Lifting Spirits in Pawtucket
Rhodium Gives a Shine to Retro Cocktails
Overlooking the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, the tasting room at Rhode Island Spirits beams with casual warmth and good cheer. Begin your visit with a tour of Rhode Island’s only woman-owned distillery and taste through a flight of handcrafted vodka, gins and liqueurs in search of your favorite house dram. Post-flight, order The Rosemary Greyhound from the bar and learn about the locally foraged and farmed ingredients that make these handcrafted spirits sing.
The Rosemary Greyhound sways sweet to sour with grapefruit juice and an unctuous rosemary syrup, revealing the full expression of the distillery’s flagship spirit, Rhodium Gin, and its buoyant bouquet of lemon balm, juniper, angelica and citrus zests. The cocktail is syncopated by a spicy spur of cardamom and orris root (the dried root of the iris plant), a sultry balance of floral fruit and spice, not to mention its most appealing apricot hue.
Is it still a “Greyhound” if it’s made with gin instead of vodka, you ask?
Co-owners Cathy Plourde and Kara Larson brushed up on their cocktail history while designing their menu and, as it turns out, the pre-Prohibition version of a classic Greyhound was made with gin and grapefruit juice —”served neat and to the point,” Larson adds.
If vodka is your fancy, try The Cider Drop, a perfectly potable blend of Rhodium Vodka, fresh apple cider, a hint of lemon and bitters spruced up with a sprig of sage. Though Plourde and Larson have been “deeply enjoying the resurgence of gin,” the couple values a smooth, crisp vodka and arrived at their recipe for Rhodium Vodka by adding chopped apples from local Barden Family Orchard to the seventh distillation of the spirit.
“The magic happens when pectin and enzymes from apples mellows the heat of the spirit,” Larson says. The result is a clean, supple spirit, great for sipping or mixing.
If you’re looking for a relaxed afternoon, snag a window seat and unwind with a taste of local spirits as the river rolls on by.
