{"id":1961,"date":"2011-07-27T20:35:28","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T03:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=1961"},"modified":"2011-07-29T09:05:56","modified_gmt":"2011-07-29T16:05:56","slug":"review-spring44-vodkas-and-gin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=1961","title":{"rendered":"Review – Spring44 Vodkas and Gin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talking to the proprietor of a small farmer’s market stand or family run business is always an uplifting experience for me.\u00c2\u00a0 The passion that these folks exude simply can’t be beat.\u00c2\u00a0 Talking to Jeff Lindauer, CEO of Spring44<\/a>, is the same.\u00c2\u00a0 The passion for his products is palpable and you’re quickly wrapped up in the story of Spring44, both the eponymous spring and the company.<\/p>\n

In 1969 Jeff’s father purchased a plot of land in the Colorado Rockies completely surrounded by Roosevelt National Forest.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, earlier in the century homestead plots surrounded by forest land were sold to ranchers.\u00c2\u00a0 The idea being that the rancher would then lease the surround forest land to graze his cattle and both enterprises would benefit.\u00c2\u00a0 Jeff’s father purchased this remote piece of property from the original rancher and Jeff and his family vacationed their throughout their lives.<\/p>\n

A tradition when visiting the Lindauer’s property has always been to drink directly from the high mountain spring, Spring44.\u00c2\u00a0 As luck would have it, on one such outing Jeff brought along his friend and water connoisseur, Russ Wall.\u00c2\u00a0 Russ was amazed with the quality and purity of the water.\u00c2\u00a0 Insisting that his friend had an untapped resource on his hands he convinced Jeff to get the water tested.\u00c2\u00a0 What they got back confirmed Russ’ belief that they had some of the purest natural water in the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Their first idea of a line of top shelf bottled water quickly faded as they realized the cost to get the water from the spring to market would result in bottled water costing more than $10 per bottle.\u00c2\u00a0 Lovers of fine spirits, their brainstorming naturally turned that direction and Spring44 was born.<\/p>\n

Jeff and Russ have set their sights high right from the start.\u00c2\u00a0 Their intent is to compete in the uber competitive premium vodka market.\u00c2\u00a0 And, they’ve come out swinging.<\/p>\n

\"Spring44<\/p>\n

Vodka (40% ABV)<\/strong> – Crystal clear with noticeable viscosity.\u00c2\u00a0 The aroma is crisp, bright and lightly sweet.\u00c2\u00a0 The flavor follows suit with a light sweetness, great mouth feel and a super-clean finish.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a subtle complexity to this vodka that’s hard for me to put words to.\u00c2\u00a0 You take a sip, contemplate and want to take another sip to see if you can identify it.\u00c2\u00a0 I would absolutely put this vodka on par with other premium and super premium (read expensive) vodkas on the market.<\/p>\n

Honey Vodka (40% ABV)<\/strong> – Wanting to create a vodka with a unique flavor the gents at Spring44 couldn’t have picked better than honey.\u00c2\u00a0 There are sparse few honey vodkas on the market and Spring44 is a great addition.\u00c2\u00a0 The color is, as you would expect, a very light honey.\u00c2\u00a0 The aroma is distinctly honey with sweet and floral notes rounding it out.\u00c2\u00a0 The flavor is sweet, but not overpoweringly so.\u00c2\u00a0 This is definitely a honey vodka, not a honey liqueur.\u00c2\u00a0 Though, that said the honey flavor is pronounced and very clean.\u00c2\u00a0 You could definitely sip this all on its own.\u00c2\u00a0 On a side note a small portion of the profits from this vodka go to a group focused on promoting pollinators.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a nice gesture, but not a marketing point.\u00c2\u00a0 They do it because they feel it’s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

