Sweet potatoes transform into subtly spiced liqueur
The story of Corbin Cash Sweet Potato Liqueur is a tale about farming in California’s Central Valley. In 2007, after growing sweet potatoes and rye for 90 years, the Souza family built a distillery to use both of their rotationally grown crops.
It took Dave Souza, a fourth-generation sweet potato farmer, more than a year and a half of garage moonshining to get the recipe right for his sweet potato vodka. “I looked up a recipe for potato vodka online,” says Souza, “but I didn’t understand at the time that the starch and sugar totally break down differently in a sweet potato.”
From vodka, he moved to gin, rye and blended whiskey and then it was time for something sweet. “We saw that the flavored vodka market was totally saturated, but we wanted to do something inspired by my mom’s sweet potato bar.”
They added the flavors of cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and brown sugar, and Corbin Cash Sweet Potato Liqueur was born, named for his son who is now just 6 years old. The liqueur is just a bit younger than its namesake, aged at least three years in seasoned wooden barrels. The result is a mellow, mildly spiced, warmly sweet liqueur that’s not syrupy, perfect for on-the-rocks after dinner.
Even better is Souza’s “claim to fame,” the sweet potato soda, in which he combines the liqueur with ginger ale or ginger beer and a lemon twist to create a refreshing California take on a Moscow mule. He also recommends using Corbin Cash as a substitute for vanilla extract, or instead of rum or bourbon in desserts or barbecue sauces.
If you’re still not sold on the idea of a beverage that comes from a traditionally candied tuber, note that the spent mash and water from the sweet potato spirit production are recycled for irrigation, fertilizer and cattle feed. Sustainability even tastes good.
The spirit’s warm, exotic flavor inspired me to introduce some Indian spices into the cocktail mix. The result is a glowing drink I call the Golden Shakarkand (Hindi for “sweet potato”).
Find it: As a new distillery, Corbin has limited distribution. To find its spirits, go to