Suzanne, our nominee for the best bartender in Portland, is a sharing person. Not only did she turn us on to an excellent new digestif (see below) to add to our liquor cabinet, she poured us a taste of a new vodka she's all excited about.First introduced in 2006, it's called Square One and is made from 100% organic rye grown in North Dakota with water pulled from an aquifer near the Snake River in Idaho. It's then fermented in a process certified by Oregon Tilth in an artisanal production facility called Distilled Resources, Inc. (DRinc., get it?), in Rigby, Idaho.
The taste is very clean and has none of the metallic, flinty qualities found in some other vodkas. Founder Allison Evanow, in an interview on Sprig.com, said that "organic vodka could truly create an outstanding taste and quality, even against vodkas that have been around for a very long time. Secondly, if we can make a great tasting product and leave less of a footprint on the earth, then why would we choose to go the 'convenient' way of just buying the pesticide-ridden or the cheapest ingredients available?...And personally, since I love using fresh ingredients in my cooking and cocktails, I felt that you could have the widest amount of creativity with vodka."
I know we're going to look for some on our next trip to the liquor store. We'll report back on our findings!
Just received the following from Allison Evanow of Square One:
ReplyDeleteI wanted to thank you for the nice blog mention. I am grateful that a bartender turned you on to us and thankful that you wrote about us. As a small, female-owned company going up against the "big boys," we need all the word of mouth we can get! We are still very much in "start-up" mode so these types of mentions go a long way to ensuring us that we'll break even one of these days! :-)
Cheers,
Allison
Allison Evanow
Founder and CEO
Square One Organic Spirits, LLC