Description

Daytrippper Strawberry Amaro Liqueur

Matchbook Distilling Co. is an R+D facility dedicated to production of spirits that champion agriculture, anthropology, tradition and science. We think healthy, live soil produce the healthiest ingredients, and the healthiest ingredients produce the best flavor. We find endless inspiration in the history of how people have regarded spices, herbs, fruits, minerals.. – at once medicine, nourishment, perfume and flavor. We’re fascinated by research into our flavorful natural world, as we are constantly honing our abilities to bottle it, a life like photo you can drink. Our limited releases are each a culmination of this R+D. While we might choose to go deeper with certain bottlings, releasing variants – each release will be unique – and once they’re gone, its hard to imagine how they might reappear again. We hope they inspire you to pursue flavor, to slow down and smell the flowers, and to think about the magic of good dirt.

The story of Daytrip begins with the Mattituck Lions Strawberry Festival, a local carnival devoted to all things strawberry. One year, some 2 tons of strawberries were somehow leftover and, it seemed, destined for the compost pile. Our friend Joey, a Mattituck Lion and the manager of his family’s vineyard, rescued the strawberries and brought us a big tote of strawberry wine. We distilled 100 gallons into a strawberry eau de vie and added it back into the wine with a whole mess of vibrant botanicals. Nettle, quassia, jasmine, rose, nutmeg fruit… leaving that to macerate for a few months before filtering, sweetening and bottling. We thought we were making a Strawberry Vermouth — the first in a whole series of fruit vermouths we’d release — that is before the government insisted any vermouth be made from wine grapes. With that, a quick pivot, a detour, a Daytrip Strawberry Amaro was born.

Some aperitifs come together in this holistic way where its hard to pick out the various ingredients — others allow their constituent parts to shine. Daytrip is the latter for me — strawberry is front and center stage, with the woody and bitter flavors of the quassia quickly following up. Some green notes from the nettle, perfume notes from the florals. it represents, to me, a drive through the North Fork, past the vineyards and the fields of flowers and the peaceful waters punctuated with dramatic rock formations. Daytrip is ushering in the warmer months and the summer celebrations that will soon crown the seasons Strawberry Queen.

Daytrippper Strawberry Amaro Liqueur Notes To Your Senses:

• APPEARANCE: Rosy pink
• AROMA: Ripe strawberry, jasmine and rose with a hint of nutmeg
• TASTE: Fresh strawberry sweetness balanced by bitter quassia and green herbal notes
• FINISH: Lightly bitter with lingering floral and citrus undertones
• ABV: 19%