Ultrapremium ingredients because taste rules. We go to the ends of the earth to get the very best ingredients (literally like Peru and Madagascar).
Our ginger comes from an organic farm in Peru. We tasted gingers from around the world including China, the United States, and India. The best flavor came from our supplier in Peru. The fact that the farm is certified organic and socially progressive made the choice pretty easy.
We don't talk a lot about our recipes because we put a lot of work into perfecting them. However, we will confess that one of our spices is vanilla. Not just any vanilla. Real Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. There are a lot of cheap imitations out there. Some are derived from wood and others are derived from petrochemicals (yuk!). Even among real vanillas, there are big differences in taste. Vanilla is derived from a species of orchid and is grown in a number of places around the world. Two of the major producers are Madagascar and Mexico. The bean pod from the flower is the source of the spice - you may have seen whole pods for sale. The preparation of the pod is key. In Mexico, the pod is dried in the hot Mexican sun. Natural enough, but it leads to a rather dry woody taste. To make up for this, many Mexican vanillas are spiked with ethyl vanillin to counter this effect. As noted above, the added ingredient does not come from the orchid.
In Madagascar, Bourbon vanilla pods are prepared by boiling them in water. It's sort of like the difference between a poached egg and a fried egg. They are both eggs, but the poaching process is a lot more delicate and produces an unmatched depth, complexity, and softness in the vanilla.
Sugar is another major ingredient for us. We only use raw organic cane sugar. It's expensive but worth it. The depth of sweetness is unmatched. The small amount of retained molasses complements the ginger in an almost magical way.
While we are a bit secretive about our recipes, I will tell you what we DON'T use. No artificial flavors, no artificial colors, no artificial anything! We don't use corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup or highly refined sugar. That is mainly about taste and there is a whole separate discussion about sweeteners here.
At the end of the day, we have done everything we can to make our liqueurs the finest available.
