Dark Door Spirits

Every distillery has an origin story. Even the monolith, Buffalo Trace, had humble beginnings as a small warehouse seated on a new town on the Kentucky River.

Though, it seems as of late, many of those origin stories have been skewed by a haze of misleading marketing and tricky phrases. Many of these companies will try their hardest to mask the humbleness of their own beginnings rather than embrace them in a bid to appear larger than life from the start.

But, one distillery we've seen in Tampa,FL peaked our interest and shared ourpassion for transparency and uniqueness.

They decided to do it themselves from the start. A tall order and a difficult challenge to meet, and yet, they've somehow found a way to do it.

Maybe its skill with a pinch of luck, ormaybe there's more to the "dark door"than just the name?

Either way, it's a distillery filled withpassionate people with their eyespointed towards innovation.

The dark door operation is cozily nestled into a large warehouse with a beautiful built-in store. Everything about the distillery screams intentionality. From the segmentations of the warehouse, to the store, to the offices, to the individuals, Dark Door is positioning itself for growth and to host thirsty whiskey nerds.

They've also been working with established brands in the Tampa Bay Area, like Cigar City Brewing, to get their hands of beer barrels and the beer itself to age and distill interesting new experimental concoctions you won't be able to try anywhere else in addition to their regular whiskey selection. This makes it a great location to watch if you, like us, are into experimental and unique expressions.

The distillery itself has a cool vibe to it. Especially at night when they light it up for events, like their cocktail classes. It lends to the mysterious and somewhat macabre theme of the Dark Door brand.

Since many of their expressions are "experimental," it gives it a cool, gothic feel that is contrasted by the lively and friendly owners and staff. The juxtaposition makes it feel curated and purposeful without being off-putting. Which is good, since these individuals, each and every one a character, will be enthusiastic guides for you through some of the newer events they will be putting on in the near future.

Dark Door, while focusing on standing out with their spirits, is also focusing on carving a local niche with their community as well, taking up the mantle of providing a various assortment of events and opportunities for those visiting.

They are doing cocktail classes currently, where individuals can socially distance while learning to mix their own drinks from resident mixologist, Shane Neukam.

They're also in the process of building a "blend your own whiskey" station. Something we thought was a great idea, considering their experimental finishes draw interesting and unique flavors from their products (like the dark cherry truffle of their oatmeal stout finish), it will be a cool and unique way to not only try experimental expressions, but create one of your very own.

Dark Door's whiskey is made inhouse rather than sourced, which may raise a few eyebrows since they are a younger operation.

Dark Door has answered this two ways: transparently and with a plan of action.

Dark Door whiskey if nothing else, is honest with their consumers in a big way. Their rye whiskey even says "aged at least one day" on the bottle.

They wanted to keep their products in-house, but wanted to produce something enjoyable to drink as well. That left them with a bit of a problem, because, if you've ever had moonshine or white lightning, you know that can be...well... an extremely acquired taste.

Their solution was to use an advanced aging system to produce whiskey while their other expressions aged the old fashioned way.

They run the whiskey through a cycling machine with charred wood panels that fluctuates temperature and cycle speed to simulate the movement of whiskey through wood during various seasons.

It's incredible to see how quickly the whiskey picks up the wood flavor, since most of their whiskies are cycled through for a few days. It also lends some unique flavors to the whiskey not found in traditionally aged barrels.

Is it a replacement for traditionally aged whiskey? No, and they don't intend it to be. But, what they've done here is have the vision and drive to create something unique and to create it themselves with their own hands while their other expressions age to maturity, which is incredibly respectable.

If you're in Tampa, FL, check out Dark Door Spirits for a taste of the unique and take home a selfblended bourbon to show off your newly acquired blending skills.