What Does Paris Order in DC! She Brings Back The Cosmo with new Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection
Absolut is officially announcing its brand partnership with artist and businesswoman Paris Hilton and her next-gen media company, 11:11 Media, as two icons bring back the Cosmo in culture through a new drinkware line, music and events.
As the Official Vodka of Coachella, Absolut and Paris gave fans an easter egg of the collaboration at the ultimate mixing grounds with her surprise appearance at the Absolut.LAND activation, and now, the Sliving Cosmo festival serve is getting a new drinkware glow up to enhance everyday happy hours.
Introducing the Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection – an all-new blush pink Cosmo-inspired drinkware line available exclusively on Amazon starting today.
Building on Paris’ best-selling cookware line, the collection marks Paris’ first foray into drinkware that includes three styles of short-stemmed, hand-blown martini glasses available in a set of two ($29), as well as an insulated pink cocktail shaker with gold accents and a gold jigger ($25).
“From teaming up with Absolut
for my first live show last summer
through personal celebrations and professional events
this year, I’m so excited to announce my new drinkware line
designed to be enjoyed with an Absolut Cosmo,”
Paris Hilton
CEO of 11:11 Media
“Let’s live our best life this summer by bringing the Cosmo back – whether entertaining at home or at one of my upcoming shows.”
Crafted using Absolut Citron with its fresh, real citrus flavor, the Absolut Cosmo is a light and refreshing cocktail that can be sipped casually at home, yet sophisticated enough to be at the center of any event.
Absolut Citron is part of the history and culture of the Cosmo going back to the ’80s, and now decades later, this cocktail continues to be an icon. While you can make the Cosmo with different flavors of Absolut like Wild Berri or Watermelon as a versatile cocktail, the classic is made with Absolut Citron.
“The Absolut Cosmo is an iconic cocktail for a reason, and with its latest resurgence, we’re thrilled to be partnered with Paris Hilton to bring the timeless allure of the cocktail to life through this new drinkware collection,” said Matt Foley, VP of Marketing, Absolut. “As a brand born to mix, Absolut looks forward to bringing people together this summer over Cosmo-inspired celebrations.”
To purchase the Absolut x Paris Hilton Cosmo Collection and learn more about Cosmo recipes, please visit www.absolut.com/en-us/Cosmo and follow @AbsolutUS.
ABSOLUT SLIVING COSMO
1 1/2 Parts Absolut Citron
3/4 Part Triple Sec
3/4 Part Cranberry Juice
3/4 Part Lime
Garnish with orange twist
Fill a shaker with ice cubes. Add all ingredients. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist.
ENJOY RESPONSIBLY. ABSOLUT® VODKA. PRODUCT OF SWEDEN. 40% ALC./VOL. DISTILLED FROM GRAIN. ©2024 IMPORTED BY ABSOLUT SPIRITS CO., NEW YORK, NY.
ABOUT PERNOD RICARD USA
Pernod Ricard USA is the premium spirits and wine company in the U.S., and the largest subsidiary of Paris, France-based Pernod Ricard SA., the world’s second largest spirits and wine company.
Pernod Ricard employs approximately 19,000 people worldwide, is listed on Euronext (Ticker: RI) and is part of the CAC 40 index.
The company’s leading spirits include such prestigious brands as Absolut Vodka, Avión Tequila, Chivas Regal Scotch Whisky, The Glenlivet Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlúa Liqueur, Malibu, Martell Cognac, Olmeca Altos Tequila, Beefeater Gin, Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, Código Tequila, Monkey 47 Gin, Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin, Malfy Gin, Hiram Walker Liqueurs, Midleton Irish Whiskey, Redbreast Irish Whiskey, Aberlour Single Malt Scotch Whisky, Lillet, Jefferson’s Bourbon, TX Whiskey, Smooth Ambler Whiskey, Rabbit Hole Whiskey, Pernod and Ricard; such superior wines as Jacob’s Creek, Kenwood Vineyards, Campo Viejo and Brancott Estate; and such exquisite champagnes and sparkling wines as Perrier-Jouët Champagne, G.H. Mumm Champagne and Mumm Napa sparkling wines.
Pernod Ricard USA is headquartered in New York, New York, and has more than 1,000 employees across the country.
As “creators of conviviality,” we are committed to sustainable and responsible business practices in service of our customers, consumers, employees and the planet. Pernod Ricard USA urges all adults to consume its products responsibly and has an active program to promote responsible drinking.
For more information, visit: www.pernod-ricard-usa.com.
ABOUT 11:11 MEDIA
11:11 Media is a global, next-gen entertainment company at the center of pop culture – connecting content, community, and commerce – founded by Paris Hilton and entertainment industry veteran Bruce Gersh in 2021.
The company spans a broad array of businesses including film, TV, audio, music, books, consumer products, digital and web3, with passion points around lifestyle, fashion, beauty, wellness, art, travel and more. Elevating brands, building communities, and driving social impact through the power of storytelling, experiences, and products is the core mission of 11:11 Media.
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Bubbly East Coast Prosecco Tasting! Discover with Wine Expert Alan Tardi Wed June 26th at New York Wine Studio
DC Heads to NYC for Prosecco! Taste and Discover with Wine Expert Alan Tardi Wed June 26th at New York Wine Studio
Prosecco has gone from a little known mountain fizz to a vinous superhero, overtaking Champagne (and every other sparkling wine out there) and enjoyed by wine drinkers throughout the world, as the base of a cocktail or an everyday quaff.
But despite its huge popularity, most people don’t know much about it.
And there is much more to Prosecco than many people are aware.
”My objective is to
clarify the critical differences
between the original ancient Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco and
the DOC Prosecco that was enacted in 2010.”
Alan Tardi
New York Wine Studio
Prosecco is produced only in Italy, in the Northern regions of Veneto and Friuli, and there are three official Prosecco appellations.
Prosecco DOC
One of them, Prosecco DOC, was created in 2010. It occupies a huge, mostly flat area encompassing almost two entire regions and accounts for most of the 700+ million bottles of Prosecco produced each year.
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG is a tiny area in the foothills of the Dolomites consisting of 15 small municipalities in the province of Treviso. This is the ancient winegrowing area where Prosecco was born and made a miraculous comeback in the aftermath of World War II.
Besides its pedigree, there are numerous factors of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene enclave that distinguish it from any other winegrowing area in the world: complex and diverse topography, variety of soils, native grape varieties, distinct sub-areas, ancient history, and varied typology—bubbly, fizzy, and still; secondary fermentation in tank or in bottle, leaving sediment in the bottle (known as Ancestral Method) or removing it (Traditional Method).
In this class—which takes place right in the middle of National Prosecco DOC week—we will discuss the origin and evolution of Prosecco in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene area. We will also examine the two additional Prosecco appellations created in 2010.
