2023 has been an especially busy year for Hawkesbury spirit-crafters Karu Distillery. Since Hills to Hawkesbury Community News final talked with Karu in March, they have continued to rack up acclaim worldwide for their high-quality merchandise.
Their world-class Morita Chipotle Vodka emerged as the sole platinum spirit within the Infused/Flavoured Vodka category at the latest Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards; their three other signature drinks also took home platinum ratings. Their lately debuted Orsa Coffee Gin liqueur took residence Best Liqueur and Best in Show on the Tasting Australia Spirit, and the Distillery won a Hawkesbury Business Award and was a finalist within the Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards.
For Karu’s head distiller Ally Ayres, who founded the Distillery in 2018 with her husband Nick, says this year being Karu’s busiest thus far has additionally made it probably the greatest. She says: “We’ve taken on more employees, we’ve obtained a warehouse in Richmond now, we’re producing more spirits – and we’re capable of get again on the market after not having the ability to for thus long in the past four years!”
Orsa is one other spirit from Karu that would only be made within 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 assembly a few years ago, and he’s just as enthusiastic about espresso as we are spirits. We approached him and we asked him to teach us a bit about espresso experience. KARU Delivering Quality Community Spirits made a customized brew for us, and it was two or three months of R&D from critically getting started with it to where Orsa is at present.”
Karu Distillery Delivering Quality Community Spirits
Head distiller ally ayres with karu products and awards
Although the Karu staff have been travelling all around the country and amassing awards on the international stage, they’ve continued to extremely value the position of the group of their success. “Because Orsa was very a lot a collaboration of native companies, it’s been properly received by the group – and we like to do those kinds of things,” says Ally. “It’s actually cool that after the amount of stuff the group and industry has gone through the last couple of years, we’ve been capable of get the spark again a bit and produce one thing that’s actually a group spirit!”
Reflecting on the year that’s passed by, Ally has been able to find a lot of joy among the busyness. “We’ve had extra occasions than traditional, more distillation and ferment days, extra barrels than usual – and we’re having a real 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 team have been exhausting at work creating loads of spirits for the holiday season, while additionally planning a number of other products for 2024. Keep updated with the world-class local Distillery here: https://www.fb.com/KaruDistillery
To hear extra from Ally about Orsa, control our web site and Facebook for a video interview coming within the next week.