Sangfroid Distilling has released Foraged Citrus Gin. The Maryland-based spirits company partnered with New Brooklyn Farms to turn lemons (or in this case oranges) into lemonade by creating the new citrus-infused liquor, which uses an invasive orange species.
The Foraged Citrus Gin is made from trifoliate oranges, an invasive species that has spread north from the Southern states. The fruits are too bitter to eat or juice and are fodder for deer. When it comes to making Gin, however, the hardy Asian oranges deliver a flavor profile similar to the classic London dry style. New Brooklyn Farms provided both the oranges and the rosemary for the Gin.
Sangfroid’s newest spirit combines the character of their Dutch-style Gin–simply made in a copper pot still–with the locally foraged citrus fruit and rosemary. The result is a drier, crisper gin that’s suited for warm weather and Gin & tonics on the terrace. Its mashbill is 2/3 rye and 1/3 malted barley. Other botanicals featured in the spirit include juniper, coriander seed, and angelica root.
The distillery and farm have secured a relationship for years to come as Sanfroid’s owners helped New Brooklyn Farms plant a deer fence around its Hyattsville, Maryland plot and planted apple trees for use in brandy in a few years.
Sangfroid makes a variety of other spirits, including fruit brandies, Whiskeys, and two other Gins.
For their seasonal brandies, the distillery uses heirloom fruit from their own orchard in western Maryland as well as fruit from Maryland and Pennsylvania farms. All of the fruit is fermented naturally using only the ambient yeasts on the skins of the fruit.
As for their Whiskeys and Gins, they source all their grains from Maryland farms – rye and spelt come from Migrash Farm outside of Baltimore, and the malted barley comes from Amber Fields Malting outside of Frederick. They mash, ferment, and double pot-distill (and age) all their grain spirits inHyattsville distillery.