LIBATIONS
Spirits, sodas, suds, cider and…wine How did Alex Rice’s cup get so full?
BY CRYSTAL MURRAY PHOTOS BY STEVE SMITH, VISIONFIRE STUDIOS
I
f Alex Rice was to write the origin story of the Nova Scotia Spirit Company, he might begin with a conversation that happened over beers with a buddy in Burnaby B.C., or he could begin to spin a tale that involves an old laundromat, a couple of bizarre blue crustaceans and a fisherman trying to hook a helper for the summer season. Either way, it’s the making of an East Coast success story with a growing cast of characters and a few chapters still under development. “I know it sounds like a contrived story,” says Rice, company president, when we met at Blue Lobster Public House, one of the newer additions to the group’s portfolio. We’re there
to chat about the early days of his booming beverage brand and the vision for the future of the company he owns with partners Dan Allan and Evan MacEachern. Rice was living out west when the idea of a small craft beverage company started to distill. He was born and bred an islander and like most Atlantic Canadians had a strong connection to home. “Let’s just do something small,” says Rice, reminiscing over that beer in Burnaby with his friend and now business partner Dan, who still lives in B.C. “We were paying attention to the evolving craft beer and distilling business that was really starting to take off everywhere, but
especially on the East Coast. We were looking at the trends happening in B.C. and thinking what was happening there would makes its way east.” Before he knew it, he was in Pictou County, N.S. buying an old laundromat to retrofit for distilling, mixing, bottling and capping small batches of rum they called Seafarer Spirit Company. The name Seafarer didn’t last long. Another craft distilling product in the region had a similar name. Rice and his partners knew there was brand confusion. The needed reset was just another layer of the startup’s legacy. Over breakfast at a small diner in Trenton, not far from their still, the newly minted business
SPRING 2022
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