2023 has been an extremely busy 12 months 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 his or her high-quality merchandise.
Their world-class Morita Chipotle Vodka emerged as the only platinum spirit within the Infused/Flavoured Vodka class at the latest Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards; their three other signature drinks additionally took home platinum ratings. KARU Delivering Quality Community Spirits debuted Orsa Coffee Gin liqueur took residence Best Liqueur and Best in Show on the Tasting Australia Spirit, and the Distillery gained 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 along with her husband Nick, says this year being Karu’s busiest up to now has additionally made it probably the greatest. She says: “We’ve taken on more employees, we’ve got a warehouse in Richmond now, we’re producing extra spirits – and we’re able to get again on the market after not with the power to for thus long prior to now four years!”
Orsa is one other spirit from Karu that could only be made in the Hawkesbury, because of a collaboration with Darren Gerbasch’s Little Coffee Co within the Blue Mountains. “We met Darren at a tourism beverage path meeting a couple of years ago, and he’s just as enthusiastic about espresso as we're spirits. We approached him and we requested him to show us a bit about coffee expertise. He made a custom brew for us, and it was two or three months of R&D from critically getting began with it to the place Orsa is at present.”
Karu Distillery Delivering Quality Community Spirits
Head distiller ally ayres with karu products and awards
Although the Karu group have been travelling all around the country and accumulating awards on the international stage, they’ve continued to highly value the role of the community in their success. “Because Orsa was very a lot a collaboration of local companies, it’s been well received by the community – and we like to do those types of issues,” says Ally. “It’s actually cool that after the amount of stuff the neighborhood and trade has gone through the final couple of years, we’ve been capable of get the spark back a bit and produce one thing that’s really a neighborhood spirit!”
Reflecting on the yr that’s passed by, Ally has been able to find lots of joy among the many busyness. “We’ve had more occasions than usual, extra distillation and ferment days, more barrels than usual – and we’re having an actual enjoyable time with that. We’re getting again out there and cementing Australia as a place of high quality and having the medals and trophies to show that. It’s been actually good!”
Ally, Nick and the Karu staff have been exhausting at work creating loads of spirits for the holiday season, while additionally planning a variety of different products for 2024. Keep up to date with the world-class native Distillery right here: https://www.fb.com/KaruDistillery
To hear extra from Ally about Orsa, keep a watch on our website and Facebook for a video interview coming in the next week.