PURVEYORS of delicate drink don’t often hear the description “paddock to bottle” when it comes to regional cuisine.
But that is exactly the process adopted by a small family distillery that produces Husk Rum and Ink Gin on a 60-hectare cane farm outside Tumbulgum on the Tweed in NSW.
Retired geologist Paul Messenger, his wife Mandy Perkins, daughter Harriet and cousin Don Mackay - a chemist by training - have combined their talents to create small batches of distinctive liquor.
The first barrel, only 271 bottles of three-year-old agricole rum, was released online just before Christmas and sold out in three days.
In mid-February the distillery released a few dozen “reserve” bottles to selected bars and found they vanished just as quickly.
That’s a good sign and the family is pushing ahead with plans to build a much larger distillery on their property that will cater for the foodie tourist market.
The construction certificate application is currently before Tweed Council.
Being located where they are - in a rural location on the doorstep of Queensland’s Gold Coast - it seems a no-brainer the concept will thrive.
The family takes pride in the fact their spirit products are most unusual in today’s mass market.
The rum is produced from crushed cane grown on their farm using varieties Q155, Q200, Q244 and Q124.
The varieties were chosen with the assistance of Tweed cane farmer Anthony Chiesa based on the drinking quality of their juice rather than commercial sugar yields.
They propagate their yeast strain in the distillery starting in an incubator with raw sugar from the nearby Condong mill as the starter.
“The use of cane juice brings a freshness and imparts a flavour you don’t get with molasses,” explains Mr Messenger, who points out his distilling process involves blending all the volatiles - light and heavy - before the brew is topped and tailed during a second distillation process.
Last year the family brought a second product to market - Ink Gin, distilled using 14 different botanicals from all over the world, as well as some classic Australian from all over the world, as well as some classic Australian ones including locally grown lemon myrtle.
The gin’s market appeal is illuminated with an infusion of dried butterfly pea flowers from Asia, infused in the liquor at the end of the process, which gives the drink a rare blue or purple hue.
But the fun doesn’t stop there: the flower ink is sensitive to pH and turns from blue to pink when mixed with tonic water, which is usually acidic.
Butterfly pea flowers have been eaten and drunk in herbal infusions in Asia for generations, Dr Messenger said.
Th e work involved to balance ingredients with flavour and visual effect took four years of tinkering and more than a few drinks were poured for “research” purposes.
“We have patented the production process,” Dr Messenger said.
