Greenbar Distillery

The distillery has grown since the early days, not only in square footage and people, but in product range. It now makes the largest portfolio of organic spirits in the world. Joining TRU Vodkas are CRUSOE Rums, IXÁ Tequilas, SLOW HAND Whiskeys, FRUITLAB Liqueurs, CITY Gins, GRAND POPPY and GRAND HOPS Amari, as well as BAR KEEP Bitters.

But Melkon and Litty haven’t changed what’s at Greenbar Distillery’s core. Their touchstone throughout the journey is their obsession with flavor. How to find, access, channel, balance and bottle it.

The (now slightly larger than two) production team at Greenbar Distillery chases flavor and whips it into shape any way they can. Like Melkon and Litty, team members are by no means traditionalists. They have no long-lost recipe or spirit-making family heritage to cling to. This means that they’re free to break rules and make new ones. As long as the result taste good.

To this end, they borrow techniques from the California wine industry, like slow, cool fermentation and micro-oxygenation. And they’re inspired by beermaking with its unusual yeast combinations. They look to farmers when choosing whole, organic ingredients instead of artificial flavors. And to engineers for cutting-edge technology, including the first small-scale continuous, infinitely fractionating still.

It’s meaningless, though, if all of the above doesn’t translate into a delightful craft cocktail. If a Greenbar Distillery team member is not sure of the direction a spirit is taking, they always go to the R&D bar (yes, they really have one ) and make drinks. They pick the one that tastes the best.

The pursuit of flavor is what drove the talented couple when Melkon was making home infusions to delight a palate of one (Litty’s).  It still does today. In the end, that’s what true love is all about.