2023 has been an especially busy year for Hawkesbury spirit-crafters Karu Distillery. Since Hills to Hawkesbury Community News last talked with Karu in March, they've continued to rack up acclaim worldwide for their high-quality products.
Their world-class Morita Chipotle Vodka emerged as the only platinum spirit within the Infused/Flavoured Vodka class at the current Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards; their three other signature drinks additionally took house platinum rankings. Their recently debuted Orsa Coffee Gin liqueur took residence Best Liqueur and Best in Show at the Tasting Australia Spirit, and the Distillery won a Hawkesbury Business Award and was a finalist in the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards.
For Karu’s head distiller Ally Ayres, who founded the Distillery in 2018 together with her husband Nick, says this year being Karu’s busiest up to now has also made it probably the greatest. She says: “We’ve taken on more workers, we’ve obtained a warehouse in Richmond now, we’re producing extra spirits – and we’re in a position to get back on the market after not with the flexibility to for therefore lengthy in the past four years!”
Orsa is another spirit from Karu that could solely be made within the Hawkesbury, thanks to a collaboration with Darren Gerbasch’s Little Coffee Co in the Blue Mountains. “We met Darren at a tourism beverage trail assembly a quantity of years in the past, and he’s simply as enthusiastic about coffee as we're spirits. We approached him and we asked him to show us a bit about coffee experience. He made a customized brew for us, and it was two or three months of R&D from seriously getting began with it to where Orsa is right now.”
KARU Delivering Quality Community Spirits Delivering Quality Community Spirits
Head distiller ally ayres with karu products and awards
Although the Karu group have been travelling throughout the country and accumulating awards on the worldwide stage, they’ve continued to highly value the position of the neighborhood of their success. “Because Orsa was very a lot a collaboration of native companies, it’s been nicely obtained by the neighborhood – and we love to do those kinds of issues,” says Ally. “It’s actually cool that after the quantity of stuff the group and business has gone by way of the final couple of years, we’ve been in a position to get the spark again a bit and produce one thing that’s actually a neighborhood spirit!”
Reflecting on the yr that’s gone by, Ally has been able to find a lot of pleasure among the many busyness. “We’ve had more events than usual, more distillation and ferment days, extra barrels than usual – and we’re having a real enjoyable time with that. We’re getting again out there and cementing Australia as a spot of high quality and having the medals and trophies to show that. It’s been really good!”
Ally, Nick and the Karu team have been exhausting at work creating loads of spirits for the holiday season, whereas also planning a number of other products for 2024. Keep up to date with the world-class native Distillery here: https://www.fb.com/KaruDistillery
To hear more from Ally about Orsa, control our website and Facebook for a video interview coming in the subsequent week.