But most of the time will be devoted to exploring and tasting Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco through a lineup of 8 exceptional terroir-driven wines, in a variety of styles, that demonstrate the unique characteristics, complexity, and diversity of the original Prosecco.
Participants will also learn how to say “CONEGLIANO VALDOBBIADENE” like an Italian!
Alan Tardi has arranged a fantastic lineup of unusual and exceptional wines (half of them are coming directly from Italy) which demonstrate the various factors that characterize the complexity and uniqueness of Conegliano Valdobbiadene: Different production methods (“Tranquillo” i.e. still, Martinotti, Classico/Traditional, Ancestral); frizzante, spumante; single vineyards, Rive, native grape varieties; diverse, soils, terroirs and topographies.
List of Wines
- Prosecco Tranquillo DOCG “Il Canto Antico” — BORTOLOMIOL*
- Colli Trevigiani IGT Verdiso Frizzante Sui Lieviti — GREGOLETTO
- Progetto 5 Varietà Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Brut — MARCHIORI*
- Conegliano Prosecco Superiore DOCG Rive di Ogliano Extra-Brut — BIANCAVIGNA
- Superiore di Cartizze Brut DOCG — RUGGERI*
- Superiore di Cartizze DOCG “Private” Rifermentato in Bottiglia 2014 — BISOL
- Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Rive di Carpesica “S.C. 1931” Metodo Classico — BELLENDA*
- Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Asciutto, Rive di Colbertarldo, Vigneto Giardino — ADAMI
- Torchiato di Fregona Colli di Conegliano DOCG “Ciàcoe” 2016 — CA’ DI RAJO*
*Shipped directly from the winery in Italy
Find more information and buy tickets at New York Wine Studio or at the link below.
https://www.newyorkwinestudio.com/original-prosecco
Bob Dylan’s Bourbon Feud: Heaven’s Door Kentucky vs Tennessee
Bob Dylan’s Bourbon Feud: Heaven’s Door Kentucky vs Tennessee
Heaven’s Door Spirits, Bob Dylan’s highly awarded collection of super-premium American whiskeys, is turning up the heat on the age-old debate of which state, Tennessee or Kentucky, makes the best bourbon.
For as long as corn’s been cracked and stills have bubbled, Kentucky and Tennessee have been turning pristine limestone water and grains into a coveted amber elixir.
Heaven’s Door’s Great State Bourbon Debate rekindles the friendly feud
Heaven’s Door’s Great State Bourbon Debate rekindles the friendly feud between these two bourbon powerhouses, inviting whiskey lovers everywhere to put their palates to the test and voice their opinion.
Heaven’s Door sets itself apart as the first brand to offer both a Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon, giving fans a unique chance to compare.
The brand’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension, and Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival, are made from high rye mash bills with grains largely sourced local to the distillery, and barreled at the same proof, yet yield vastly different taste profiles. Heaven’s Door invites you to level set, savor and decide which bourbon pleases your palate and wins your heart.
A Tale of Two Bourbons
Many folks mistakenly believe that bourbon can only be made in Kentucky, but the truth is, bourbon can be crafted anywhere in the U.S.
What makes an American whiskey a true bourbon is a special set of rules: it has to be made with at least 51% corn, distilled at a certain proof, and aged in new oak barrels.
Kentucky and Tennessee both have storied histories of producing excellent bourbon, with differences in water and climate producing distinct flavors.
Kentucky’s limestone water and Tennessee’s pure spring water are both famous for helping yeast thrive during fermentation.v
Differences in flavor profile come from the type and provenance of the grains used, the type of yeast used, water quality, the proof at distillation and the particular wood used to make oak barrel.
Even the location of the barrel warehouse, the circulation of air between the barrels being stored and where the barrels are within the warehouse (high up or near the bottom) all conspire to give impart flavor differences.
Heaven’s Door Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension
Heaven’s Door Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Ascension, is a unique blend of two premium Kentucky straight bourbons aged for over five years and non-chill filtered, boasts warm and slightly sweeter notes of vanilla and baking spices. The limestone-filtered water of Kentucky, renowned for its purity, plays a key role in developing these rich flavors.
Heaven’s Door Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival
Heaven’s Door Tennessee Straight Bourbon, Revival, also aged for over five years and non-chill filtered, offers a drier profile with complex and sharp flavors. Unlike many Tennessee bourbons, Revival skips the “Lincoln County Process” – a charcoal filtering step – allowing the natural flavors of the local non-GMO grains to shine through, resulting in a lingering finish with hints of caramel, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
“We wanted to fan the flames of this old debate
between Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon
and showcase
our outstanding expressions of both styles.
We’re excited to hear what consumers think and how they experience these two classic bourbons.”
Alex Moore
Master Blender and COO
Heaven’s Door Spirit
Heaven’s Door marries art and craft in every bottle, drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s restless spirit to continually innovate. By sourcing non-GMO grains and honoring each state’s natural elements, the distinct character of each bourbon is evident in every sip.
Yo DC! Following your Heart and Need Media Attention? Reach to Publicity For Good, CEO Heather Holmes explains
Yo DC! Following your Heart and Need Media Attention? Reach to Publicity For Good, CEO Heather Holmes explains
Publicity for Good is a millennial run communications firm that provides high-level disruptive, publicity and social media services for wide array of purpose driven clients in the food, beverage and beauty industry.
In 2016 by Heather Holmes former miss Ohio international celebrated publicist and Forbes 30 under 30 nominee publicity for good has built a reputation as the countries number one PR agency for CPG brands that have social causes built into their DNA.
Today’s conversation with Heather Homes from PublicityForGood.com has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger:
Heather Holmes from PublicityForGood.com. I’m a big fan because you’ve helped us facilitate a lot of previous conversations about food and drink and nutrition and all the things we like talking about.
What’s the most important thing that you want to share with the audience today?
Heather Holmes:
I really want to take away the unknown or worry about getting in the media. I want to make it more accessible to amazing brands and people.
So I definitely want to share tactical advice that if someone is reading this, they have a good story in business, they have the confidence that their story is good enough and they could absolutely make an impact and grow their business by getting in the media.
Joe Winger:
Starting with the basics, let’s pretend I have a company, I think I want public attention. I want to reach out to someone like you.
So what should I be thinking about? What do I present to you as a step one?
Heather Holmes:
Step one is really the intentionality of why you want to get in the media. What’s your goal? Are you wanting to reach more people? Are you wanting to get your story out there?
Are you wanting more sales and more people to buy your product?
You really need to know. Where you’re going first, and if you don’t know where you’re going, or you don’t have a vision, then it’s really hard to help you.
But if you have clarity there, then we can really pull back and help you identify your story, how you’re different, your why, and why your product and or company, would be really great to be in the media.
