I am so glad I got to sleep in my own bed last night. I think I desperately needed it to help me fight this ridiculous head cold. We were able to have a slow day, eat breakfast at home, and watch Game of Thrones. I was far too sick last night to watch it live. After I finished the finale we got back to work on the Trail.
We first decided to inventory our rewards from last year. As a reminder, the first 24 people who completed the trail received a bottle from each of the participating distilleries. In total we received 41 bottles contained in about 7 cases. It wasn’t all 51 we were expecting, but we are working out figuring out where some of the missing bottles may be or the reason they were not included. We were excited to see that three of the new distilleries provided some products to the winners; DV8, Whistling Hare, and Sante Fe Spirits. We were so excited to see them included.
With the heavy snow predictions today we decided it was a goo idea to stay local to the Colorado Springs area and keep close to home for safety. This made for a relatively short day but a fun one all the same. Everyone was a little slow due to the weather so we were able to get in some more personal conversations and share the blog with our friends here in the industry.
We started our day off at Colorado Gold. They have a distillery and retail shop on Nevada Ave. You are able to get four tastings while there. We received a bottle of their Colorado High Vodka from them for the Trailblazer reward. This vodka is made with a hemp and corn mash which was actually being fermented while we were there. They had the milled hemp and corn that they use for their mash, the Hemp smells earthy and is a mildly sweet in flavor which surprised me. It’s this deep brown fresh earth color but apparently it’s green when initially ground. Eventually it dries and when it oxidizes it turns this brown color. It was very cool to get to see the background of the distillery from the mash build, fermenting, distilling and filtering all in one place. The smell of vodka fermenting is a far less intense scent than traditional whiskey.
We made a phone call to, Jake, the owner of 1350 since they are not technically open to the public yet. It is a new location to the 2019 map. I was able to meet Jake previously at the Taste of Pikes Peak event and was immediately smitten with his kind and warm demeanor. Jake was so excited to allow us a sneak peek of their new location. They just finished installing the floors and bar, and were waiting for some final inspections so they can begin distilling. The bar top is made with a copper layer shellacked with a clear seal. The colors are gorgeous and even with the bar still being down to its bones you can already tell this is going to be a great local staple to our community. They are incredibly passionate for our local military community and are very sincere in their passion and love for a good spirit.
Moving on, we headed south to Axe and the Oak. Ever since I watched Elkins Distillery in Estes Park make their Smoky Old Fashioned I’ve been craving Axe and the Oaks Smoked Tobacco Old Fashioned. It scratched the itch and I was glad that my decongestants were kicking in so I could enjoy the complex flavors and scents that go with their cocktails. Dan’s goal is to not catch my crud, so he had a Hot Toddy which is perfect for the crummy weather and warding off wifely cooties. At this point it was only raining but it was coming down heavily and we were feeling more and more grateful that we decided to stay near home today. We were able to try a few more of the experimental drinks that the staff is hoping to get on the next seasonal menu.
We decided to finish up with Lee Spirits. We were able to see the bar manager and head bartender Carlos and Philip to talk shop. They had a few experimental products to share which we thought were amazing; they are not up for sale just yet but they are tweaking the recipes in hopes of getting some spanking new products to add to the Lee Spirits family. We met some new people who had never heard of the Spirits Trail and were able to share the map and our blog with them. It was so fun luring someone else into this tasty and enlightening adventure.
I apologize for the shortness. between my head cold and the weather it was a rather slow day. We love everyone we got to hang out with today and I look forward to giving a full and proper review of Colorado Gold and 1350 soon.
Spirit Tails 