Western Sage Gin:

Thumb Butte Distillery won the first medal of many to come with the Western Sage Gin. This Gin was awarded a Silver Medal at the Los Angeles International Spirit Competition in 2014. It is a tribute to the herbs that grow in the West. Western Sage Gin is designed to replicate the smell of our forests after a monsoon rain. Included in the infusion basket is Sage, Juniper, Fennel, Coriander, Orange and Lemon. Enjoy!

Western Negroni
Courtesy of The Point Bar and Lounge in Prescott, Arizona
3/4 ounce Thumb Butte Distillery’s Western Sage Gin
3/4 ounce Grand Poppy Bitter
3/4 ounce Sweet Vermouth
Build in Boston shaker, add ice, shake and strain into a Martini glass with a lemon twist.

Thumb Butte Cucumber Collins
1.5 ounces Thumb Butte Distillery Western Sage Gin
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
2 slices of fresh cucumber
Muddle cucumber in Boston shaker with lemon juice and simple syrup and then add gin. Add ice, shake and strain into tumbler with ice.
Top with soda water and a mint sprig (crushed a bit)

Why is called Western Sage Gin?!
My introduction to sage was from my paternal grandmother. She had long almost black hair until the day she died. Although she died relatively young, around 65, she should have had a few grey hairs.

She would gather, at a specific time of year, a smaller variety of sagebrush. She called it white sage. She would boil this sage in a big pot on the stove, strain the sage out, and wait for it to cool down to a nice warm temperature. She would then rinse her long black hair with this sage water until the water was gone. She did this every week for at least four months each year. She claimed that is was something that her mother had learned from the Ute Indians and that her mother never went grey. As a teenager I had little worry about grey hair but another habit of my grandmother’s was much more interesting to me.

My grandmother was a horsewoman and she wore jodhpurs for riding. I’m sure she wore them for comfort and always style. They also had another interesting feature. Along the calf of each fitted leg of the jodhpurs there was a zipper that allowed her to access her lower leg. She had a leather garter that fit snuggly just below her knee and it had a harness that held a silver flask in a sleek slip against her leg.

On those long rides up the canyon and around the campfire at night I’m sure that the contents of that flask were much stronger than tea. I like to think that she would have chosen our Western Sage Gin, passed it around, and stirred it with a nail.