Joe Winger:
Now, looking at the grand scheme of the campaign, what kind of a campaign should we be looking for: expectations, results?
Heather Holmes:
After we know our outcome that we’re wanting to get more sales, more backlinks, or name in the media, then what I like to do first is work with every entrepreneur, and even if you have a product, to really reflect in “why your story matters”
Why does your product matter?
If you’ve never been in the media before, I take people for an exercise where I have them draw on a piece of paper, them as a baby, to where they are now.
I have them write the key pivotal moments that have happened in their life that have made them start that company, because those little components are absolutely a part of your story.
I’ve been in the media 700 plus times: Inside Edition, Fox News, The New York Coast, incredible media, but it hasn’t always been about being a publicist, right?
Yes. I’m the founder of Publicity For Good, but a lot of that has been my story or building a seven figure company from an airstream.
Now I have almost two under two with a third on the way.
So you need to have your key pivotal moments because those are things you can talk about in the media.
Then we need to look at what’s going on in the news and how we bridge the gap between your product. Relevancy.
Joe Winger:
People may not know you are a former Miss Ohio International. Can you tell us a lesson you learned from being a former Miss Ohio International that you’re using in today’s work?
Heather Holmes:
It’s really all about your platform and reaching new audiences.
When I was building my company I decided I wanted to get into pageants. I wanted to meet a community of like minded people that wanted to make a difference in the world.
It was a way for me to have a platform because at the time I was talking about why you absolutely can build a profitable business. But also make a difference in your community and make a difference amongst your team. And really just build an incredible legacy.
So that was why I did the pageants.
I did a bunch of publicity and again, it made me relevant and timely because that was what got me in the media because I was Miss Ohio and I was only Miss Ohio International for a period of time.
So it gave me that relevancy. So you have to be relevant.
You have to bridge the gap between what’s happening in the news, or we often use Awareness Days, National Nutrition Month, National Social Media Day, and you have to position your product or yourself as the solution.
[For example], we were talking about an incredible juice brand, but most pitches I see are very promotional, right? It needs to be how you or your product simplifies people’s lives. How are you adding value? Or you don’t have a product you need to inspire people.
Joe Winger:
You’re growing a 7- figure business. What’s it like growing a huge business while you’re taking care of your kids and for a while you were living out of your Airstream
Heather Holmes:
We lived out of a 23 foot airstream for 3 1/2 years. I went from dating to engaged, to married to [my first child] Rose, who’s almost two, who lived in our airstream with us.
The year the pandemic [hit] was our first million dollar year.
I think a lot of the reason why it was that year is because when March hit, everyone was so scared that we lost about 40% of our business, number one.
Number two, we had to hustle and grit to make it. There was no choice of failing. All the distractions were gone.
When you’re in an Airstream, all you have is your laptop, but we had no external distractions, and then everything else was closed.
So the only focus we could do was our business and we had to scale out of necessity because we didn’t want to lose what we had put so much time in.
Fast forward, we now have 22 acres where we live and we have two under two, we have one on the way, we’re a full time team of 40, and it’s not easy.
I say transparently, it’s a hot mess. There are so many miracles that happen every day, but life is one, right? I can’t turn off my founder hat and publicist hat and then “Oh, I’m a mom”. It’s all one.
So yes, I might have Rose [my daughter] on a call with me from time to time, but I’ve learned that the more you step in and embrace your life, who you are and the realness, sometimes people opt out and that’s okay.
And this is my legacy.
I like these missions that we’re doing good work to us is way more than a business. We want to grow your brand and mission and we take it so seriously.
So it’s not perfect. It’s not perfectly scheduled. I’m a full time mom, all the time on the weekends when the kids are sleeping, we’re working.
We know where we want to go, and these clients and ambitions that we’re aligned with and supporting are helping people with their health.
Joe Winger:
What an incredible story to share.
Heather Holmes: I have so much to share. Like I was adopted when I was a week old to having two under two and another one on the way and building a business and building a homestead.
It’s so crazy. Austin, who’s my husband, the first week we were dating, we’re all about intentionality. I have the journal and we mapped everything out.
This year, we were going to get engaged then married. Austin and I,l we will have been together almost five years.
We’ve had a kid every year. Rose will be two in June.
We want to build a business. We want to impact our clients, brands, and scale their business. We want our team to get better and flourish in their personal lives too.
This is our mission and I’ve seen so many miracles happen from getting in the media on a personal level.
I was talking to [a business owner client] and her business grew by 40% from getting in the media.
One of my favorite cookie brands, a mom had an incredible heart story. She went on our local news and she brought in $12,000 worth of sales, just the local people wanting to support her.
On the flip side, when people Google my name, it’s like my social currency, there’s all these articles. So I have so much peace in that. Our kids will see the good work we’re doing.
Joe Winger:
You’re talking to an audience of foodies. What is your favorite meal?
Heather Holmes:
We just had Indian food last night that my husband made and it was so good.
We used to live in San Diego and I think San Diego has the best food. It’s all fresh. We’ve traveled a lot. We’ve been to Bali, their food is pretty incredible too. Where we live [now] we’re right outside of Asheville and Charlotte. So they have some good restaurants, but like I’m not in the phase right now where I’m the foodie like I used to be.
[At our house] we have chickens and we have fresh eggs. So I’m obsessed with fresh eggs every morning. You’re living a good life when you can go get your eggs and have them at home with some goat cheese.
And honestly, I love Livermuth. Crazy. So I’d say some Livermuth fried in a cast iron with some eggs and goat cheese. It’s the simple things that I really do love.
Joe Winger:
Heather Holmes with Publicity for Good. As we wrap up, whether it’s a potential client, a potential vendor, someone wanting your help with publicity, what are the best ways to find, follow you, websites, social media, etc?
Heather Holmes:
You can go to PublicityForGood.com You can find me on social media as well.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherdesantis
https://www.instagram.com/heatherdesantis
https://www.instagram.com/publicity.for.good
https://www.facebook.com/heatherdesantis
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Chris Brown & Lil Baby: One Of Them Ones Tour July 19 at DC’s Capital One Arena
Chris Brown & Lil Baby: One Of Them Ones Tour July 19 at DC’s Capital One Arena
Chris Brown and Lil Baby will bring their co-headlining One of Them Ones tour across 27 dates in 2022, presented by Rolling Loud.
The duo will be performing across North America in July and August
Dates begin with a July 15 show at Raleigh, NC’s Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek and run through a closing show scheduled for Saturday, August 27 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Other stops along the way includie Capital One Arena (Washington D.C.), Madison Square Garden (New York), Dos Equis Pavilion (Dallas), and KIA Forum (Los Angeles).
