Kicking Off New York Craft Spirits

Welcome to the inaugural New York Craft Spirits blog post! And the inauguration of the New York Craft Spirits website itself. We're super excited to be launching this site because, as New Yorkers, we have a passion for the things created within our home state.

We're not exclusively vegans, gluten free or paleo, but we understand a lot of people are. Our motivation isn't political or guided by our diets - it's personal. It's because we love the great state of New York and are excited to share all the new and awesome spirits that didn't exist a few years ago. And we love it because, like any food product, it reflects the soil and the water and the weather of the place it comes from, as the viticultural community TERROIR.

New York products... literally taste like New York. 

"Taste like New York," some of you are probably saying, thinking about those old Pace Picante Sauce ads. "How could that possibly be a good thing?" And we love being asked this question. Seriously, we really do. Because people have such a misconception about "New York."

When you talk about New York, are you talking about the state? The city? And when you think about the state, if you think about it, what do you think of? The Finger Lakes in the north? The Adirondacks? The Catskills? Long Island? And what about the city? Do you think about Manhattan or do you think about Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx or even Staten Island?

There's a reason New York is known as the Empire State. It's the largest of the North East states with the most varied climates and micro climates. New York grows more apples than any state besides Washington. The Big Apple is coming back, this time in a bottle.

"But you sell alcohol," you might say. "Isn't water quality important?"

And, yes, it really is. And some of the distillers we carry were founded and operate out of the city. But did you know that New York City has one of the cleanest public water supplies in the world? All of our water comes from the Catskills, a range of limestone mountains to the north of us that compare easily to the kind of water found in Kentucky--soft and full of minerals. That's the kind of water these distillers are making their products with, despite being in the number one city in the country.

But you're saying you're a New Yorker, and you know all of this. We've been lucky to have access to all the great things that New York produces. So we've decided to make it easy for others to have access to some of the same great things we've been enjoying all along. We have visited many of the distilleries featured here and will be sharing the pearls of wisdom we have unearthed for you.

But that's the sales side of this website. As for this blog, we intend to have a separate blog dedicated to seasonal products and distiller interviews. Like I said, we're passionate about these things. So we will feature products, but more specifically we will also be commenting on the trends in the market and the huge growth we expect to happen in the next few years.

The more you read about these distillers, the more impressed you'll be. These aren't families that have been passing down their liquor businesses from generation to generation. Most of what you'll find here are stories about people who symbolize not just what makes New York great but embodies the American dream of being the chance to pursue happiness.

Just to be clear, these are interviews and features we're doing on our own. With no kickbacks and we do not play favorites. We hope that doing our best to honestly support the burgeoning craft spirits industry in New York will reap its own returns. We want all the distillers on our site to become famous, because we think they deserve to be.

So this space should be interesting! There is a lot of momentum going in the craft spirits industry and producers in New York are emerging on a monthly basis. We will be sure to update you on any comings and goings in the future. We hope that this will become a real resource for people that are interested in craft spirits but especially New York craft spirits.

by Colin Andrew Ferm