Gin (40% ABV)<\/strong> – Crystal clear and lightly viscous, like the vodka.\u00c2\u00a0 The juniper is definitely the star of the aroma with citrus and coriander coming through in the background.\u00c2\u00a0 The flavor offers less juniper than you’d expect and complexity in spades.\u00c2\u00a0 Orange, juniper, lemon grass, cinnamon, green tea…seems like you could go on and on.\u00c2\u00a0 Each sip offering more to your palate.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a great gin.\u00c2\u00a0 Balanced flavors of juniper and other botanicals make this a great choice for drinks where the gin is the star.\u00c2\u00a0 The Martini (naturally), the Ramos Gin Fizz, or even a Gin and Tonic with the ratio low (like 2:1 tonic to gin) would be great with this gin.<\/p>\n

Spring44’s offerings are definitely in the premium spirits category with their flavors, but the great thing is the price doesn’t follow.\u00c2\u00a0 Both vodkas ring in at $25 and the gin is $30.\u00c2\u00a0 Great deals all of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Another thing I love about Spring44 is the labels.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re very cleanly laid out with a large iconic image on each.\u00c2\u00a0 A snowflake marks the vodka, a honey bee the honey vodka and a juniper berry for the gin.\u00c2\u00a0 The imagery is truly stunning.<\/p>\n

I think what I liked most about talking to Jeff about his products was his boundless energy and enthusiasm.\u00c2\u00a0 We talked about the honey vodka and he explained the problems they had keeping the honey in solution.\u00c2\u00a0 We talked about their interest in getting certified as organic.\u00c2\u00a0 For the record, they’re not certified yet, but most of their ingredients are organic.\u00c2\u00a0 From there we moved to the gin and we dove deep into their process, ingredients and his ideas for future offerings (dry gin, navy strength, etc).\u00c2\u00a0 You can tell he has a passion for his work that simply knows no boundaries.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally I asked where the name Spring44 came from.\u00c2\u00a0 Jeff got a slight twinkle in his eye and said that as a kid the answer to any question he asked his dad was 44.\u00c2\u00a0 “How much does that cost? $44\u00c2\u00a0 How much longer is it? About 44 miles.”\u00c2\u00a0 Seems only appropriate that his dad would name the spring on his property Spring44.<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of attending the Spring44 launch party in Denver last week and want to share two of the cocktail recipes created by Denver mixologist Sean Kenyon.<\/p>\n

Smokey Mountain<\/strong><\/pre>\n
2 oz Spring44 Honey Vodka\r\n1\/2 oz Peach Liqueur\r\n1\/2 oz Del Maguey Mezcal Vida\r\n1\/2 oz Lemon Juice\r\n1\/4 oz Honey Syrup (1:1 Honey to Water)<\/strong><\/pre>\n
1) Combine in a shaker with ice\r\n2) Shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass\r\n3) Garnish with a lemon wheel <\/strong><\/pre>\n
Two notes on this drink.\u00c2\u00a0 When they served it at the party they used habanero infused Spring44 Honey Vodka and the added spiciness was fantastic.\u00c2\u00a0 As regards the mezcal, you can really use any one you like, just make sure it’s smokey.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s key to the flavor profile.<\/p>\n
Blackberry Sage Gin Smash<\/strong><\/pre>\n
2 oz Spring44 Gin\r\n3 Blackberries\r\n4 Sage Leaves\r\n1\/2 oz Lemon Juice\r\n1\/2 oz Raw Sugar Simple Syrup<\/strong><\/pre>\n
1) Muddle blackberries with the lemon juice and simple syrup\r\n2) Add the torn sage and gin\r\n3) Shake and strain over fresh ice in an old fashioned glass\r\n4) Garnish with a blackberry and sage leaf<\/strong><\/pre>\n
Nothing to add to this one.\u00c2\u00a0 Just super tasty.<\/p>\n
\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a0 The product reviewed here was provided to me as a free sample. If you’re wondering what that means check out my sample policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talking to the proprietor of a small farmer’s market stand or family run business is always an uplifting experience for me.\u00c2\u00a0 The passion that these folks exude simply can’t be beat.\u00c2\u00a0 Talking to Jeff Lindauer, CEO of Spring44, is the same.\u00c2\u00a0 The passion for his products is palpable and you’re quickly wrapped up in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[34,207,53],"class_list":["post-1961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-gin","tag-review","tag-vodka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1977,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}