Related:
Salif Keita at City Winery DC on Aug 24 part of 2022 U.S. Summer Tour (Late Show)
Fri Jul 15 – Raleigh, NC – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut CreekSat Jul 16 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach
Sun Jul 17 – Philadelphia, PA – Waterfront Music Pavilion
Tue Jul 19 – Washington, D.C – Capital One Arena
Fri Jul 22 – New York City, NY – Madison Square Garden
Sat Jul 23 – Boston, MA – Xfinity Center
Tue Jul 26 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
Wed Jul 27 – Hartford, CT – XFINITY Theatre
Fri Jul 29 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
Sat Jul 30 – Detroit, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
Sun Jul 31 – Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
Tue Aug 02 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center
Thu Aug 04 – Chicago, IL – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre^
Fri Aug 05 – St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
Sat Aug 06 – Indianapolis, IN – Ruoff Music Center
Tue Aug 09 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion
Wed Aug 10 – Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheatre
Fri Aug 12 – West Palm Beach, FL – iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre
Sat Aug 13 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
Tue Aug 16 – Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion
Wed Aug 17 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
Fri Aug 19 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater
Sat Aug 20 – Phoenix, AZ – Ak-Chin Pavilion
Sun Aug 21 – Irvine, CA – Five Point Amphitheatre
Tue Aug 23 – Concord, CA – Concord Pavilion
Fri Aug 26 – Los Angeles, CA – KIA Forum
Sat Aug 27 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena^ Chris Brown Only
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Weekend Trip Tasting Bourbons? This Fredericksburg Virginia Bed & Breakfast Ironclad inn Might Be Your Dream Visit, Owen King from Ironclad Distillery shares Delicious Details
Love Tasting Bourbons? This Fredericksburg Virginia Bed & Breakfast Ironclad inn Might Be Your Dream Visit, Owen King from Ironclad Distillery shares Delicious Details
Ironclad Inn is the first B & B & B – Bed & Breakfast & Bourbon Tasting Room.
Today’s conversation with Distiller Owen King from Ironclad Distillery has been edited for length and clarity. For the full, un-edited conversation, visit our YouTube channel here.
Joe Winger:
A lot of really cool things are happening right now. I want to jump into your tasting room, the distillery, we’ll get into bourbon tastings in a few minutes.
But first and foremost, what’s the most important thing with Ironclad right now for you?
Owen King:
The most important thing about Ironclad for me right now is the same thing it’s always been, trying to make the best bourbon we can.
The other thing is spreading the word about our bed and breakfast; and bourbon. It’s a bed and breakfast in Fredericksburg that when you’re there, you can drink bourbon.
We make a lot of old fashions there and we always have all these leftover oranges. Now the perfect thing is in the morning you have fresh squeezed orange juice from our [leftover] old fashions.
It’s really working double duty now.
Besides that I just love the fact that we can now expand our distillery up to Fredericksburg. So we can have more people try our bourbon and enjoy our bourbon, which is the goal.
Joe Winger:
Getting to know you before you jump into Ironclad, I want to use the word “were”, you were a football player and cooking changed your life.
Tell us more about your cooking. Was there a special dish that enhanced your life?
Owen King:
I’m Italian. So obviously with the Italian genes, we share our love through food. Growing up I cooked a lot.
When I went to college [I cooked] for my teammates. I’d make dinner for everyone. So when we decided to open the bourbon distillery, I figured, I know how to cook. I think I could probably figure out how to make bourbon.
I know flavors. I know how things go well together. I think I have a pretty decent palette.
So putting all those things together to make a great bourbon was the goal.
Food is one of those things where you never stop improving. I feel the same about bourbon.
Joe Winger:
Is there a favorite dish?
Owen King:
Breaded chicken cutlets and spaghetti.
That is how it started. Then I was like “I really like cheese.” Maybe I could put cheese in with the breadcrumbs and then do that. Then I started expanding. Chicken Parm. Making my own sauce. Thinking I could add something here to make that better.
It’s the same way I look at bourbon.
Thinking, “I like what this person’s doing. Let me see what they’re doing. I can build off that to make it work on my own.”
Creating my own recipes, going from there, just continually tweaking little things here and there.
We’ll make a 5% difference, maybe a 10% difference.
Joe Winger:
Ironclad Distillery is in Newport News, Virginia. The bed and breakfast Ironclad Inn is in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
For most people when we think of bourbon, we don’t always think of Virginia as the first choice. What would surprise us most about coming down to Virginia for a bourbon tasting and staying the night?
Owen King:
If you’re coming down to Virginia, you have to remember Virginia is the birthplace of American spirits. The first place spirits were made in the new colonies, in the new world, was here in Virginia.
The first corn liquor which would eventually become bourbon, was made in Virginia.
You can also talk about Elijah Craig, who was from Fairfax County, Virginia, before he moved out to Kentucky.
On top of that, Kentucky wasn’t a state until 1793. Evan Williams was doing distillation in 1783, and at that point Kentucky was still Virginia.
The birthplace of bourbon is right here in Virginia.
I’ve been to Kentucky a lot. They talk about the birthplace of bourbon being there in Kentucky.
Maybe the territory it’s in was Kentucky, but it was still Virginia at the time.
Whenever someone comes by, I can tell them the history of actual bourbon, where you’re gonna get the whole story, not just the fantasized story that you get in Kentucky.
Joe Winger:
I’m incredibly glad you just shared that.
Let’s talk about The Ironclad Bed and Breakfast now. The bourbon tasting room, the event space.
Owen King:
We wanted to spread our bourbon out around the state. We’ve always really liked Fredericksburg. It’s a beautiful town. It’s got a ton of history to it.
Nothing goes better with bourbon than a good story.
So we can always tell our history while drinking. So with our bed and breakfast, we looked at what the bigger guys were doing. A lot of them were starting to have these places where you could stay [the night] and get an experience to go along with it.
We really wanted to spread our Ironclad experience.
We have a tasting room. It’s beautifully decorated by my sister. We’ve got a bottle shop where you can pick up pretty much every one of our bourbons that are available. We’ve got a bar so you can try it from our seasonal cocktail menus where we change it five times a year.
We have a winter, a fall, a spring, summer [menu].Then a holiday menu as well.
No matter what time of year you’re there, you’re trying something that’s going to go well seasonally.
Everyone likes seasonal drinks. You don’t want to drink in the fall, what you’d drink in the summer.
We always have an old fashioned and it’s a damn good old fashioned.
Then we also have an event space. We have weddings. We’ve had 50th birthday parties.
We’ve had any event that you want to tie into with our bourbon or just if you want a beautiful event space in a building that was built in 1793 we have that as a great option.
It’s a really cool spot that you can go and see and experience.
It’s something we want to share, our love for bourbon with everyone.
Whether you’re here in Newport News or in Fredericksburg, you’ll get a King family member there to tell you our story and tell you all about our bourbon and show you around.
