Courtesy Roundhouse Spirits
Roundhouse Spirits
Boulder, Colo.
Ted Palmer has been distilling and brewing drinks since his youth and decided three years ago to put all of that experience to use at Roundhouse Spirits, a young distillery that he purchased in Boulder, Colo.
“I started distilling with my grandfather when I was 10 years old,” he said. “I had a microdistillery in California before moving back home to Colorado.”
That experience helped Palmer create what he calls the “New Western” style of distilling. Roundhouse produces an agave spirit called Tatanka, a barrel-aged gin called Imperial and a coffee liqueur called Corretto.
The process uses all-organic ingredients, with agave syrup sourced from Jalisco, Mexico, and coffee beans procured from a local roaster in Boulder.
During a visit, groups see the company’s two working stills and check out the bottling and packaging line. The tasting at the end of the tour involves samples of the finished products as well as a game: Visitors smell and taste botanical ingredients used in the distillation and then try to identify them.
— www.roundhousespirits.com —
Okanagan Spirits
Kelowna, British Columbia
The Okanagan Valley in British Columbia is one of western Canada’s most fertile fruit-producing regions, and that wealth of fruit inspired Okanagan Spirits, a distillery that opened in Kelowna eight years ago.
“The Okanagan Valley is something of a fruit haven — we have an abundance of fruit and many orchards,” said spokesman Rodney Goodchild. “Our founder decided that we should be making spirits from all of the excess fruit here.”
Okanagan spirits now produces about 25 different liquors based on the cherries, apples and other fruits grown on farms surrounding the town of Kelowna. The signature spirit, a pear brandy, uses 25 fresh pears for each bottle. Other products include a genuine absinthe and a gin made with spruce and rose petals.
Groups can visit the distillery’s locations in downtown Kelowna or in the nearby town of Vernon.
“People can see the stills working, and we give them an education about how spirits are made,” Goodchild said. “Then they have an opportunity to come to our tasting bar and try our specialty spirits.”
