Arkansas’ first legal distillery, Rock Town Distillery, has been on a bit of a roll lately by pumping out one award-winning whiskey after another. While not whiskey, don’t let their latest product slip under your radar.
Their newest product is a coffee liqueur that combines their vodka with cold brew coffee from Arkansas’ own Leiva’s Coffee. The result is a great product combining two of Arkansas’ finest coffee products.
If you have tried coffee liqueur in the past, this is going to be a bit different. Unlike mass market products like Kahlua, Rock Town’s focuses on the coffee and vodka instead of being sweet and creamy. In place of the massive amount of added sugar you find a nice, well-balanced liqueur that is a little more on the black coffee side than the double frappuccino that the others try to pass off. It is a decidedly more sophisticated product.
If you are not familiar with Leiva’s coffee, they are an Arkansas based roastery using Guatemalan coffee beans. The Leiva family have farmed coffee beans in Guatemala for several decades. In the late 2000’s Geovanni Leiva started a roastery in Little Rock using his family’s beans and started selling directly. Leiva’s coffee then gives a portion of their profits to enhance the lives of Guatemalan coffee growers.
Their coffee is great on its own, but infused into Rock Town’s Vodka it is even better. Plus since it is coffee, it must be technically fine to drink in the morning, at least that is what we keep telling ourselves. It is fine on its own, it makes a great dark coffee tasting 40 proof cup of joe. Hit it with a little cream and it takes on a nice smooth drink. Or you can always include it in your favorite coffee liqueur cocktails like a white Russian.
Rock Town plans to offer the liqueur as a year round product. You can pick it up at the tasting room, and it is also starting to trickle out to liquor stores around the city.
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November 20, 2023
