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Loon Liquors awarded for coffee liqueur, eyes increase in production

The liqueur that launched Loon Liquors is getting some recognition finally.

31/05/2017

The Lac Coeur, coffee liqueur created by Loon Liquors co-founder Simeon Rossi, captured a silver medal at the 2017 San Francisco International Spirits Competition, held from April 20-23. It marks the second straight year Loon Liquors has captured a silver medal at the competition. The company won a silver medal last year with its MetropoliGin.

The coffee liqueur set Rossi and co-founder Mark Schiller down the path to becoming business partners with Loon Liquors. Rossi introduced the coffee liquor back in 2009 at a White Russian party that Schiller attended. It was there the long-time friends from their days at Northfield High School started plans to sell the liqueur. Fast forward to 2017 and now the two can’t keep it on the shelves.

Rossi and Schiller successfully launched their whiskey, gin and vodka spirits before returning to the liqueur.

“It’s great to come full circle on that,” Rossi said. “It was worth this. Mark had the right idea when called me and told me to let’s go to market.”

Peace Coffee has partnered on the Lac Coeur, which is French for Lake heart or lake love and acts as a homonym across languages. The liqueur has rich notes of chocolate, caramel, and coffee and has flown off the shelves. The liqueur, which launched in January, sold out in February and won’t be available again until July.

That’s not the only good news from Loon Liquors. The company has expansion plans after it received a grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Loon Liquors was eligible for the grant because it uses organic wheat and barley to craft its spirits. The grant covers 25 percent of the company’s costs to triple distilling capacity. Loon Liquors has plans to add a second, larger still, larger, stainless steel fermenters and a larger mash turn.

That will help the company keep up with demand, which has left it two months behind in production. The additional equipment will triple capacity and bring the company up from 10,000 bottles a year to 30,000 bottles a year. That kind of expansion might also mean the hiring of additional staff. In addition to Rossi and Schiller, the company employs five part-time workers and might add a full-time production assistant.

Aging whiskey is also on the list of things to do next for Loon Liquors. The company hasn’t had the barrels nor the time to age whiskey since it started distilling Loonshine, an organic craft whiskey.

Read More at source: Southern Minn

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