With the recent release of Wonka to theaters, it seemed only fitting to share an email about Tamworth Distilling, a craft distillery out of New Hampshire that founder (and a
2023 Food & Wine Drinks Innovator of the Year) Steven Grasse would even call a bit Wonka-esque. Grasse is the marketer who, in 1999, dreamed up Hendrick’s Gin. Fast forward to 2015, Tamworth was born and now produce over 55 products, of which I’m sure you won’t find anywhere else. From their Sylvan Mist Gin, a consumable cocktail garnish that branches between both scent and spirit as a wearable woodsy unisex fragrance and cocktail modifier to Crab Trapper, a bourbon base steeped with a green crab, corn and low-country boil blend mixture to aid in the invasive green crab population. We also can’t forget Graverobber Unholy Rye, infused with maple syrup tapped from graveside maple trees from their nearby unmarked Colonial era graveyard.
Their latest product, Saison de Frai, is a mission to bottle and preserve the essence of New Hampshire’s Swift River: a four year apple brandy with real trout roe.
Tamworth really is creating some of the most unique spirits products out there.
We distill our own neutral grain spirit base (rather than purchasing it from an industrial producer) from local organic corn, organic rye, and malt. All of our grains are sourced from farms within a ~150 mile radius during the harvest season, and milled in-house, on demand, for the freshest flavor.
Tamworth’s water comes from the Ossipee Stratified Aquifer, one of the purest sources on the East Coast. More importantly, it lies on granite bedrock — you cannot frack in granite, so this pure source is safe from that type of industrial pollution.
Our distillery test kitchen serves as a hub for experiments and innovations that fuel our creativity. Many of the ingredients used are sourced from local farms, or our own backyard botanical gardens. For flavors that can only be found in the wild, we’ll forage from our other backyard–the rich New Hampshire wilderness.
Each small batch, scratch made spirit is a taste of our home, and a result of the work of partners large and small: from honeybees and gardeners to farmers and distillers. Our recipes are born from the crops we grow and the histories buried in the soil below.
