National Craft Spirits Week! with Speedtrap Distillery

Hey all! It's National Craft Spirits Week!! If you didn't know that was a thing, now you do, and now it's time to celebrate.

We decided to go celebrate with Speedtrap Distillery in El Dorado with one of our friends, Paul. One of the founders, Nate, is from Leon, KS, nationally known as a speed trap along Highway 400--hence the name.

You really need to get out to El Dorado and go visit Speedtrap. Nate will give you a tour if you're interested, and you can see their current running still and the old small stills they've used in the past. Have Nate tell you how he got interested in opening a distillery!

They have a large bar where you can taste little samplers of all their offerings. Even though they've recently started, they have a lot to offer!

Of course, we had to have a sample of everything.

We started out with the Dodgy Fox bourbon and single barrel bourbon. Since they're so new, they don't have any bourbons yet that they've taken from start to finish (bourbon must be aged in new oak barrels for at least two years), but they get this bourbon already barreled and make their own choices on further aging and finishing touches. It really reminds you of butterscotch and caramel, and we all bought bottles of this to take home.

We also tried the Moonshine, the Prairie Rum, and the Rum Runner 135. The Moonshine smells sweet and even has a slight sweet edge, thanks to the corn that goes into it. For Katie, it smelled like meringue. The Prairie Rum also has a lovely slight sweet edge, since it's made from molasses. Feeling a bit chilly? The Rum Runner 135 will warm your whole mouth right up, though it surprisingly doesn't burn as it goes down.

Speedtrap also has some really fun flavored rums. The Barn Burner is a cinnamon rum that smells just like cinnamon sugar on toast, and it tastes delicious. Katie is itching to mix this into cocktails and see what she can do, but it would be easy to sip this on its own, as well. The caramel rum also has a really delicious caramel note that again will be amazing in cocktails, but would also be easy to sip. Speedtrap also offers two cream rums: Coconut Cream Rum and Orange Cream Rum. With the lactose-free cream and the alcohol content, these can sit open as long as you like and won't spoil.

Nate made us a small sample of "the best pina colada you'll ever have," using the Coconut Cream Rum, the Caramel Rum, pineapple juice, and ice, and it was heavenly. And so easy to make! We'll have to be careful with these flavored rums from Speedtrap--it would be very easy to drink too much!

You really need to go visit Speedtrap and taste all of this for yourself. You won't be sorry you did! They're open Thursday and Friday from 3-7pm and Saturday from 12-6pm. And go visit other local craft distilleries this week as well! Let's support our Kansas distilleries!