Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company

Out of the way haven located in Kawaihae. If you’re going to Waimea from Kona the stop is worthwhile. Bring your appetite as there are a lot of samples, nuts and coffee. Nice assortment of «nut» t-​shirts. Employees are all friendly and helpful.
All Hamakua products you have ever seen and more.
Lots of parking.

A MUCH better factory than Mauna Loa. This place is clean, well organized, and the staff is super friendly. They have two sample tables where you can try it all very easily. A bit pricey, but that is the story of the macadamia. They even let you crush your own macadamia nuts. This place is the opposite of Mauna Loa, and I would highly recommend it. Granted, I wouldn’t go super out of the way for it, since it isn’t exactly Disneyland, but if your on the north west shore, then I’d recommend them.

This place is rather out of the way but easy to find. The factory outlet/​gift shop is huge and offers lots of products including macadamia nuts, coffee, honey, jams, candies and souvenirs.

Pretty cool place. Lots of nut samples in all kinds of flavors. Historical information about Macadamia nut production in Hawaii. Can see the machines used. Lots of parking and very spacious inside.

Excellent samples selection. Everything from unsalted to Wasabi to Spam flavored macadamia nuts. I got a few packages, they so FedEx shipments home for you and they gabby a website our phone number for offering. They also had macadamia nut brittle, which of course we got a package. Then the walk thru and video of the nut process was cool. The cashier girl was very nice!

Free samples everywhere! Macadamia nuts, brittle, popcorn, and coffee. They have an ice cream shop too. The nut-​making ends at 2:30PM, so if you want to see it in action, come before then. We came around 4PM, so we didn’t get a chance to see it. They have signs for the machines explaining what each of them do, so even if there’s no people in action, it’s still interesting to go to. The bags of macadamia nuts are quite expensive at around $ 10 per bag, but they have unique flavors. I ended up picking up a bag of rum butter macadamia nuts for my dad and the kona coffee for my mom. The salty ones are really salty and the sweet ones are quite sweet; also, if you don’t mind Mauna Loa macadamia nuts, go to Costco to buy these instead, much cheaper. The store is really clean and spacious, and the drive here is quite nice because there’s the coastline. I’d recommend it if you like macadamia nuts and/​or need some souvenirs!

Located about 30 – 40 mins from the airport this place has a self guided tour and a plethora of samples. They have several promotions where you buy so many you get another free. The price here is a few dollars cheaper than at the airport. So if you’re gift shopping I recommend stopping here or Costco before going home. my favorite was the pineapple mac popcorn.

Giggit gave us the best customer service ever! Made us feel welcome like only a local could. Thank you Giggit!
P. S. The Kau Dark Roast is to die for!

This place is located about 30 – 40 mins from Kailua-​kona. We wanted to check out the Mauna Loa factory when we were on the Hilo side but they were closed on weekends. They have samples of pretty much all of their flavors of macadamia nuts. Personally, I liked the spicy ones compared to the sweeter ones. The Black pepper, Chilli pepper, Wasabi, Garlic flavors were all awesome. The Kona coffee brittle was also good. They also have samples of coffee and sell t-​shirts as well.
We thought of buying some chocolate covered macadamia nuts but found that they were expensive compared to ABC store or any other store in the city. i was expecting the prices here would be cheaper since its like a factory outlet but that was not the case.
You get to see the production line of how they roast and pack the nuts and make the brittles. There is also a nutcracker you can play with to break some raw macadamia nuts.

FREE SAMPLES OF COFFEE, NUTS, CHOCOLATE
MORE FREE NUTS THAN YOU’VE EVER SEEN!
I actually wanted to try the Spam Mac nuts. I’ve seen it in the store and they sure advertise it on the big island. It didn’t taste like Spam to me. My kids are spam connoisseurs and eat it all the time and they didn’t think it tasted like spam either. We live in Honolulu so we can buy Hamakua Mac Nut items and pancake mixes at Safeway Kapahulu… so I didn’t buy any nuts here but if you are visiting from the mainland, come check this place out. There are samples of every sweet and savory macadamia nut they make. Powdered sugar dusted chocolate covered nuts, toffee nuts, wasabi nuts, honey mustard nuts, coconut glazed, and the list goes on and on. Many other companies who make chocolate covered mac nuts buy their nuts from this place, so you’ve probably already had their nuts without even knowing it.
100% KONA COFFEE
Free samples of 100% Kau coffee, 100% Hilo coffee… they are so good that you might actually think about buying the $ 50/​lb coffee beans. We actually bought the 8oz bag to bring home ($ 24.99). The price may seem steep but a lot of times when you buy «Kona» coffee, it only has 10% Kona beans and 90% junk. When you try the 100% Kona coffee, you will taste the difference.
CRACK the NUTS
If you have kids, don’t forget to try cracking the macadamia nuts in the back. There is a manual nutcracker that my kids had a blast using to get through the hard outer shell.
In addition to selling their nuts, tshirts, coffee, and chocolates, they sell Big Island honey, pancake mix, and ice cream! $ 3/​single scoop, with mac nuts of course. Would I drive all the way over here just to see this place? NO. But if you are on the Hamakua coast, this place is definitely worth a 20 min stop.

So many mac nuts to choose from! Generous tasting in case you can’t quite decide which to get. The only macadamia nut we visited on the Big Island.
Lots of parking and seating outside the grounds with ocean views. I only discovered their outdoor seating our second stop there because we wanted to buy more mac nuts to take home. There is bench outside under a tree and a gazebo surrounded by papaya trees and ocean views. Good place to relax a bit to take in the views before heading out to your next destination.
Mac nuts are market price. Glass window to watch how they put together their products, video to watch the process and nut cracking demo all informative.