Joe Winger:
Outstanding. Let’s get to the tasty part now. You have several amazing bottles. When someone comes to your tasting room this weekend, what should they be looking forward to?
Owen King:
We do a few bottle releases that are once a year for us. One of my favorites.
A five year, three barrel blend of three 30 gallon barrels. Bottle of Bond.
The history alone is one of my favorite things to talk about. In 1897 the federal government stepped in because there was people dying from drinking bad whiskey.
They stepped in to “certify” everything in there.
“If you bottle it at four years old and at 100 proof, we will claim that this is a bottle and bond bourbon certified” by the federal government that it is safe to drink.
That story alone is one of my favorites of bourbon lore.
We just want to make sure that we do that every year that we can.
It’s absolutely one of my favorite bourbons. It’s our four grain mash bill. 70% corn 10% wheat, 10% rye, 10% malted barley.
So with the corn and the wheat, it adds a nice sweetness to it. But then the rye is there to kind of balance that whole thing out. Before it gets [to be] a very sweet bourbon, it balances out, a little baking spice, maybe even some clove, maybe a little black pepper.
It balances it out to be a nice, rounded bourbon.
Joe Winger:
Let’s move on to your Maple Syrup Cask.
Owen King:
Absolutely delicious. But this is a cast finish, not a flavored bourbon. So we’re not adding maple syrup to it. People who drink it might think it’s going to be super sweet and not going to like it. Because they don’t like maple syrup.
This is my version of drinking maple syrup responsibly and not getting diabetes.
After we empty our barrels, we give them to a maple syrup producer in upstate New York. He’ll age his maple syrup using our bourbon barrels.
By doing that through transference, there’s about a gallon of bourbon stuck in the staves of the wood. So when he puts a new liquid in there, that maple syrup is going to absorb into the wood and that bourbon is going to come back out.
Now his maple syrup is picking up that beautiful bourbon flavor and we are picking up all that maple syrup flavor into the wood.
When he brings those barrels back down to us, we put our aged bourbon back in there and we let him finish in there for about three to six months.
After we take the bourbon out, it’s now got this beautiful, mild sweetness, but it’s got that hint of maple syrup at the end.
I always say, I don’t want it to be maple syrup with a hint of bourbon. I want it to be bourbon with a hint of maple syrup, which I think it absolutely is.
Joe Winger:
The maple syrup is so subtle, almost a tertiary flavor to it.
Moving on to the Missouri Toasted Oak Cask.
Owen King:
This is a double oak bourbon. With double oaking, what you’re going to do is exactly how it sounds.
You’re going to go from one new charred oak barrel. But instead of a second new charred oak barrel, we’re going to go to a lightly toasted barrel.
So my analogy for this is you’re sitting at a campfire and you’ve got a marshmallow. You’re roasting your marshmallow over the flame and it gets burnt. It catches on fire. So now you’ve got that roasted marshmallow where you’re still gonna eat it because it’s a roasted marshmallow.
So you eat it and it’s still sweet. But it’s got that sort of maybe a bitter acrid note just cause you burnt those sugars. You haven’t toasted them.
Now you take another marshmallow. You’re a little more patient this time. You’re going to stick it down in the coals and you’ll slowly rotate it until you’ve got that perfectly golden brown marshmallow.
When you taste it, it’s now twice as sweet because you just caramelize those sugars as opposed to burning them.
It’s the same with a charred oak barrel to a toasted oak barrel. With that charring of those oaks, you’re gonna you’re still gonna have that sweetness. We’re amplifying that sweetness with the toasting of the oak.
With this one you get those softer vanilla flavors like toasted marshmallow. You get a cookie dough flavor, maybe it’s raw cookie dough without the chocolate chips.
Joe Winger:
That’s amazing. mmIs there an extra bottle when I come down there, I’m in the tasting room, another good bottle we should ask for?
Owen King:
Another one that we have right now that is a very limited run. Very small release is our blueberry mead cask finish.
We give our barrels to a meadery in Williamsburg, Virginia and they make this blueberry honey mead. So now they have this bourbon barrel aged blueberry mead. And when they’re done with them, they give them back to us.
You’re not necessarily overwhelmed with [a] heavy blueberry flavor but it opens up to this really nice fruitiness and then like a fermented honey flavor on the front end.
It’s so unique, but it’s great neat on the rocks.
Joe Winger:
If we come down for the weekend, we visit the distillery in Newport News. What’s a tour like?
Owen King:
If people aren’t the biggest bourbon drinker, I want you to walk away saying, “Okay, I found something that is made with bourbon that I like.”
We are a distillery that only makes bourbon.
I want to make sure that everyone who comes here has something they can enjoy. This isn’t an uppity bourbon bar.
I want someone to come and be able to say, I’m not the biggest bourbon fan. What kind of cocktails do you have?” We always have a cocktail on every single menu that’s open for everyone.
Everyone’s going to love it and whether you’re a big bourbon fan or not. We just really want to be accommodating. We want to be a fun place for everyone to hang out.
We want to tell our story, the history of the Ironclad ships. Go through our distillery tour, we’ll show you that. If you want to know the history of Fredericksburg, or the history of What the bed and breakfast is we’ll tell you that.
Nothing pairs better with bourbon than a good story. And we really care about spreading that word.
Joe Winger:
Whether it’s a romantic getaway, a weekend getaway, why choose your bed and breakfast instead of a hotel?
Owen King:
While we’ve only had it a short time. But we’ve been adding things here and there. You’re going to get a fresh orange juice in the morning, made with the oranges that we used for our old fashions [last night].
We have our barrel aged maple syrup for your pancakes. So you’re going to have that maple syrup with a hint of bourbon.
We really drive home that it’s a bed breakfast and bourbon experience. Get immersed in the bourbon culture. That’s our goal.
Joe Winger:
Any favorite bourbon and food pairings?
Owen King:
Bourbon’s wonderful for food pairings.
We’ve gone from pasta pairings to pizza pairings. Anything that’s fatty is a perfect pairing. Pork belly with a cherry reduction over top of it with one of our bourbons straight
We have this bourbon cream, Buzz’s Bourbon Cream, where it’s made with our small batch bourbon that’s infused with coffee beans, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans. That one over vanilla ice cream is perfection.
You’re adding a little booze, some coffee, a little bit of chocolate.
You take a bite and all of a sudden you had three scoops and it’s gone 30 seconds later.
Joe Winger:
What’s the best way to learn more about Ironclad Distillery and Ironclad Inn?
Owen King:
We have our website at ironcladdistillery.com. All of our social media Facebook and Instagram.
Post Views: 114 -
Flavor-Packed Superfood, Local Howell’s Standard Hot Honey Delivers on Heat and Health
Flavor-Packed Superfood, Local Howell’s Standard Hot Honey Delivers on Heat and Health
Howell’s Standard provides raw, natural honey in its purest form, a variety of herb and fruit-infused honeys, and products from the hive.
