THE SOURCE: GOOD FOLKS COFFEE CO.

Did you hear the good news? We're expanding distribution for the first time outside of Indiana — to Kentucky. 

Louisville, we're coming for you first! You'll see our spirits in Louisville bars, restaurants and retailers very soon. 

You'll definitely want to keep an eye out for Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur, our magical elixir that is made with a ton of roasted coffee, Bourbon vanilla beans and cane sugar. 

We've given Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur a special twist, just for Kentucky. The liqueur is infused with roasted coffee beans from Good Folks Coffee Co., the wholesale coffee roaster in the Shelby Park neighborhood of Louisville. 

We know how important it is to buy local and support fellow small businesses, so we wanted to partner with the best roaster in Louisville for the Kentucky edition of our coffee liqueur. (Meanwhile, here at our home base in Bloomington, Ind., we source coffee beans from the terrific Hopscotch Coffee for the Indiana edition of the liqueur.)

Naturally, we want you to get to know Good Folks. 

Co-owners Matt Argo and Zach Hensley relaunched the brand just a few months ago (the company was formerly known as Argo Sons Coffee — that name might ring a bell for Louisville folks). Good Folks' beans are sold by the bag around Louisville at at Whole Foods, Rainbow Blossom Natural Food Markets and ValuMarket, and brewed at Please & Thank You and Press on Market, two of the city's specialty coffee shops (and highly Instagrammed ones, at that). The roaster supplies customers as far north as Chicago and Fort Wayne, and to the south in Arkansas and Tennessee.

We talked to Matt from Good Folks about the beans that went into our coffee liqueur, what makes his roastery special, and how to tell if you're drinking good coffee:

Cardinal: We’re curious how a roaster makes a cup of coffee in the morning. What’s your go-to method?

Matt: For me at home in the morning, it’s usually drip coffee in a coffee pot. We need to just push a button and move on. On the weekends, we do French press at home. At the roastery, I drink espresso, but if I’m brewing straight up coffee, it’s Chemex, nine times out of 10.

Cardinal: Where did the name Good Folks come from? 

Matt: We’re getting coffee from good folks on the farm level and we’re roasting coffee for good folks at the cafe, restaurant and grocery level. There’s just this long chain of people and that’s kind of what our company is about. We just want to do good by the people that we roast for.

Cardinal: What made you decide to get into the coffee business?

Matt: I was as in the military for eight years before I started this company and did some traveling. And then when I got out, my wife and I did some more traveling to different parts of Africa and elsewhere, and what we noticed is everywhere you go, you need to build relationships. And doing that over coffee is a really easy thing. We just noticed this common pattern, and loved the idea of maybe having a coffee shop one day. As research began, I started thinking, I’m really interested in roasting. That’s kind of how the company became a wholesale coffee roaster instead of a retail coffee shop.

Cardinal: The labels on your bags of coffee say things like “Fruit-forward and fun" and "Balanced, round & smooth," instead of the country of origin of the beans or their type. What made you want to go this route?

Matt: We want to stay out of people’s way, in a good way.

We didn’t want people to be overwhelmed with, you know, a pacamara or caturra varietal from so-and-so’s farm and all this crazy stuff they can’t pronounce. It was becoming really confusing in the grocery store.

Cardinal: Give us a primer — what do you roast?

Matt: We’ve got our packaging lined up in three colors — a black bag, a craft bag and a white bag. Our black bag is our espresso line. Our craft bag is our blends, and all of our blends are either regionally inspired or travel inspired. Our three blends right now are Day Tripper, Carry On and Globe Trotter. And then our white bags are our lines that are “relationship coffee.”

Cardinal: Which means?

Matt: Well, we have a relationship down in Colombia — I was there back in February — and basically we’ll go to auctions and bid on coffee from farmers that have never sold their coffee outside of their own country.

Good Folks is considered very, very small. Stumptown or Intelligentsia, they’re small. And yet they’re massive compared to us. There are things that they can get that we can’t get, and there are things we can get that they can’t get.

We can go in and buy 10,000-20,000 pounds of coffee from a farm — just kind of buy their whole farm — and (larger roasters) can’t do that, it’s just too delicate for them. But we can do that, and grow with the farmer, and they’ll grow with us. We can tell that story and say, that’s our coffee from these guys, and no one else has it.

Cardinal: Tell us more about the black bag, Fast Track, which is the Good Folks blend that goes into our coffee liqueur?

Matt: Fast Track is our espresso, and it doubles as a dark roast. It’s got a nice chocolatey, caramely sweetness to it. It’s not crazy dark and it’s not light at all — it’s just that happy medium. In coffee drinks, it really pushes through milk or cream. I was really happy you guys chose this one for the liqueur.

Cardinal: How do people know if they’re drinking good coffee? You can probably tell right away, but what about the rest of us?

Matt: You shouldn’t have to be told that you’re drinking something good. It’s definitely subjective and it’s definitely an acquired taste, so as you drink more your palate develops. A lady that owns a grinder company told me she knows it’s a good cup of coffee when she finishes it and doesn’t realize she drank the whole cup until it’s gone.

So, that’s what I tell people all the time: if you finish it, and it went down easy, and you want more, that’s a good cup of coffee.

Cardinal: What’s considered fresh coffee?

Matt: That’s a great question. For me, this (cup I’m drinking) was roasted yesterday. But that’s not feasible for most people — you don’t buy coffee every day at the market, two ounces at a time.

I think if you get something that’s been roasted within a week or two, that’s really nice. It also depends on how dark it is. If it’s really dark coffee, it loses freshness easier, whereas really light roasted coffee will keep its freshness a little bit longer.

