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Spruce needles have a lasting aroma in the New England ever-green landscape. After our deciduous trees shed their colorful leaves in the fall, these piney stands are the only greens left in our snow blanketed forests.a14a9970

The gin was inspired by the damp, spicy boreal forests of the White Mountains. Generally speaking, areas up above a few thousand fee elevation haven’t been timbered as heartily as lowland areas. Up there the sweet essence of spruce, fir, and birch trees are dominant. They merge poetically with an earthy potpourri that emanates directly from the woodland soil’s damp, ligneous carpet. Capturing this environment and the sense of place it instills was our aim for this liquid.

The tips, or new growth, of the Spruce have long been used in
Spruce Beers and medicinal teas. St. Lawrence Iroquoians even used it to cure scurvy, due to its high Vitamin C content.

The soft conifer quality of the spruce blends very nicely with the traditional juniper component of gin.

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Forest like aromas are backed with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon.The baking spices along with slight birch oil imbue the nose with warming baser notes to the citrusy and fresh evergreen qualities of juniper berries, spruce and fir needles. Bay leaves, tarragon and gentian give a woodland depth.

The flavors stand true to the trees, with a campfire-like backbone from the birch oil and spices. The addition of coriander and lemon peel fortify the gin with familiar supporting flavors. Introducing Tamworth Garden Spruce Gin, a scratch-made gin infused with locally foraged spruce tips.

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We’ve got a Scratch-made gift for everyone on your shopping list!

Visit our distillery in Tamworth New Hampshire, Friday through Sunday from 12PM – 5:30PM. You can also order select spirits online by browsing our list of retailers by clicking here.

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Our Art in the Age Gift packs are ready to be gifted. Fill a carrier with three of our scratch-made infusions and cross off your list.

Sweet Potato Vodka, Beet Root Vodka, Black Trumpet Blueberry Cordial = $75

Sweet Potato Vodka, Beet Root Vodka, Barley Vodka = $55

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We collaborated with a local chocolaterie, Winnipesaukee Chocolates, to create limited run, booze infused truffles.

We’re currently offering three flavors: Black Trumpet Blueberry Cordial, Von Humboldt’s Natur Wasser Cordial, and Camp Robber Whiskeyjack.

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Whether your list is filled with booze hounds or beer lovers, we’ve got a spirit to fit their interests. Our latest Tamworth Garden Wild Hops Gin is infused with locally foraged hops cones. Browse the full list of our scratch-made spirits using the spirits tab or by clicking here.

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Those who have everything still have much to gain in experience! Treat someone special to a Tamworth Distilling gift card for an inside look at our distillery and a full tasting at our bar.

Hops benefit greatly from a cooler processing, much like dry-hopping in beer. Traditional cooking of hops underscores the bitter components of the cone, while burning off much of the lighter floral attributes of fresh hops. Here at Tamworth Distilling we have a unique capability to cold distill our botanicals. Our process maintains these lighter attributes of the vinous flower.

We are lucky to have a local homestead discover some forgotten New Hampshire heirloom hop vines. We hand harvested those small cones, and bolstered the gin with common players in beers: Citra, Amarillo and Centennial, Columbus hops.

After the hop harvest, the four different cones were infused and distilled using our rotovap process. These hops were then given a structure with coriander, angelica, lemon and ginger.

Much in line with an IPA beer, this gin showcase the aromatic qualities of hops – not the bitter side. The four varietals of hops are prominent on the nose, fortified with the piney qualities of juniper and the floral spice coriander.  These hops are present more fruity and tropical notes.

The taste is a pleasing follow through of the nose. It finishes slightly dry and medium, without overt resinous juniper tones. It sips surprisingly crisp on its own, but the botanicals come alive in a gin and tonic. The base neutral spirit was specific to this gin, highlighting a 100% soft white wheat recipe.img_1219

We’ve got nothing against a good hot toddy or spiked eggnog, but this year we’re turning to the pages of Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, to bring something a little more unique to the holiday table. Please enjoy these 5 Colonial libations picked from our go-to recipe book. For more recipes, you can pick up your copy of Colonial Spirits at Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, and online here.

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The Snakebite is a modern monstrosity that calls to mind nothing so much as the indelibly awful Alannah Myles’s international Top 10 hit from 1989, “Black Velvet,” which is also a thing that some people call the Snakebite. Bill Clinton was famously refused one in England, proving that while we may have won our independence, the Brits got to keep their dignity. Even so, we can admit (though not in mixed company, of course)…it’s not bad.

