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I keep getting questions about how the infusions
got started. Well, here goes...
For about the last 20
years, I've been playing around with infusing alcohol
and whole foods, for my own enjoyment. When I was a kid,
I remember that someone gave my dad a vial of peaches
and brandy. He hated it, I loved it and that's pretty
much what got me going. Initially, I played around with
cognac and brandy with cherries, plums, and stone fruits.
I’ve since experimented
with all kinds of combinations, as my friends will attest.
About
15 years ago, I over-ordered fresh figs at the restaurant
where I was working and they were going bad in the walk-in.
Why waste them? So I dumped a bunch of bourbon over the
figs, added some cinnamon, vanilla, and a bit of simple
syrup, and that was the real beginning. I grew up near
Kentucky so bourbon was a natural choice. I also love
tequila and the level of flavor complexity I am able
to achieve with infusing, so I started with those two
as bases and experimented with all kinds of combinations
of dried vs. fresh, fruits, herbs and spices.
We started
serving these infusions at Azure and City Bar soon after
opening and the bartenders came up with some amazing
infusion cocktails in addition to serving them straight.
A patron at City Bar strongly suggested that I should
take the infusions and market them, but as a full-time
chef, I didn't have the time to do that. Fortunately
for me, I met Brandon Bach, who did. I approached Brandon
about forming a partnership to produce and market the
infusions. After nearly three years of development, licensing
issues, and jumping through bureaucratic hoops, we’ve
finally done it.
We’re making and marketing Infusion
Diabolique™ Bourbon
and Infusion Angelique™ Tequila. The final products
you taste today are made from Premium Kentucky Bourbon
with fresh figs, vanilla bean, cinnamon and 100% Blue
Agave Tequila with fresh mango, lime, Hawaiian pineapple
and they both have some secret stuff. Our newest release
is Infusion Diabolique™ Rum. This premium virgin
island rum is infused with an exotic union of flavors
including lemon, orange and ginger.
When I talk to people
about the infusions, I tell them it's an old-world technique
using new-world products: 100% whole foods, and never
any extracts, flavor enhancers, or artificial flavors.
It’s grass-root production
in small batch barrels, that yield a real hands-on product--handmade,
hand-bottled, mouth-tested, with every batch hand-signed,
and even the alcohol percentage is handwritten on every
bottle.
About the names, let’s just say we are all
infusions of sorts with not so equal parts of the angelic
and the diabolical.
I'm proud of what we’ve accomplished
so far and hope that folks enjoy drinking the infusions
as much as we enjoy making them.
Robert Fathman
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