The Newfoundland Distillery Company celebrates local flavours BY DENISE FLINT
P
eter Wilkins didn’t expect it to be so much work. The internationally renowned artist was living in the small outport of Clarke’s Beach on Newfoundland and Labrador’s Avalon Peninsula when his friend William Carter, a Cordon Bleu chef based in Ottawa, broached the idea of starting a distillery together. Wilkins could easily envision himself, gin and tonic in hand, sitting beside a vat of booze and watching it turn into something drinkable. He was in. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite turn out that way; and Wilkins discovered that starting and running a successful distillery is a lot a work—especially in Newfoundland where it’s never been done before. That’s not to say he regrets his decision. When talking about the products the Newfoundland Distillery Company has produced since its 2016 start, Wilkins waxes both eloquent and enthusiastic. But he does laugh at his naïve vision of just sitting back and letting it all happen around him. Newfoundlanders have always had a taste for rum. One out of every two bottles of liquor purchased at the NLC (Newfound-
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land Liquor Commission) is rum. What they haven’t had is a way to produce their own, given that the climate of the North Atlantic isn’t exactly conducive to sugar cane cultivation. Wilkins and Carter originally considered the idea of importing the raw ingredients and distilling rum but were dissuaded by a number of advisors. They decided to import the rum and then add their own twist. One of the results is gun powder and rose rum, which is exactly as exotic and over the top as it sounds. Wilkins enjoys telling the tale of how such an unusual combination of flavours came into existence. Back in the days when Britannia ruled the waves, sailors were given a tot of rum as part of their rations. Occasionally a suspicion would arise that the purser was watering the rum down, which didn’t go down well with men who had very little else to look forward to during the course of the day but their ration. The purser, therefore, would sometimes sprinkle gunpowder on the surface of the rum and set it on fire as proof of its strength, hence the term. Thus arose the idea of flavouring their
NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
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The little enGINe that could
rum with gunpowder, a substance whose “Ingredients are healthy, but not allowed,” to Wilkins’ obvious disappointment. Instead, they substitute sea salt, charred birch and kelp, all locally sourced, which imparts a similar flavour. The sulphuric taste is softened by the addition of wild roses. The story goes that the notorious pirate, Captain Blackbeard, used to drink gunpowderlaced rum, still smoking, when boarding a captured ship in order to terrify the embattled sailors. Chances seem good that he wouldn’t approve the modern take on his favourite tipple, but it’s probably safe to say that most people these days are quite happy with imitation explosives. For those less inclined to drama, their chaga rum, made with local honey and a kind of mushroom found in central Newfoundland, has won numerous awards, including best Canadian spiced rum at the world rum awards. But adding botanicals isn’t distilling. The pair still wanted to make their own liquor from scratch, and they wanted to do it using local ingredients. Although sugar
