You pay close attention to what you eat, but do you have the same standards for your alcoholic beverages? At the end of a long day, when a liquid reward sounds nice, don’t throw all of your health hang-ups wayside. Here’s how one distillery is changing how the hard stuff is made.
You pay close attention to what you eat, but do you have the same standards for your alcoholic beverages? At the end of a long day, when a liquid reward sounds nice, don’t throw all of your health hang-ups wayside. Here’s how one distillery is changing how the hard stuff is made.
Picture a bottle of whiskey or bourbon. Chances are, you’re envisioning one of the famous liquor giants, whose products are found in nearly every liquor store across the nation. Per the U.S. Congressional act of 1964, Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey are defined as natural products and are forbidden to have any artificial additives. However, many other popular, big name brands in the spirit industry are often filled with artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, and are pumped with sugars (ahem, Fireball).
This is not the case with Dancing Pines Distillery out of Loveland, Colorado—a relatively new distillery committed to producing local, handcrafted rums, whiskeys and liqueurs.
Kimberly and Kristian Naslund opened Dancing Pines Distillery five years ago. Since then, it has continued to grow exponentially, to the extent that the Naslunds opened a second tasting room at the base of Rocky Mountain National Park in the quaint town of Estes Park, Colorado, and have increased their capacity in order to distill more whiskey and prolong the aging process.
Taste, quality, and sourcing rule
Similar to trending microbreweries, Dancing Pines is a craft distillery that creates small batches of spirits with an emphasis on flavor and fine ingredients. More people than ever before now value local, simple ingredients when buying food, but this ingredient scrutiny has not yet reached alcohol, at least in the minds of consumers. Dancing Pines is helping lead the spirit industry by proving that not all great whiskeys must hail from the South. “Our grains are grown at an organic, non-GMO farm that is about eight miles from the distillery,” says Kimberly Naslund, co-owner of Dancing Pines.
While it’s considerably more expensive to source fresh, local ingredients, Dancing Pines does so for one key reason: Flavor. “Our liqueurs are full of flavor from the whole ingredients. People are pleasantly surprised they don’t taste like the artificially-flavored spirits prevalent in the market,” says Naslund. Dancing Pines sweetens their spirits only with cane sugar, never corn syrup or beet sugar, and the distillers use real ingredients like loose-leaf tea, whole nutmeg, and vanilla beans to create uniquely flavored liqueurs such as Chai and Cherry Tart (pictured above).
The myth of local
There are a lot of local distilleries popping up around the country. Whiskey connoisseurs are learning of new favorites crafted in their hometowns. However, many of these “local” brown liquors are actually from the major industrial factories of the South, and sport a local label to appeal to a local market and warrant a higher markup price. Many whiskey fans are frustrated by this deception and are searching for authenticity in their favorite spirit.
“We got into this industry to make something with our own hands that we could be proud of. We’re doing that. There are distilleries out there with a different focus. We want consumers to understand how we make our spirits and we know they’ll appreciate the difference,” explains Naslund.
The future of craft distilleries
If you do indeed indulge in the ‘hard stuff’, you should consider doing so with the same standards you do for the foods you select at the grocery store. The ingredients and where they come from matter, and in turn, determine the quality of flavor and taste.
Small and local has huge potential. As we continue to value local, natural products with our dollars, the food industry responds. This upsurge in craft breweries and distilleries is following a similar trend. Will small distilleries like Dancing Pines give large liquor giants a run for their money?
