|
The beginning of the end
At the Chicago Whiskey Festival, producers from around the globe are on hand to entice the sipping set to try whatever's new.
“Old Fitzgerald, Cabin Still, all the imagery and the sell is tradition,” says Dean Phillips, president and CEO of Phillips Distilling, based in Minneapolis. “If you go to the vodka section you see all new, sexy, packaging, and we thought there has to be an opportunity to transfer those key learnings to this section.”
But Phillips is doing more than blending -- he's “flavoring.” He’s produced the first “flavored” whiskey in America, a vanilla and a cherry version. If it worked for vodka -- and it did in a very big way with flavored vodka accounting 15 percent of all vodka sales -- why not the whiskey category? Forty-four million cases of whiskey were sold in the U.S. last year, most of it mixed with something else.
“People are ordering $12 Manhattans in New York City and often times the bartender will pour a $1.99 maraschino cherry juice in the Manhattan. Why not add natural royal ann cherry flavor to the whiskey ahead of time … you're half way there my friend,” Phillips says.
GAck. That sounds awful.
|