They are a small family-owned company in Northeast Maryland that appreciates the gifts of nature and artistic expression. Find their website, their Instagram and their in-person farmer’s market experience.
Below, Alexander and Monica Howell visited for a conversation about family, flavor, health benefits and the magic of honey.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the full, unedited conversation on the FlavRReport YouTube channel.
My understanding going back to the beginning is, this whole company was a COVID baby, meaning the idea of it launched during the pandemic. Is that accurate?
Alexander Howell: So I’ll give you a bit of a backstory. We had, like you said, started around the boom of COVID. During that time with all the sickness going around, one of the things we decided to do was to figure out how we can stay healthier and keep the entire family more healthy during that entire time.
One of the things we decided to do was to cut out a lot of white and processed sugars because it’s the cause of a lot of health issues, cancers, things of that nature. After that we [realized] we can’t just not have any type of sweetener at all. We’re not that strong.
We went across a couple of different sweeteners. We tried agave, we tried monk fruit. We tried all those, [but] they didn’t hit the spot for us.
Then we were at a farmer’s market [and] tried some raw honey. Once we had tried that, it’s like the entire world just opened up for us because.
We started researching it more and found out there were tons of health benefits tied into raw honey itself.
Once we started consuming it ourselves, we felt the changes. A lot more energy naturally, our skin started looking a lot better, our hair started looking better. Then we decided instead of keeping this a family secret, we can share it with the world.
Monica Howell: So I’ve got a slightly different angle on it. Everything Alex said is definitely true. Pre COVID, I had always been an entrepreneur at heart, always dabbling in something, always doing a little side things. They say you have to have multiple streams of income.
So I was always looking for the next best option. Prior to COVID, I was creating body butters and detox masks and sugar scrubs; and just looking for things that were positive for your skin in a natural manner. Honey was one of the ingredients that was always on my shelf.
[Honey] is one of those ingredients. It’s a wonderful connector. I had really only ever thought of honey as this thing that was on aisle number eight of the grocery store always next to the maple syrup. A condiment to get with your fried chicken.
But once I started having success with personal skin care, the products that were most sought after, that had the best outcomes for my skin all had honey in them.
During COVID, we just really started to come together more, having more conversations. Bringing together the things that we were doing individually as a group and kind of figuring out
We started minimizing ingredients. Looking at that 20 line ingredient list on the back of everything and saying what can [remove]?
Something you both touched on was the zero to one aspect. Talk a little bit about the process from idea to reality.
Monica Howell: So for me, it was checking boxes. Throwing something on the wall and seeing what sticks, that old spaghetti adage.
There’s so many layers, so many things that I wasn’t aware of honey as a whole.
Figuring out how we could integrate this into our lives, and then how we then convert that and transition that into something that was revenue generating, seeing there was a niche.
We started with friends and family. Letting people that would trust us, try things out.
A lot of the response was ‘I don’t like honey’ or ‘I already have sugar. I don’t need to do this.’
But we said, it’s open your mind, let’s look into something a little different. Let’s consider it in a different way and move forward from there.
One thing that I think stands out for us is the fact that everything that we do, all the honey options that we have available are all beneficial in some way, shape or form. You get the benefit of those things that are being infused into the honey. So everything is purposeful.
Everything added is to expand the benefits of the honey into something beyond.
Each honey is different, with different infusions. We call them varietals. Essentially a varietal is a honey that the beekeeper and the farmer have integrated hives into that particular crop. The honey has a flavor and nuance. Then we have our infusions.
Local honey is where I go. That’s all I want. Our local [honey] in Maryland is not the same local that’s in Texas. What’s local to California is not what’s local to Utah. What’s local to Utah is not local to Maine. But when you look at it, all those honeys have a slight variance and nuance in flavor because of what’s being pollinated.
Our plants aren’t the same here as in Hawaii. So when you say I enjoy wildflower, the enjoyment of your wildflower might taste completely different than what I’m used to because of the plants that are growing. It doesn’t necessarily all taste the same.
When you started with this idea, were you aware of the different varietals, the regions and how that affected honey?
Alexander Howell: We definitely didn’t know how intricate and how deep this kind of rabbit hole of honey goes. It’s a very nice and very informative learning experience for two reasons. One, just so we are aware of the benefits and can tell our family, but also so we can now have those kinds of conversations with our customers.
Monica Howell: Even something as a variance from season to season. Literally your spring honey can be a completely different product from your fall [honey] and your winter honey.
The amount of moisture that’s in the air, that can even be from location to location. April showers bring May flowers. Those April showers are happening, there’s a ton of moisture in the air. And then when you’re getting into the fall, you’re having the bees that are pollinated when you’re getting into the fall, there’s a variance in that same region.
That same area has shifted the temperature. You’re just coming out of 90 degree weather. There’s still flowers out. But the pollination process that’s happening, the bees are what they’re collecting now, it can be different.
In the U. S. alone, there’s over 300 different types of honey. Over the world, there are thousands.
The interesting thing is when we’re bringing those varietals together in one place, you actually taste them side by side, [you can taste and notice] there are definite differences that you may never [have noticed otherwise] .
Someone says, “I don’t like honey. I say, “Well you haven’t tasted my honey.”
They find out, they dont like wildflower from North Carolina, but they love sage from California or macadamia nut from Hawaii – it’s amazing.
You’ve both mentioned farmer’s market experiences, sampling and buying. Let’s talk a little bit about those experiences.
Alexander Howell: As far as farmers markets goes, we’ve gotten the entire spectrum of reactions – ‘Oh, this is some of the best I‘ve ever had in my life’, or ‘This is nasty’
I appreciate either side of the spectrum, it’s just very honest and blunt. In person, you get to actually see that emotion, you get to see that interaction, you get to not only see what they think but maybe they brought a friend or a family member of theirs – their husband, their wife, their kids, their dog.
We get to see what your dietary needs are, your favorite flavors, your favorite vegetables. If you have a health issue, what type of things we have that could possibly help.
It’s even as simple as someone getting a gift for somebody who’s a pescatarian who likes to cook so, ‘What do you have for this?’
And I can then give them a whole range of stuff [to browse].
Monica Howell: We’ve been selling at farmer’s markets for 2.5 years. By far, it is my favorite. People who grew up going to farmer’s markets. Beekeepers that have grown up in their Grandma’s backyard.
We always get somebody that says, ‘Oh, my grandma had honey. And I’m already familiar.’ I always challenge them to taste something that’s a little different,
We get people who are extremely health conscious. They are looking for natural options.
On your website, there’s a lot of products What are the major categories and what are one or two or three that you really want to highlight that are currently available?