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 –

Snakebite (p.64)

1 cup Hard Apple Cider

1 cup brown ale or Stock Ale

Pour fresh hard apple cider into a pint glass. Slowly top with the brown ale or stock ale.

 


When colonists realized they had neither the supplies nor the tools to properly make the traditional (and often meaty) suet puddings they’d enjoyed on the other side of the Atlantic, the cobbler was born. These were a sweeter, somewhat lighter affair, with fruit flavors being at the core. Cobblers were traditionally made from a base spirit (most popular was sherry), sugar, fruit, and citrus (acid). Since shrubs contain sugar, fruit, and acid; we’ll use them here to create these modern interpretations. Do use dry wines, and depending on your taste when it comes to sweet things, you may want to dial up the amount of shrub to taste.

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Red Cobbler (p.84)

½ cup red wine, preferably dry

¾ ounce Strawberry Shrub

1 to 2 strawberries, thinly sliced

.In a cocktail shaker full of ice, combine wine & shrub. Strain into a rocks glass with crushed ice. Garnish.


Ah, but as we know, ice cream would have been on hand in the colonial era. And ginger beer, too! Although this is a temperance recipe, this drink greatly benefits from 2 ounces

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Ginger Beer Float (p. 140)

2 oz of Art in the Age Chicory Root

½ cup vanilla ice cream

1 cup Ginger Beer

Add ice cream into a tall glass. Pour in a 2 oz of Chicory Root Vodka. Top glass with ginger beer.


Fish House Punch is refreshing. It’s light on the palate, and yet it has the power to knock even the most stout historical figure on his/her posterior. And as it happens, it is what we mean when we say punch, but seldom receive.

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Dissolve all of the sugar in one pint (.5 quart) of water. Strain the lemon juice and add it to the dissolved sugar.

Fish House Punch (p.105)

1 quart of Lemon Juice

1 quart of Camp Robber Whiskeyjack

5 quarts of Rum

5 pounds of Sugar

4 ½ quarts Water

Add all ingredients into a punch bowl with ice. Serve into individual glasses and garnish with fresh lemon.


Make no mistake: When we/they say “Ass’s Milk,” we/they mean “that milk which would be produced by a donkey.” And when we/they say “Artificial Ass’s Milk,” we/they mean “the next best thing to that milk which would be produced by a donkey.” That may sound like we’re damning it with faint praise, but in our experience, it has proven best to just drink it and leave as much as possible unsaid.

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Artificial Ass Milk (p. 138)

2 cups skim milk

¼ cup sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

In a medium saucepan, heat milk over medium-high heat. Add sugar & salt. Stir until dissolved. Serve immediately.

Enjoy the history of our town aged in white oak barrels and poured as liquid lore in every glass.

Join us in a toast: This is our story.

Once reserved, pick up your bottle at the barrel house October 16th, from 3-5pm as our distillers bottle our first straight rye whiskey in honor of the town of Tamworth’s 250th Anniversary. Enjoy free live music, refreshments, and a bonfire.

Reserve your bottle of #1766Whiskey now: http://bit.ly/2cTHybp

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We’re thrilled to announce that a selection of our scratch-made spirits are now available to be shipped to 20 states across the country! We’ve teamed up with our friends at Seelbachs.com to bring our spirits to the masses. Click HERE to shop our selection. Available for shipping to the following states:

Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Washington DC
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Missouri
New Jersey
New Mexico
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Virginia
Wyoming

Shipping available for Pennsylvania addresses at ART IN THE AGE.

Spring flowers are an eternal reminder that all things have beginnings. This Mother’s Day, give the gift of flowers because that’s where you began. Tamworth Garden Gin is better than a bouquet, it’s a garden in a glass.

Visit us at Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile to shop our exclusive Mother’s Day picks listed below, or order Tamworth Garden Flora Gin online by clicking here.

 

Tamworth Garden Flora Gin – $45 ($59.99 online)

Royal Rose Lavender Lemon Simple Syrup – $14

P&H Hibiscus Syrup – $12

Fentiman’s Rose Lemonade – $8

Scrappy’s Lavender – $19

Peg & Awl Maple Cutting Board – $34

Heirloom Porcelain Berry Baskets – $15

Kelly Cain Handmade Stoneware Juicer – $60

 

Enjoy a Flora & Tonic for Mother’s Day Brunch:

1 1/2 oz Tamworth Garden Flora Gin
Tonic water
Lime wedge

Pour Flora Gin into an ice-filled glass, top with tonic water and a squeeze of lime. Garnish with lime wedge or a sprig of fresh blooms.

