A business is only truly profitable if it makes money while protecting the planet and its people. We take this very seriously at Spiritopia.
We use organic ingredients whenever we can and still produce the best product at a reasonable price. We will confess that taste comes first. Luckily, we have been able to source the very best of several key ingredients from organically grown sources. This includes our ginger root and our raw sugar. While this routinely costs 2-3 times the conventional ingredient, we really believe in the benefits that organic agriculture brings to our watersheds and ourselves. Our ginger provider, La Grama, is a fabulous company that not only is certified organic, but is also pioneering better working conditions, education, and other benefits for their employees. The farm for our pomegranates is not certified organic, but no pesticides are used to grow the fruit.
We also source ingredients from our region when it is practical. Our apples are all from Washington and Oregon. Our pomegranates all come from California. Ginger requires a tropical climate so we found the best source on the planet (Peru!). Our Peppermint is hyper local with the farm being only a few miles from the distillery. Our barley is now sourced in Oregon from Mecca Grade Estate Malt, another small biz with a high stewardship ethic. We are even experimenting with alternative oak species to make our barrels from regional wood sources. It all adds up to local production and consumption that sustains our farmers, our communities, and our business.
A couple of years ago, we switched our neutral spirit from corn to Non-GMO cane spirit. This reduces pesticide use, specifically RoundUp, in the production of the spirit. We are evaluating organic sources of the neutral spirit as well.
Spiritopia has been a Pacific Power Blue Sky member since the day it was born. We are proud of our progress in tuning our process for energy efficiency and installing energy efficient LED lighting. We are pioneering the distilling practice of close loop condenser cooling which saves literally tons of water and produces a superior product.
Our latest addition to our stewardship efforts is joining the "Business Circle" of the Luckiamute Watershed Council. We started with a donation and are building on it with a joint event (The Community Crush). Hopefully, we can build awareness of both of our organizations and raise some funds for them at the same time.
We are always looking to improve so let us know if you have ideas or see opportunities that can help make us more sustainable.
