A new line of garden cordials feature real fruits from Tamworth Distilling.
Tamworth Distilling’s botanical offerings have expanded beyond gin into the realm of liqueurs.
The new line of Tamworth Garden Cordials is a collection of six liqueurs made from fresh-as-can-be fruit and botanicals. The lineup includes Black Trumpet Mushroom & Blueberry, Citrus, Mountain Berry, Raspberry Lime, Sierra Fig and Strawberry Rhubarb. They each come in 375 ml bottles and retail for $35. Each are low proof, with only 22 percent ABV, perfect for adding to a spritz or other cocktails.
“To capture the essence of real fruit, we first source ripe fruit and botanical ingredients at their peak,” says Matt Power, distiller and biochemist. “We then use a mix of historical brewing tactics and low temperature distillation combined with our state-of-the-art vacuum still, which lets us very efficiently preserve the vibrant flavors.”
Each of the six cordials uses real, ripe fruit – in fact, more than three-quarters of a pound of fruit goes into each bottle, as well as careful botanical macerations with a base of non-GMO, scratch-made neutral spirit, Power says. No artificial flavors or additives are used, which means the cordials taste like real fruit.
“It’s a true passion project,” says Powers, who created it with distillers Jamie Oakes and Will Robinson. “It’s also the result of many years of research and development and worshopping countless flavor combinations and ingredients.”
Local terroir shines in every sip thanks to the organic, on-site garden, which Power cultivates and which provides botanicals such as lavender, lemon verbena, sage, juniper, basil, and lemon thyme. Fresh, local fruits are sourced where possible, and they include hand-picked blueberries from a forest near the distillery, foraged black trumpet mushrooms from New Hampshire Mushroom Company, as well as hand-picked red raspberries, honeyberries, and chokeberries from Wayside Farm. Wayside Farm and New Hampshire Mushroom Company happen to be neighbors of the distillery.
Notable techniques behind the innovative line of naturally-flavored cordials include infusion methods tailored to each type of fruit in each liqueur, as well as a commitment to sustainable practices where possible, he says. For example, whole fruits are used in their entirety, with large quantities of spent aromatic fruit pomace finding new life through re-distillation and aging in second use barrels, which then becomes the base for other spirits, such as recently debuted Tamworth Garden Sugar Plum Fairy Absinthe cordial.
Each cordial has its own story. The Black Trumpet & Blueberry Cordial came together after the distillers, who forage for their own ingredients, discovered black trumpet mushrooms growing in the shade of blueberry bushes. The two main ingredients are then enhanced by lavender and lemon verbena.
The Citrus Cordial combines blood orange, tangerine, pomelo zest quassia bark and a little bit of aged, apple brandy. The Mountain Berry Cordial combines a barrel-aged base spirit that’s made from fermenting apples and grain that is then infused with raspberry, honeyberry, and aronia berry. The Raspberry Lime Cordial is made with, well, raspberries and lime in a neutral grain spirit while the Sierra Fig Cordial is made with rhubarb, damiana leaf and real figs. The Strawberry Rhubarb Cordial is made with pressed juice from both strwberries and rhubarb. “It is overloaded with fresh fruit,” says Robinson.
