Out of the blue, I got a call last spring from a farmer in Michigan.  Jack King of King Orchards in Center Lake, MI called to say that he thought we should make a Sumptuous Tart Cherry from his cherries.

He read about our syrups in Wine and Craft Beverage News and he wanted to be part of the action!  http://wineandcraftbeveragenews.com/growing-farm-to-bar-with-craft-cocktail-syrups/

[ All farm and fruit photos are from Kingorchards.com]

“Brothers John and Jim King, along with their wives Betsy and Rose and their children, have been growing fruit in Northern Michigan since 1980, specializing in Montmorency tart cherries. We are a first-generation farming family growing into the second. We love the farming life and work hard to grow quality fruit.

We actively grow over 180 acres of Montmorency tart cherries which we use for our tart cherry juice concentrate, in addition to Balaton cherries, black sweet cherries, apples, peaches, pears, apricots, plums and nectarines.

Our orchards are located in the heart of Michigan’s famed cherry growing region, atop glacier-formed ridges and rolling hills near Torch Lake and Lake Michigan’s Grand Traverse Bay. Just 35 minutes north of Traverse City and 45 minutes south of Petoskey, our two farm markets offer convenient locations for the majority of Northern Michigan travelers and residents. The quality of our harvest is second to none.”  www.kingorchards.com

“From Blossom to Harvest”

https://youtu.be/N-MleEJbWFs

We started the process by exchanging products.  Jack sent me the cherry juice for my Research and Development and I sent him bottles of various flavors of Sumptuous Syrups.  YUM!! all around.

Six months later the first bottles of Tart Cherry syrup were released to the public to delighted customers.  One of my first deliveries was to the bartenders at the Daily Planet restaurant in Burlington VT.  This is the Tart Cherry Margarita they made for me.  So delicious and refreshing – even though it was a cold and wintry night.

The always amazing Christopher James, Bar Manager for Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen, one of the finest restaurants in Morristown, NJ, made Tart Cherry Daquaris for me and a friend with his first bottle of the syrup.

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Warren Bobrow aka The Cocktail Whisperer is delighted to get his first bottle of Tart Cherry syrup.  We had to have Sunday morning taste with some very special bourbon to try it out.  Klaus the Gnome approves!

Don Horrigan creates fabulous cocktails. Here is one with the new Tart Cherry syrup for you to try.

Tart Cherry Ol’ Fashioned

2 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon or other bourbon

1/3 oz Sumptuous Syrups Tart Cherry

dash Dutch’ Spirits ProhiBitters

orange peel

Cheers from your friendly neighborhood barkeep

@Don Horrigan @ssvtdrinxcrftr at Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont

Why a blog?

We want to connect with our customers and friends!

Co-founders, Don Horrigan and Linda Fox

Linda will be writing posts and answering questions about farmers, ingredients, production, and cooking.  Don will be writing and answering questions about mixology and bartending, drink history, ingredients and recipes.

So we ask YOU – what do you want to know?

Please send your questions to info@sumptuoussyrups.com even if they are off the topic of the post.

Cheers!

Welcome to Sumptuous Syrups of Vermont!

Our delicious premium Farm to Bar cocktail syrups are made in small artisan batches through the Vermont Food Venture Center in Hardwick, Vermont. We use the highest quality wild or organic fruit, vegetables, herbs, and organic sugar that we can find.

We are devoted to supporting sustainable agriculture through small family farms in Vermont and other places around the world. We purchase locally when possible and are creating new markets for our farmers.

It is our goal to forward the sustainable mixology movement through fair compensation and expanding markets in the pursuit of tasty and exciting libations. Sumptuous Syrups are luscious ingredients designed to inspire bartenders’ creativity while linking the farm to the glass.

Our products are family-friendly and can be used in a child’s sip cup as well as an adult’s cocktail and everything in between. They play equally well with water, seltzer, tea, coffee, juice, smoothies, wine, beer, and liquors. The syrups can also be inspiring ingredients with food and in cooking.

Our Story

Creative Collaboration.  Beautiful things happen when you take two very inspired artists, shake them up, and put them in a glass. Linda Fox and Don Horrigan live and breathe creativity and have bonded over this mutual trait. Surprising ideas flow and beautiful products manifest into reality.

Why Should Chefs Have All The Fun?  Sumptuous syrups were created by Linda in the Spring of 2009 specifically for Bartender Extraordinaire Don who was working in Hardwick, VT. The chef was doing fun and creative things in the kitchen with local ingredients, and Don wanted to have some of that same fun in the bar. Linda, using fruit from her garden – rhubarb, strawberries, red raspberries,and wild blackberries, created syrups with a definite fruit-forward flavor by using a large volume of fruit in each bottle.

The cocktails that Don created with the syrups were a great success. One night, he looked at the customers around the bar and every single customer was drinking a cocktail made with Linda’s syrups. Over the next year and a half, Linda created eleven different flavors of syrups for Don use.

Linda and Don Put Their Heads and Hearts Together or Timing is Everything.  Linda and Don had really had fun creating new ideas for syrups and drinks to make with these syrups. They found that through their friendship, they developed a wonderful business idea. The fact that the Hardwick VT area was quickly becoming a hotbed of agricultural businesses and creative ideas inspired them further.

Over the next year, they sought out information that they could use to start a company making syrups . These syrups would use fruits and savory ingredients grown by small family farmers and be developed in the Vermont Food Venture Center which was being built in Hardwick by the Center for an Agricultural Economy. Goals of the company are to create sustainable jobs, pay farmers well for their produce, and have a financially successful local business.

Using Sumptuous Syrups –  Sumptuous Ideas

These syrups are real food and not empty calories, They are full of nutritional and health benefits from the real fruit and herbs.

Refrigerate open bottles – they will last 6 moths or more.  Some flavors separate – this is normal – just shake the bottle.

Serving size: 1/4 oz = one teaspoon – about 25 calories and 6 grams of sugar and 6.5 carbs.

Beverages: 1 teaspoon in 8 oz of plain water [hot or cold], ice water, seltzer, hot or iced tea, hot cocoa, coffee, white or red wine [think Sangria], beer, or cocktails. Use Sumptuous Black Currant syrup in place of Grenadine.  Cheers!

Tasty Water: Instead of juice, add 1/2-1 teaspoon to plain water in a child’s sippy cup. Less sugar. Real food.

Cooking and Desserts: Our syrups are an ingredient to inspire you! Get creative! Use in a salad dressing or marinade, on meat, in a stir-fry, in a cake or on ice cream; there are so many possibilities.

Enjoy!