Tamworth Distilling Blue Lion Chicoree Liqueur

About

Our story is as old as America, planting our flag in the heart of a historic New Hampshire village. We’ve set up our distillery in accordance to the land around us, not against it. What we take, we give back. And what we have, we give to you. Taking a cue from the 19th century Transcendentalists of New England, we pull both our inspiration and our ingredients from our atmosphere around us. From start to finish, each spirit embodies our scratch made ethos: local, house-milled grain, pure water, herbs and botanicals from the woods and our garden, and local fruits and vegetables. Our 250 gallon copper still was custom built by Vendome in Kentucky, and outfitted with a brandy helmet, whiskey column, gin basket, and rectifying column. These components give us the versatility to produce a variety of different products, and change batches with the seasons. Unlike many producers of craft spirits, 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 our ingredients used are sourced from local farms, or our own botanical gardens. For flavors that can only be found in the wild, we’ll forage from our other backyard­-the rich New Hampshire wilderness. (Our real food kitchen, the Tamworth Lyceum is right next door.) 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.

Named for the plant’s distinctive blue dandelion-like flower, and inspired by its history of use in coffee and other beverages, Tamworth Distilling Blue Lion Chicoree Liqueur is a different kind of bitter spirit sure to appeal to fans of amari. This liqueur combines the “dark roast” notes of roasted chicory root with rye seeds, cinnamon, dandelion root, and cane sugar for a bittersweet, spicy flavor. Blue Lion pairs naturally with coffee, as well as brown spirits like rye whiskey.