After using it for a while behind the bar, Twisted Path Distillery is releasing its cilantro vodka in bottles for sale in the tasting room.
The 750ml bottles are $40 each and go on sale Friday. It is not a limited run, according to Twisted Path Founder and Distiller Brian Sammons.
"It's a new staple product for us, we're going to keep making it going forward," he says.
To celebrate, there will be a release party at the distillery, 2018 S. 1st St., in the Lincoln Warehouse.
“We've been playing around with it in cocktails in the tasting room for a while, and we just recently released it for distribution in liters for bars and restaurants,” says Sammons, who notes that it has been popular in bloody marys and cilantro martinis.
“It's pretty amazing stuff – totally unique on the market. It tastes like liquid, bright, fresh cilantro.”
Sammons says the spirit is made by steeping 90 pounds of fresh organic cilantro in about 50 gallons of high proof vodka.
“We steep it, strain it out, then re-distill the vodka on our gin still,” he explains, “so it comes out clear, and we bottle it at 80 proof, like normal vodka.”
The release party on Friday is set for 5-9 p.m. There will be samples of the cilantro vodka plus, of course, cilantro vodka cocktails, like the cilantro gimlet pictured above.
There will also be a taco truck at the event.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
