Hot cocoa cocktails with hazelnut-espresso vodka? Sign us up.
BEND, OREGON >> Who doesn’t love clever wordplay? In the case of Bendistillery, it’s a multiple mashup — and Jim Bendis’ Bend distillery offers not only linguistic cleverness, but a downtown tasting room with mini-craft cocktails and spirit samples.
Bendis launched his spirited endeavor in 1996 with a smooth Crater Lake Gin and Crater Lake Vodka, named, of course, after the spectacular caldera 100 miles to the south. Now the distillery bottles a dozen award-winning spirits under the Crater Lake label, including gin, rye and infused vodkas that range from pepper vodka to a hazelnutespresso that’s tailor-made for spiking your aprés-ski cocoa.
We ducked into the new downtown Bend tasting room on a blustery day earlier this year, when the mountaintops were still covered with snow and the spring’s-definitely-not-here-yet breezes downtown made us fumble for our woolly mittens.
Inside, leather couches, dark hues and colorful, illuminated bottles give the tasting room a warm and welcoming lounge feel. What awaits at the tasting bar is even better: Cocktail samples ($3.50) and vodka tasting flights that include the pepper vodka, a mixture of five sweet and fiery chili peppers, which won a gold medal at San Francisco’s World Spirits Competition. If you’re thinking it sounds perfect for a bloody mary, you’re right. That was the inspiration. You’ll find cocktail recipes for bloody marys on the distillery’s Crater Lakes Spirits website, as well as how-tos for a Martini Provocateur, a pineapple-spiked Piña Picante and more.
Given the weather, we went straight for a Sleigh Ride — or a CocoJojo, a name change that pays homage to the distillery’s cocoa-loving private label manager. It’s a grown-up sip and easy to do at home: Hot cocoa spiked with 2 parts Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso Vodka to 1 part vodka, and garnished with marshmallows and whipped cream. And it’s guaranteed to warm you from the inside out, no mittens required.
Visit: The Crater Lakes Spirits tasting room in downtown Bend is open daily at 1024 N.W. Bond St., next to the Deschutes Brewery. The Bendistillery in Tumalo is open for tours and tastings daily at 19330 Pinehurst Road, a street address the U.S. Postal Service and Google maps insist is in Bend. You’ll find it 8 miles north of downtown Bend; www.craterlakespirits.com.
Find it: Crater Lakes Spirits is carried by Menlo Park’s Beltramo’s Spirits and San Jose’s Maplewood Market.