Stories
Stories from Sanpatong
Guides, process notes, and distillery thinking from Sanpatong.
Read the stories behind additive-free spirits, how craft distillation works, and how drinking culture is changing around us.
Archive
Standalone stories, essays, and future pieces that do not yet belong to one of the current libraries.
What Is Additive-Free Vodka?
The majority of commercial vodkas are built for volume, then corrected with carbon filtration, glycerin, or sweeteners.
What Is Additive-Free Gin?
Gin is often assumed to be natural, but many commercial gins rely on compound methods, sweeteners, or industrial base spirit.
What Is Additive-Free Rum?
Rum has an additive problem that dwarfs every other spirit category, from caramel colouring to sugar dosing and flavouring compounds.
What Is Rhum Agricole?
Rhum Agricole is rum made from fresh sugarcane juice rather than molasses. That single difference changes everything about how it tastes, how it is made and what it represents.
What Is Fusion Gin?
Fusion Gin is a category of gin in which the base spirit is not a neutral grain alcohol but a tropical fruit brandy, distilled from 100% fruit.
What Is Coconut Flower Nectar Brandy?
Coconut flower nectar is the sweet sap collected from the unopened flower buds of the coconut palm. Distilling it into a brandy produces a spirit with a character entirely its own.
What Is Farm-to-Bottle Spirits?
Farm-to-bottle is a production model in which a single distillery controls the entire chain of production, from sourcing the raw ingredients through to bottling.
How Are Craft Spirits Made?
Craft distillation is a series of transformations. The skill of the distiller lies in controlling every stage so that the final spirit expresses the best qualities of the original ingredient.
What Is Copper Pot Still Distillation?
A copper pot still is the oldest form of distillation apparatus. What makes it different is the level of control it gives the distiller and the active role copper plays in shaping the spirit.
