Take Your Spirits to Flavortown

A Closer Look at the Business of Flavored Spirits

Take a moment the next time you are in your local watering hole to see what flavors of spirits you can spot behind the bar. If you look closely, there is a particular type of spirit that I guarantee you will find. I'll give you a moment to take a guess what that spirit is. Here is a hint, the answer is not whiskey, nor rum, vodka, or tequila. The bottles you will always find are some type of flavored spirit. Whether it is a lemon-flavored vodka or an apple-flavored whiskey, there is a variety of flavored spirits to be found. Take a turn down the vodka aisle at a liquor store, you will see a literal rainbow of flavored spirits on the shelf. The spectrum of flavors is massive and sells well for many distilleries. Many successful manufacturers have found that flavored spirits can be sold in volume and can be cost-effective to produce. Let's look closer at flavored spirits and then talk about how you can take some of your plain old products and take them to flavortown.

The appeal of flavored spirits

There are thousands of varieties of flavored spirits. From spiced rums to honey whiskey, and vodka in a rainbow of colors, there are flavors galore. The process of manufacturing flavored spirits can vary immensely. Some processes that add flavor to a spirit are expensive, labor intensive, and can be subject to seasonality of ingredients. Other methods of manufacturing are as simple as adding a TTB-approved extract to flavor a spirit. Here is the question you are likely asking yourself:

From spiced rums to

What kind of flavored spirits should I make at my distillery?

This is a tough question because no two distillers have the same answer. We’ll answer this question by looking at the way consumers perceive flavored spirits.

The average consumer will often choose to drink flavored spirits because it can simplify making a mixed drink. A consumer may view products like a lemon-flavored vodka as a way to simplify the process of making a cocktail. Let’s build an example by exploring the humble vodka soda. The vodka soda, a not-so-complex cocktail, is commonly served as vodka, plus soda water, with a lemon or lime added to it. In making this cocktail, if we substitute a delicious lemon-flavored vodka for regular vodka, the result is an easier process by not requiring the addition of fresh fruit to the drink.

For consumers the appeal of choosing a flavored spirit over a traditional spirit is both flavor and drinkability. Drinkability can be a bit fickle so let's attempt to define “drinkability” for the sake of this article. Spirits even at 80 proof can be perceived as hot or labeled as a spirit that “has bite” or that it “burns.” These descriptors may not be terms used by producers of spirits as adjectives to describe their spirits, but regardless the adjectives are often used by the average consumer. Many flavored spirits have sugar or other sweeteners added to them that mask the detectability of the alcohol in the spirits. The addition of flavor and sugar to a distilled spirit is sometimes also done to cover up negative flavors. This is a huge factor as to why flavored spirits are sold in such massive volume. Consumers who might not otherwise enjoy drinking distilled spirits find flavored spirits to be more pleasant and palatable to drink.

How to Make a Flavored Spirit

There are many ways to go about manufacturing flavored spirits. Here are two different methods which we can compare and contrast.

Distilling with Real Ingredients

Small craft distilleries will sometimes use fresh ingredients to produce a flavored spirit that is deemed more authentic. One example is a fresh lime vodka made by a distillery in California. This spirit is produced by macerating fresh locally-grown caviar limes in a neutral spirit then redistilled into a flavored vodka. This method is quite effective and results in a flavorful lime vodka. However, this method is labor intensive and subject to the seasonality of the fruit. Not only will there be variations in flavor from season to season, this can create limitations in production capacity.

Extracts for Flavoring

Another method employed successfully by large distilleries is the use of extract-based flavors. There are several flavor companies in the US and abroad that manufacture extract flavors that are TTB approved and meant specifically for flavoring of distilled spirits. Extract flavored spirits are built in a tank where a measured amount of neutral spirit has water, sugar and extract flavor added to it to create a flavored spirit. This method is simple, scalable, and economical. These extracts are easy to work with and can fast track the production of flavored spirits.

Quality Assurance Process

Quality assurance, also known as QA, is the testing of a product before it is released to the market. Quality assurance is a way to navigate through any potential pitfalls prior to a product’s release. Once a concept has been created for a new product like a flavored spirit, it is essential that rigorous quality assurance testing takes place. Testing of the spirits for faults, flaws, or problems is essential to the success and commercial viability of the product.

Let’s look at an example of a failure when there is no quality assurance process prior to launching a product. A distiller once hit upon the idea of a strawberry-flavored vodka and quickly rushed to take the product to market. The product was manufactured by soaking freshly picked strawberries in vodka, then filtering the vodka and bottling the product. The result of this process was a vodka that had a beautiful light pink hue and an aroma of fresh strawberries. An instant success, the distillery sold lots of bottles through their tasting room and pallets of the product went into distribution. Not long after, the complaints began to roll in. Customers said that their bright pink vodka turned an unsavory shade of yellow. Liquor store owners demanded refunds for the ugly yellow vodka. Upon tasting the discolored vodka, there were no flaws to be found in flavor or aroma, but the color was downright off-putting. In the end the distillery recalled the product and shortly thereafter discontinued the production. This expensive disaster could have been avoided if they had a better QA process.

Legal Considerations

There are legal requirements that must be followed when it comes to manufacturing flavored spirits. The TTB requires a formula to be submitted and approved before that spirit is allowed to be sold. Part of the TTB formula process is to review the ingredients used in the manufacture of a flavored spirit. Ingredients used in a flavored spirit must be approved by the FDA as an ingredient that is “GRAS” (generally recognized as safe). The FDA has an online database that lists all GRAS ingredients. It is important in product development to make sure the ingredients used are approved by the FDA and TTB for use in distilled spirits. In the case of using extract-based flavors, these extracts should be TTB approved. Ask your flavor manufacturer in advance if the flavors they are providing are approved by the TTB. Some flavor companies have thousands of TTB approved flavors. This multitude of options creates the opportunity for a distillery to make a flavored spirit of almost any idea they can dream up.

Let’s Go to Flavortown

Now that you have an understanding of a few methods used to make flavored spirits, along with some of the guidelines and restrictions on how to do it, you have the basic tools needed to produce flavored spirits at your distillery. There is a large market for flavored spirits, so be sure to consider the potential. Flavored spirits are the gateway to flavortown and it's a place many successful distilleries go.

WRITTEN BY MICHAEL T. REARDON, P.E.