Water is one of the most effectual ingredients in distillation. Like grain and yeast, water lends its specific flavors and qualities to all spirits as they are created.

Some spirits, like whiskey, are less affected by these nuances. The barrel aging process can account for up to 60 percent of the whiskey’s final character. Vodka however, must persevere on its own. What you begin with is what you get – which is why we use the finest water and grain for our White Mountain Vodka.

Our water is sourced from the Ossipee Aquifer, providing the purest flavor untouched by industrial fracking pollution.  Though our water is pure at the source,  we’re also equipped with at Reverse Osmosis Water Filter, which eliminates any residual elements in the water we use.
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Unlike many distilleries that purchase their pre-made spirit base in bulk, we also mill all of our grains in-house to ensure the freshest flavors possible. Milling grains in-house provides us with control over the particle’s size, which consequently controls the flavor. To better explain this, we can compare it to a more familiar process, such as grinding coffee beans. Like grains, coffee beans that are pre-ground lack rich flavors and aromatics. A ground bean has more surface area exposed to oxygen, and excess oxygen results in staling and flavor loss.

The end result is smooth and distinct. You can taste the sweetness of the corn and the slight grassy bite of the rye. White Mountain Vodka tastes different, because it is the way vodka is supposed to taste.

We say it’s handmade, because it truly is.

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There’s a deep satisfaction in knowing that you’re part of a very long tradition and at Sunnyfield Brick Oven Bakery, they’re making bread the way it’s been done since the beginning.

You’ll find Sunnyfield Brick Oven Bakery tucked along Chinook Trail, just 10 minutes away from Tamworth Distilling. Before entering the bakery you’ll notice neatly stacked cords of fire a24a2189wood, sustainably harvested from the Ossipee Mountain Land Company, which quite literally fuels their entire operation. Inside you’ll be greeted by Peg and Allie, the masterminds behind it all. The bakery is quaint, warm, and above all simplistic. Aside from the organized surplus of organic grains and ingredients, there’s a giant brick oven, and their most trusted tools – their hands.

They hand mix their bread in small batches, starting early in the morning. After that, the dough is turned, folding over on itself again and again. The dough rises for two or three hours before being weighed and shaped, then it’s set aside to rise in the appropriate a24a2015vessels. Soon the loaves are loaded into the oven, where they bake for 30 minutes to an hour.

Peg and Allie refer to baking as “both a science and an art.”, but at Sunnyfield Brick Oven Bakery you’ll witness a little bit of both. Their approach relies on technicality and instinct. Temperature, hydration, and protein levels are heavily considered, but when it comes down to it they’re also able to provide the bread with whatever else it needs at each stage. With all that said, they’re not purists. They’re always developing new recipes, perfecting classics, and even making use of our spent distiller’s grains.

After our organic corn mash works it’s magic on our whiskey, it’s sent through a centrifugal separator that efficiently separates grains from liquids. Our spent grains are often used as warm cow feed and compost at local farms. Other times, when those farms are stocked, our grains are sent to local bakers who work to recycle the nutrient rich spent grains.

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Upon delivery at Sunnyfield, the spent whiskey grains are combined with their organic flours, cornmeal, blackstrap molasses, yeast, sea salt, and malted barley. The result is a deliciously unique bread, wholesome in both origin and flavor.

Loaves are delivered fresh to the distillery each week and are available for purchase in our retail space. Stay updated on Sunnyfield Brick Oven Bakery’s latest creations by following them on their Facebook page or visting their website.

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“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” ― Thoreau

Although we’ll make any excuse to hop in the 1933 Ford pickup, we’re loading it up with our last autumn bounty of baldwin apples.

What the Concord is among grapes, what the Bartlett has been among pears, the Baldwin is among apples. The Baldwin apple was once the most praised fruit in New England, but after a harsh winter in 1934, Baldwin apple trees sadly perished.

This of course would not discourage us from finding them for our brandy.

Luckily, our friends at Applehurst Farm Vegetables have one of the oldest surviving Baldwin orchards in the area. We arrived at the farm, eager with empty baskets. They lead us down a beautiful pasture which lead to what we considered to be the Baldwin apple jackpot. We set giant blue tarps down on the grass to minimize bruising, and to keep the fresh apples separate from spoiled ones that have already fallen. The old trees were heavy with fruit so a few good shakes sent apples raining down on the tarps.

After a few hours, and of course some heavy taste testing, we managed to harvest nine bushels.  These coveted Baldwin apples will be making their way to the cider house to be pressed, and then turned into the next Tamworth Distilling apple spirit.