These spirits producers focus on flavors, not standard categories.
WORDS Kara Newman
Recently, I found myself staring into a glass of amber liquid, puzzling over what it might be. It was a little sweet, a little smoky, a little oaky. Was it Scotch? Rye? Was I sure it was even whiskey?
I took another beat, another sip, and thought: Does this really need to fit neatly into a specific spirits category?
Increasingly, the answer is no. Liquor store shelves are full of bottles that buck traditional categorization, ranging from England’s sloe gin (gin or liqueur?) to Mexico’s destilado de agave (not certified as mezcal, but every bit as good). And a new crop of creative producers is leaning further still into distillations that defy all the usual labels.
Empirical Spirits was among the first to declare itself a “flavor company” when it launched in Copenhagen in 2017. Earlier this year, Empirical announced plans to open a new facility in Brooklyn, bringing in Iain Townsend Griffiths, a mad-scientist-style bartender who knows a thing or two about blurring boundaries.
Crafting beyond traditional categories means “a chance for open expression,” Griffiths explains. “Maybe you burn the rulebook, maybe you color outside the lines a little. No matter how you interpret it, ‘uncategorized’ is that little prod to remember to keep shit weird in life and all creative endeavors.”
These six spirits makers and their out-of-the-box pours, each defying definitions, are ones to watch. They don’t really care where you place their bottles on your bar cart or on liquor store shelves; they just want you to give them a pour.
Courtesy Amass/Michael Spencer
Amass
Mushroom Reserve 030
This Los Angeles-based distillery is best known for gins made with sunny California botanicals. That’s not what this is. Rather, this is a defiantly earthy spirit infused with adaptogenic ingredients, notably reishi and lion’s mane mushrooms (also used in Amass’s Dry Gin), plus shiitake mushrooms, cacao and bergamot. If that’s not complex enough, the spirit is then rested for 90 days in charred oak barrels, giving it an amber hue and subtle vanilla tone. In short, it’s a whole lotta umami in that bottle.
This limited release “was truly never intended to be something to sell,” explains Gene Song, chief revenue officer at Amass. It was a small experiment by master distiller Morgan McLachlan, “but the distillery misread the instructions and instead laid down 10x what she normally makes for experimental purposes. Lucky for us, the flavor was so unique we thought some people might appreciate it.”
The Mushroom Reserve makes for a “crazy good” Martinez variation that resembles a chocolaty espresso martini, Song adds.
It’s still available for purchase, but is unlikely to be repeated.
Empirical Spirits
The Plum, I Suppose
A leader in flavor-driven spirits, Empirical Spirits has released a steady stream of innovative offerings since day one. This one has become a bartender favorite: A clear, marzipan-scented spirit made with the kernel inside plum pits, akin to the way apricot pits give amaretto its signature almond-like flavor or cherry stones flavor maraschino liqueur. Added to that is distilled marigold kombucha for a floral lift and a drying, almost tannic note Empirical likens to plum skin.
Made from a base of Pilsner malt and pearl barley fermented with Belgian saison yeast, there’s a little something to appeal to beer lovers, too.
Overall, the spirit has the perception of sweetness without being outright sweet, and fruitiness, without actual fruit flesh in the mix, with a light and refreshing finish.
The name of the spirit comes from Robert Frost’s “The Rose Family”— appropriately, a poem that suggests that not everything is as it appears.
Courtesy Empirical Spirits
Courtesy Sweetdram/Murray Orr
Sweetdram
Escubac
Conceived as a “gin alternative”—a botanical distillate made without juniper—this is a wonderfully oddball liqueur, a collaboration between Sweetdram (an independent collective that describes itself as a “gypsy distillery”) and Combier, a French distillery best known in the U.S. for its orange liqueur. Though it debuted in 2015, this is one to watch as herbal liqueur Chartreuse dwindles into short supply.
Inspired by a Tudor-era recipe, its 14 botanicals include caraway, nutmeg, citrus and cardamom, pot-distilled and later steeped with raisins (!) and vanilla for 72 hours, plus saffron for a yellow hue.
The end result is a loveable weirdo: citrusy, spiced and surprisingly versatile. Sure, you can mix it into a simple highball. Or go deep, as they do at Patti Ann’s in Brooklyn, mixing it with tequila, dry sherry, grapefruit, saline and mint in the “Spring Fling” cocktail.
Other delightful hybrids from Sweetdram include its Whisky Amaro and Smoked Spiced Rum, both of which we hope to see on U.S. shelves in the near future.
Yobo Drinks
Yobo_Kish
“Yobo” is a term of endearment in Korean, the equivalent of “dear one” or “honey.” In collaboration with Yobo Soju, Korean-born American chef and Top Chef winner Kristen Kish created Yobo_Kish, a creative line of four soju-based aperitifs.
Yet, compared to traditional aperitifs (like France’s Lillet or Italy’s Cocchi Americano, for example), each of the quartet of low-abv sippers spotlight ingredients that have played a role in Kish’s story, as a Korean-American, as a chef, and as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The Bliss bottling (sour cherry, licorice, pink peppercorn) signals childhood reminiscence; Shine (kumquat, rose, ginger) expresses “the attitude with which I welcome each new day,” according to Kish; Earth (umami-rich smoked mushroom) indicates her love of cooking; while Seoul (hibiscus, lemon balm, honey) pays homage to the city of her birth and evolving identity, and represents “an ode to my soulmate.”
An intriguing departure from typically European-centered aperitif culture, the bottlings launched in select markets in 2022, with national expansion planned in 2023.
Courtesy Yobo Drinks
Courtesy Buffalo Trace Distillery
Buffalo Trace
Experimental Peated Bourbon
Wait—is this smoky Scotch? No, it’s smoky bourbon, made with a measure of peated malt (malted barley smoked with peat), just like its Scottish counterparts. While it’s hardly the first peated bourbon, it’s a notably successful variation, and it’s a bold move from a legacy Kentucky producer to steer out of its lane.
Released in May 2023 as a limited edition, this is just the latest in a series of audacious experiments from Buffalo Trace, which has spanned everything from a sorghum-based “baijiu” to whiskey aged in barrels treated with infrared light waves.
It’s about understanding how a wide range of variables impact flavor. “We were eager to experiment with peat to see how the grain influenced our mashbill from a recipe perspective,” says Harlen Wheatley, Buffalo Trace’s master distiller. “We anticipated it providing the perfect hint of smoke, just enough to complement the sweet and spicy notes from the rye, and I’m happy to report our hypothesis was correct.”
Matchbook Distilling
Day Trip Strawberry Amaro
Located in the agricultural region of Long Island’s North Fork, this small distillery makes ample use of farm produce—often in unexpected ways and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quantities. The 2022 release of Day Trip Strawberry Amaro ticked both boxes.
What was originally envisioned as a peak-season strawberry “vermouth” evolved into a berry wine fortified with eau-de-vie, explains Leslie Merinoff, cofounder and distiller at Matchbook Distilling. She then flavored that base with local botanicals—nettle, quassia, jasmine—“building on this idea of terroir” to yield a luscious, barely-bitter amaro that really jazzes up a Negroni.
Other experiments from the season included Day Trip Peach and Blueberry Amaros (the latter sweetened with a syrup made from vanilla beans and….wait for it…Kellogg’s Corn Flakes), and a savory Field Trip Squash Amaro that also includes cacao nibs and star anise to “create depth of flavor.”
The 2022 Strawberry Amaro bottling sold out, but it’s returning in time for summer 2023, Merinoff confirms.
Courtesy Matchbook Distilling
This article was published in the Summer 2023 issue of Full Pour. Don’t own it? Pick one up today!