Monica Howell: We do some switching out from season to season, but for the most part, 25 items. A combination of the varietals and the infusions.
We’ve got an amazing macadamia nut honey that comes from Hawaii. You get a honey that has a certain butteriness to it, a nice weight to it. A little nuttiness at the end. It’s amazing in coffee. It’s amazing on top of a banana bread, really good in yogurt. Also good to cook with.
Our blueberry is from Maine. A little bit of a nuance of that blueberry flavor. It’s a little sweeter than some of the other honeys. It’s amazing on bakery goods and breakfast. So instead of using traditional maple syrup, we’re using the blueberry honey on a Belgian waffle on a pancake. Amazing on yogurt and things like that.
Then we’ve got our infusions. So the infusions essentially are different botanicals using a particular honey.
I’m using an extra white honey from Iowa. If you’re looking on the spectrum of honey, not only does honey change area to area, there’s water white honey, all the way down to your dark amber honeys. So there’s an entire rainbow of different types of honey, based on what’s being pollinated and what’s growing.
Your darker honeys have more of a molasses flavor, probably 10 – 20 x the antioxidants that you’re getting then like a water white honey. But when we’re considering what to use to infuse, I’m usually going with that lighter honey.
Our elderberry honey is super important. We’re taking a ground elderberry from the actual berry, not the elderberry flower. And we’re grinding that up and then infusing that into honey over a period of time. That allows you to then take that elderberry on a regular basis, either in as a sweetener for your tea or actually adding it into a yogurt.
Alexander Howell: Some of the things that I like to highlight, because I’m a foodie, I’m always trying to find honey that would elevate the taste.
One of those is Hot Honey. Anything from chicken, to beef, to pork, to seafood, to shellfish. I love it all. One specific thing is strawberries. It sounds a little out there, but it’s amazing.
And also the vanilla. I love it on my baked goods, banana breads, cornbread, really good on cinnamon rolls. Instead of the sheet icing I’ll put the honey. Even simpler like a latte or a cup of tea. Put some of your pancakes or crepes.
It’s the two different honeys on two different ends of the spectrum, but at the end of the day they both serve their purposes
Monica Howell: We are working with a few bartenders and mixologists that have taken our honeys and creating mocktails. Super fun.
One thing to acknowledge, the audience is a large majority of our conversations are wine based. So it’s with winemakers and chefs.
Do any of these honeys pair better with any specific kinds of varietals of wine?
Alexander Howell: One of the best ways I do like to enjoy wine with honey is charcuterie.
Monica Howell: Charcuterie and honey go hand in hand. It’s like a whole little puzzle of delicious-ness.
I like Merlot. Something becoming more popular are meads. So mead is wine essentially made with the foundation of honey versus grapes. There are a lot of brewers that are starting to play with mead. So you’ll find mead in all different varietals, some that very much tastes like wine and some that tastes closer to beer.
We’re not necessarily pairing the wine so much with the honey as helping the person that’s hosting the event, creating that perfect board, that perfect accompaniment to it.
What’s the best way to learn more about you? Website, social media? How can we follow you more?
Monica Howell: Definitely the website is the easiest way. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. The unique feature of what we do in-person. That’s the benefit of coming to see us at a farmer’s market. We also are actually on a couple of stores in the local area, local by design, which is an Annapolis mall in Annapolis, Maryland, where our product is available on their shelves.
You can find gifting boxes and samplers on the website too.
Howell’s Standard provides raw, natural honey in its purest form, a variety of herb and fruit-infused honeys, and products from the hive.
They are a small family-owned company in Northeast Maryland that appreciates the gifts of nature and artistic expression. Find their website, their Instagram and their in-person farmer’s market experience.
Below, Alexander and Monica Howell visited for a conversation about family, flavor, health benefits and the magic of honey.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Find the full, unedited conversation on the FlavRReport YouTube channel.
My understanding going back to the beginning is, this whole company was a COVID baby, meaning the idea of it launched during the pandemic. Is that accurate?
Alexander Howell: So I’ll give you a bit of a backstory. We had, like you said, started around the boom of COVID. During that time with all the sickness going around, one of the things we decided to do was to figure out how we can stay healthier and keep the entire family more healthy during that entire time.
One of the things we decided to do was to cut out a lot of white and processed sugars because it’s the cause of a lot of health issues, cancers, things of that nature. After that we [realized] we can’t just not have any type of sweetener at all. We’re not that strong.
We went across a couple of different sweeteners. We tried agave, we tried monk fruit. We tried all those, [but] they didn’t hit the spot for us.
Then we were at a farmer’s market [and] tried some raw honey. Once we had tried that, it’s like the entire world just opened up for us because.
We started researching it more and found out there were tons of health benefits tied into raw honey itself.
Once we started consuming it ourselves, we felt the changes. A lot more energy naturally, our skin started looking a lot better, our hair started looking better. Then we decided instead of keeping this a family secret, we can share it with the world.
Monica Howell: So I’ve got a slightly different angle on it. Everything Alex said is definitely true. Pre COVID, I had always been an entrepreneur at heart, always dabbling in something, always doing a little side things. They say you have to have multiple streams of income.
So I was always looking for the next best option. Prior to COVID, I was creating body butters and detox masks and sugar scrubs; and just looking for things that were positive for your skin in a natural manner. Honey was one of the ingredients that was always on my shelf.
[Honey] is one of those ingredients. It’s a wonderful connector. I had really only ever thought of honey as this thing that was on aisle number eight of the grocery store always next to the maple syrup. A condiment to get with your fried chicken.
But once I started having success with personal skin care, the products that were most sought after, that had the best outcomes for my skin all had honey in them.
During COVID, we just really started to come together more, having more conversations. Bringing together the things that we were doing individually as a group and kind of figuring out
We started minimizing ingredients. Looking at that 20 line ingredient list on the back of everything and saying what can [remove]?
Something you both touched on was the zero to one aspect. Talk a little bit about the process from idea to reality.
Monica Howell: So for me, it was checking boxes. Throwing something on the wall and seeing what sticks, that old spaghetti adage.
There’s so many layers, so many things that I wasn’t aware of honey as a whole.
Figuring out how we could integrate this into our lives, and then how we then convert that and transition that into something that was revenue generating, seeing there was a niche.
We started with friends and family. Letting people that would trust us, try things out.
A lot of the response was ‘I don’t like honey’ or ‘I already have sugar. I don’t need to do this.’
But we said, it’s open your mind, let’s look into something a little different. Let’s consider it in a different way and move forward from there.
One thing that I think stands out for us is the fact that everything that we do, all the honey options that we have available are all beneficial in some way, shape or form. You get the benefit of those things that are being infused into the honey. So everything is purposeful.
Everything added is to expand the benefits of the honey into something beyond.
