Madagascar—and some fun facts about the growing cycle of the vanilla orchid. “The biggest is that the blossoms will only open for four hours and only one time a year, but they all bloom over a three-month period,” Ian Reddekopp says. In Hawai‘i, that’s usually March through May. “It’s an incredibly short period of time and then a human has to hand-pollinate it.”  

As intriguing as the tour is, the luncheon that precedes it is even more fascinating. Seated at tables for two and four in a solarium lined with ferns, guests enjoy a steady procession of sweet and savory dishes, which they can wash down with vanilla lemonade, vanilla iced tea or a combination of both. It begins with an amuse-bouche of a garam masala shrimp sauteed in vanilla butter, and a dab of vanilla pineapple chutney on a crostini.   

Lunch features a bourbon-vanilla-marinated chicken breast on a vanilla sweet bread bun.
Photo: Sarah Anderson

The next plate features a main dish and two sides. The same chutney flavors the aioli in a sandwich of chicken breast marinated in vanilla bourbon and served on a vanilla sweet bread bun with caramelized onion (vegetarians can opt for a puff pastry filled with warm cheese chutney). Vanilla honey peppered pecans, vanilla raspberry balsamic dressing and a sprinkle of feta cheese add a delectable array of tastes to a green salad, while a vanilla southwestern rub enlivens roasted potatoes.   

The icing on the luncheon cake is actually ice cream—Roselani’s Hawaiian Vanilla Bean, made on Maui—much to the delight of my inner kid. But if you want to skip a tour and lunch, and just order a scoop or two, the farm’s “sweet shop” window is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. The à la carte menu includes brownies, bread pudding, sundaes and milkshakes, along with estate vanilla coffee (hot or iced) and other vanilla-infused beverages.   

The highlight of dessert is the vanilla bean ice cream.
Sarah Anderson

There’s a small assortment of liquor bottles on a counter by the window, but don’t count on spiking your drinks: Those are just to show which spirits you can infuse with vanilla beans, available in the gift shop. Vanilla extract, chutneys, coffees and teas, cornbread mix, granola, spice rubs and salad dressings (including Reddekopp’s favorite, vanilla Champagne vinaigrette) are also for sale.  

I recently returned to Hawaiian Vanilla Co. to try its Upcountry Vanilla Tea experience. Held only on Sundays, it starts with a sniff of four Harney & Sons loose teas: black, black with Ceylon cinnamon, green with rosehips and Egyptian blue lotus, and rooibos with cranberry and orange peel. Choose your favorite (mine was the citrusy rooibos), then wait for the farm’s version of it, infused with vanilla essential oil, to steep in individual pots.   

The first course is a deep fluted cup of a hearty tomato and red pepper bisque made with coconut milk paired with a salad of Jericho and gem lettuce grown on the farm, feta cheese, and pecans roasted with Wai Meli eucalyptus honey from the neighboring farm, dressed with raspberry vanilla sesame seed vinaigrette. I make a mental note to pick up a bag of the pecans in the gift shop after downing the last morsel.  

For the next course, a small sandwich of chicken breast flavored with vanilla whiskey far outshines the vegetarian option, a small crostini with black Hawaiian salt, vanilla caramelized onions and mango chutney. All is forgiven, though, with the appearance of a triple-tiered serving tray of pastries, all incorporating vanilla.  

Pure vanilla extract made by Hawaiian Vanilla Co.
Photo: Sarah Anderson

The top tier holds two mini puff pastries, one with cream cheese and red pepper jelly and the other with brie and caramelized onions; the middle has small squares of moist banana bread and liliko‘i (passion fruit) pound cake; and the bottom offers vanilla pecan maple scones and, on my visit, homemade cheesecake topped with a mixed berry compote. “We would usually do brownies, but today Daelyn decided to do something special,” our server explains, referring to Daelyn Rodrigue, our cook for the day.   

She also had to sub extra pieces of banana bread and pound cake for the vanilla raspberry sorbet that normally concludes the tea, but it still felt special to taste so many wares from the country’s first commercial vanilla farm. Reddekopp, who was working in hotel management when his newly widowed mother asked for help, says he never planned to take over the groundbreaking business. “Spending time away from it and seeing how cool it was, it was a total eye-opener for me, and we couldn’t let it fade away,” he recalls. 

Hawaiian Vanilla Co. 43-2007 Pa‘auilo Mauka Road, Pa‘auilo, (808) 776-1771, hawaiianvanilla.com 

This story was originally published in our Summer 2024 issue, which you can buy here. Better yet, subscribe and get HAWAIʻI Magazine delivered to right to your mailbox.