We enjoyed visiting this location. The sheer variety of different options for tasting is impressive.
Reasonable pricing and we were able to pick up some delicious macadamia honey in addition to our nuts and brittle.
Our toddler loved being able to crack some nuts on the demo table.

What a great stop. Got there at 9 am the beginning of our daily sightseeing day. Welcomed my fresh coffee samples and an offer of $ 1.25 full cup of coffee. The best and cheapest cup of coffee you’ll get on the island. We were greeted by a sighting of the wild goats as we pulled up. Beautiful display of samples of pretty much all the products they sell. Self serve samples, which we enjoyed not feeling self conscientious having to ask for a repeat on a flavor we might want to try again. Loved that this company believes in supporting Hawaiian growers and Hawaiian employees. We bought almost all our nuts here. They were fresh and tasty. The little cans of nuts were great to get for gifts.

Way down the road off Hwy 19 near the shipping yard is where you find these nuts.
You pull in and see the goats up on the hill butting heads and kickin up dust. Then boom there is the Mac nut factory. Inside there is an ice cream stand and free samples of nuts to try. I personally loved the Honey nuts and the Garlic nuts. A must get is the Mac nut Brittle. So good.
The ladies working there are easy going and laid back — island style ya. You can peek into the assembly line and see the nut making process go. There was also a hands on nut cracker to try, and a video of how everything works.
If you are on the Kona /​Kohala side of the island it’s closer than Mauna Loa factory.
So go get ya some nuts.

Clearly popular with the aged, this was the shortest of our vacation stops, lured in by this tantalizing morsel from our guidebook: «Don’t come here if you have a nut allergy.» The oldies station played while yawning employees watched ancient tourists shuffle around nut displays and sip tiny cups of Kona coffee. The large shop was mostly empty and unabashedly chintzy. It only earned two stars from me because we ate enough insanely-​flavored nut samples to constitute a late morning snack – samples that, mind you, sit in open bowls for flies and fingers to paw through. My fiancé picked up a few postcards and got in line behind two old people buying $ 125 worth of spam-​flavored macadamia nuts. You heard that right: spam-​flavored nuts. We left laughing to ourselves, agreeing that all those nuts will, most likely, sit unopened in their kitchens as will just about everything else in the store.

Was a bit hard to find but well worth the effort. This Macadamia Nut Company is very gracious (and generous) with their free samples. Up a steep driveway, our group noticed a bunch of chickens scrambling around the big nut pile of macadamia nut husk cast-​offs. I had no idea that fowl were nuts over these nuts.
Since I had orders from my daughter to find the best spicy Macadamia’s, I sampled the Island Onion & it seemed suitable for her. Had to laugh over the spam-​flavored macadamia’s, which are a perfect marriage of two Hawaiian culinary institutions. I even bought the SPAM postcard: Greetings from the NUT HOUSE.
Having the ability to taste your way around was good for me. I was not looking to feast for free. as some are wont to do. I was looking for something tasty and I found that in the glazed coconut macadamia’s, which were out of this world good. I bought some along with the spicy Island Onion macadamia. Samples of fresh Kona coffee are offered and that was delicious too.
As previous Unilocal have mentioned already, the atmosphere here at Hamakua is very gracious and no one appears to be eye-​balling you unnecessarily. I felt no sales rush and most of my tour group ended up buying goodies here to enjoy or take home to family. As you are making your way around the Big Island, I would highly recommend a pit stop at this NUT HOUSE!

Free Samples! And lots of them! You can try all of the nut flavors without being disturbed. I love that the staff is so friendly and answer any questions. Like what do you do with the defect nuts or nut fragments? Well… its in the video. Factory line guys waved at us. So friendly!
I like the coffee coated, coconut coated, chili, garlic and the jalapeño. Yum!

Neat to visit this factory. Samples galore (macadamia nuts, coffee, short bread cookies etc), employees were nice and helpful to guide you in picking the right gift or snack. My kids loved cracking the nuts and watching at the factory workers preparing the nuts. They have a nice seating area outside so you can feel the cool trade winds while enjoying your samples. Forget Mauna Loa, hello Hamakua!

Free samples alert!!! You can try all their macadamia nuts and a few coffee samples. You can also take a quick factory tour, and then shop.
We stopped by after lunch at kohala burger and taco, it was a good 15 mins stop if you are in the area. I liked the wasabi and kona coffee glazed flavors. Bought those and a 20oz pack of unsalted ones for mom.
Not sure if its much cheaper, but a bit… they also ship nuts to you if you want to.

If you love macadamia nuts and are even a bigger fan of free samples, then you will ABSOLUTELY LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company. Located just 15 – 20 minutes north of Waikoloa, the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company offers endless free samples of deliciously flavored macadamia nuts and is home to the famous SPAM flavored macadamia nuts which you can also sample there. My personal favorites included: Kona coffee glazed, honey roasted and jalapeño flavored. In addition, to macadamia nuts, you can also sample freshly brewed Ka’u coffee, a variety of brittles, rum cakes and more. They offer free tours and if you visit during the weekday (Monday-​Friday) you can watch workers process and pack macadamia nuts and also watch a free video on how macadamia nuts are grown, harvested and processed. Who knew it was so much work?!
The workers here a super friendly and always greet you with a smile and are willing to help if you happen to need it. One of the workers, Helen, was super sweet and reminded me of one of those cool aunts every one has in their family.
If you happen to be staying on the Kona side of the Big Island, be sure to stop here and get your macadamia nut fix! Oh yeah one last thing, bathrooms are clean here! ;)