This might be the best use of sweet potatoes since your grandmother’s marshmallow-topped casserole. “People will tell you that vodka has no flavor,” says head distiller Paul Gussenhofen.“Anybody who knows liquor knows that’s a myth.” Amid the alcoholic vapors that rise off a glass of Covington is a caramel aroma that offsets the bite of the 80-proof vodka. If vodka could be made from regular old white potatoes, they reasoned, why not sweet potatoes? To their delight, the resulting spirit retained the distinct taste and from-the-earth purity of its origins. Several years ago, farmers Jimmy Burch and Bobby Ham hatched a plan to save those ugly ducklings, at least in the Tarheel State. “We went with that, and really did as little as we could to it.”Īfter each sweet potato harvest, there are piles of tasty but misshapen tubers that never make it to market. “We were inspired by French ports made in a minimal-intervention style,” Rachel Stinson says. Aged in oak barrels, it’s a natural companion to roasted game and salty cheese. Port aficionados will appreciate the Imperialis’s twin hits of acid and smoky fruit. In 2013, they began bottling a rustic-style port made from Tannat grapes, a lesser-known variety characterized by its light body and low tannins. There, the Stinson family runs both a vineyard and a tasting room that doubles as a general store of sorts, with local meats and produce for sale alongside their small-batch wines. Thomas Jefferson never lost faith that Virginia could produce quality wine, but even he might be surprised to find a port this sophisticated produced miles from his former estate. “We want to make it easier to mix good drinks,” Joe says, “but not in a way that takes creativity out of people’s hands.” Add a couple of spoonfuls to a glass of rye or bourbon for an instant and no-fail cocktail that doesn’t fall short on flavor, or use it alongside other ingredients to build a drink of your own. Aged in bourbon barrels, the old-fashioned recipe blends citrus, wintry spices, and burnt sugar with hints of gentian root and cinchona bark. Hence the Rayas’ new company, Bittermilk, which brings the same focus on quality they employ at work to a line of mixers that both streamline and upgrade home cocktailing.īittermilk offers three bottled concoctions: a whiskey sour mix sweetened with smoked honey, a needle-sharp Tom Collins variety flavored with elderflower and bitter hops, and an old-fashioned mix destined to become a home-bar staple. “It can be tough-even for us-to get everything in place to make a great cocktail at home,” Joe says. But as anyone who has spent way too much time muddling and mixing can attest, creating craft cocktails in your own kitchen can get onerous. Their painstaking attention to detail has earned the couple a sterling reputation among drinks enthusiasts. At the Gin Joint in Charleston, South Carolina, proprietors Joe and MariElena Raya press juice and blend simple syrups from the time the doors open until the last customer leaves.
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