Each honey is different, with different infusions. We call them varietals. Essentially a varietal is a honey that the beekeeper and the farmer have integrated hives into that particular crop. The honey has a flavor and nuance. Then we have our infusions.
Local honey is where I go. That’s all I want. Our local [honey] in Maryland is not the same local that’s in Texas. What’s local to California is not what’s local to Utah. What’s local to Utah is not local to Maine. But when you look at it, all those honeys have a slight variance and nuance in flavor because of what’s being pollinated.
Our plants aren’t the same here as in Hawaii. So when you say I enjoy wildflower, the enjoyment of your wildflower might taste completely different than what I’m used to because of the plants that are growing. It doesn’t necessarily all taste the same.
When you started with this idea, were you aware of the different varietals, the regions and how that affected honey?
Alexander Howell: We definitely didn’t know how intricate and how deep this kind of rabbit hole of honey goes. It’s a very nice and very informative learning experience for two reasons. One, just so we are aware of the benefits and can tell our family, but also so we can now have those kinds of conversations with our customers.
Monica Howell: Even something as a variance from season to season. Literally your spring honey can be a completely different product from your fall [honey] and your winter honey.
The amount of moisture that’s in the air, that can even be from location to location. April showers bring May flowers. Those April showers are happening, there’s a ton of moisture in the air. And then when you’re getting into the fall, you’re having the bees that are pollinated when you’re getting into the fall, there’s a variance in that same region.
That same area has shifted the temperature. You’re just coming out of 90 degree weather. There’s still flowers out. But the pollination process that’s happening, the bees are what they’re collecting now, it can be different.
In the U. S. alone, there’s over 300 different types of honey. Over the world, there are thousands.
The interesting thing is when we’re bringing those varietals together in one place, you actually taste them side by side, [you can taste and notice] there are definite differences that you may never [have noticed otherwise] .
Someone says, “I don’t like honey. I say, “Well you haven’t tasted my honey.”
They find out, they dont like wildflower from North Carolina, but they love sage from California or macadamia nut from Hawaii – it’s amazing.
You’ve both mentioned farmer’s market experiences, sampling and buying. Let’s talk a little bit about those experiences.
Alexander Howell: As far as farmers markets goes, we’ve gotten the entire spectrum of reactions – ‘Oh, this is some of the best I‘ve ever had in my life’, or ‘This is nasty’
I appreciate either side of the spectrum, it’s just very honest and blunt. In person, you get to actually see that emotion, you get to see that interaction, you get to not only see what they think but maybe they brought a friend or a family member of theirs – their husband, their wife, their kids, their dog.
We get to see what your dietary needs are, your favorite flavors, your favorite vegetables. If you have a health issue, what type of things we have that could possibly help.
It’s even as simple as someone getting a gift for somebody who’s a pescatarian who likes to cook so, ‘What do you have for this?’
And I can then give them a whole range of stuff [to browse].
Monica Howell: We’ve been selling at farmer’s markets for 2.5 years. By far, it is my favorite. People who grew up going to farmer’s markets. Beekeepers that have grown up in their Grandma’s backyard.
We always get somebody that says, ‘Oh, my grandma had honey. And I’m already familiar.’ I always challenge them to taste something that’s a little different,
We get people who are extremely health conscious. They are looking for natural options.
On your website, there’s a lot of products What are the major categories and what are one or two or three that you really want to highlight that are currently available?
Monica Howell: We do some switching out from season to season, but for the most part, 25 items. A combination of the varietals and the infusions.
We’ve got an amazing macadamia nut honey that comes from Hawaii. You get a honey that has a certain butteriness to it, a nice weight to it. A little nuttiness at the end. It’s amazing in coffee. It’s amazing on top of a banana bread, really good in yogurt. Also good to cook with.
Our blueberry is from Maine. A little bit of a nuance of that blueberry flavor. It’s a little sweeter than some of the other honeys. It’s amazing on bakery goods and breakfast. So instead of using traditional maple syrup, we’re using the blueberry honey on a Belgian waffle on a pancake. Amazing on yogurt and things like that.
Then we’ve got our infusions. So the infusions essentially are different botanicals using a particular honey.
I’m using an extra white honey from Iowa. If you’re looking on the spectrum of honey, not only does honey change area to area, there’s water white honey, all the way down to your dark amber honeys. So there’s an entire rainbow of different types of honey, based on what’s being pollinated and what’s growing.
Your darker honeys have more of a molasses flavor, probably 10 – 20 x the antioxidants that you’re getting then like a water white honey. But when we’re considering what to use to infuse, I’m usually going with that lighter honey.
Our elderberry honey is super important. We’re taking a ground elderberry from the actual berry, not the elderberry flower. And we’re grinding that up and then infusing that into honey over a period of time. That allows you to then take that elderberry on a regular basis, either in as a sweetener for your tea or actually adding it into a yogurt.
Alexander Howell: Some of the things that I like to highlight, because I’m a foodie, I’m always trying to find honey that would elevate the taste.
One of those is Hot Honey. Anything from chicken, to beef, to pork, to seafood, to shellfish. I love it all. One specific thing is strawberries. It sounds a little out there, but it’s amazing.
And also the vanilla. I love it on my baked goods, banana breads, cornbread, really good on cinnamon rolls. Instead of the sheet icing I’ll put the honey. Even simpler like a latte or a cup of tea. Put some of your pancakes or crepes.
It’s the two different honeys on two different ends of the spectrum, but at the end of the day they both serve their purposes
Monica Howell: We are working with a few bartenders and mixologists that have taken our honeys and creating mocktails. Super fun.
One thing to acknowledge, the audience is a large majority of our conversations are wine based. So it’s with winemakers and chefs.
Do any of these honeys pair better with any specific kinds of varietals of wine?
Alexander Howell: One of the best ways I do like to enjoy wine with honey is charcuterie.
Monica Howell: Charcuterie and honey go hand in hand. It’s like a whole little puzzle of delicious-ness.
I like Merlot. Something becoming more popular are meads. So mead is wine essentially made with the foundation of honey versus grapes. There are a lot of brewers that are starting to play with mead. So you’ll find mead in all different varietals, some that very much tastes like wine and some that tastes closer to beer.
We’re not necessarily pairing the wine so much with the honey as helping the person that’s hosting the event, creating that perfect board, that perfect accompaniment to it.
What’s the best way to learn more about you? Website, social media? How can we follow you more?
Monica Howell: Definitely the website is the easiest way. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram. The unique feature of what we do in-person. That’s the benefit of coming to see us at a farmer’s market. We also are actually on a couple of stores in the local area, local by design, which is an Annapolis mall in Annapolis, Maryland, where our product is available on their shelves.
You can find gifting boxes and samplers on the website too.
Post Views: 6,524
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