Cardinal: OK, forget coffee for a minute. When it comes to booze, what do you like to drink?

Matt: I like bourbon — I’m required to say that. And I also like gin, and I really like tequila. Those are kind of my three go-tos.

Photos provided by Good Folks

Hoffman House Fizz Cocktail Recipe

 

This gin cocktail with roots in the early 1900s gets shaken into a rich, creamy, luxurious tizzy, then it's topped with a splash of soda to give it an ethereal fizz — and bring it back to just this side of decadence.

HOFFMAN HOUSE FIZZ

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce fresh orange juice
1/2 ounce grenadine
1/2 ounce heavy cream
Egg white
Club soda, about 1-2 ounces

Add all ingredients except club soda to a shaker, then add ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a tall glass (without ice). Top with club soda.

Tiki Rum Earns 92 Points from Wine Enthusiast

Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum has been awarded an impressive 92 points and a “Best Buy” rating by Wine Enthusiast magazine in its influential buying guide for spirits, wine and beer. The score makes Tiki Rum one of the top-rated craft rums on the market, and at $25 a bottle, certainly among the most affordable.

Tiki Rum is a natural star: a light rum with a smooth and fruity profile that is wonderful in a range of drinks, from classic tropical ones to modern cocktails. The way Cardinal Spirits ferments and distills this spirit in small batches leads to one intriguing rum, and Wine Enthusiast agreed.

Here is Wine Enthusiast’s review of Tiki Rum: “Aptly named, this rum is tiki-drink ready, for sure. It leads with a pungent banana aroma and distinct tropical fruit flavors—banana, mango, touches of lychee and coconut—with ginger and nutmeg sparks on the finish. It’s not infused with fruit, but all those flavors may have you wondering.”

Get the recipe for this refreshing 92 Point cocktail, made with Tiki Rum, pineapple and ginger beer!

Get the recipe for this refreshing 92 Point cocktail, made with Tiki Rum, pineapple and ginger beer!

HOW WE MAKE IT

Tiki Rum is fermented and distilled from cane juice and light molasses, and we pitch a mixture of hefeweizen yeast and a yeast strain that was discovered growing wild on sugarcane. We let it go slow, keeping it cool in the beginning as the hefeweizen likes it that way. Then we distill to just under 150 proof, leaving fruity and sugary flavors in the spirit before proofing down to 80 for bottling.

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT

We enlisted a yeast whisperer — our friend and Indiana University biochemist Matt Bochman — to select and propagate the yeast strains that make our Tiki Rum one-of-a-kind. Where some distilleries might purchase commercial dry yeast to make their rums, we use active, or living, yeast. Yeast is important because it’s where all the flavor comes from. Living yeast makes fermentation more effective, and, ultimately, it makes a better rum.

WHY WE MADE IT

We initially crafted this rum especially for our ever popular Tiki Tuesday cocktail nights. Tiki drinks are magnificent creations, and our masters of tiki needed a light rum with lots of fruity esters like pineapple and citrus to stand up in such complex cocktails.

92 Points Cocktail Recipe

This 92 Points cocktail plays up all the best parts of Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum, a light, tropical rum that was just awarded 92 points and a “Best Buy” rating from Wine Enthusiast magazine. The recipe easily scales up to a punch — just add the ginger beer right before serving, or let guests top their drinks with ginger beer themselves.

92 POINTS

Recipe by Cardinal Spirits

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum
1 ounce pineapple juice
1/2 ounce ginger syrup
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
2 dashes bitters
1 ounce ginger beer, more or less to taste
Mint sprig, for garnish

Add rum, pineapple juice, ginger syrup, lemon juice and bitters to a shaker, then add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice, then top with ginger beer and garnish with mint.

To make ginger syrup: Peel several chunks of ginger, slice into thin rounds. Combine 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium-high heat, and stir to dissolve sugar. Add sliced ginger to the saucepan, and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain ginger slices from syrup before using.

Berry Brambler Cocktail Recipe

This cocktail tastes complex — like it has a bunch of ingredients and like you put a lot of work into it. The truth is, it couldn't be easier. You need just two spirits — our Bramble (black raspberry vodka) and our Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur — plus a dash of bitters. Both spirits are immensely flavorful, so they do the heavy lifting in cocktails like this. With berry and coffee flavors, you might file this away as a dessert drink, but we guarantee you'll enjoy it anytime. 

BERRY BRAMBLER

2.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Bramble Vodka
1/2 ounce Cardinal Spirits Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur
1 dash orange bitters

Combine ingredients in a shaker, then add ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a coupe glass.

GIN N' BITTERS COCKTAIL RECIPE

If one or two dashes of bitters balances out the flavors of a cocktail, what will 10 dashes of bitters do? Find out by making this curious 1950s cocktail called Bin n' Gitters with our bartender Chris Resnick:

BIN N' GITTERS

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
10 dashes angostura bitters
Mint for garnish

Add gin, lime juice and simple syrup to a rocks glass with crushed ice. Stir to combine, then top off the glass with more crushed ice. Top liberally with 10 dashes of bitters, or more if you'd like, then garnish with a mint sprig.

 

Cardinal in the Wild: Scenic View in Bloomington

Sitting on the patio at Scenic View with fish tacos and a cocktail in front of you is a summer must here in Bloomington. The family-owned restaurant is just nine miles southeast of downtown, yet it feels farther — not in a bad way, though. It feels like ... a destination. A little escape. Perched on a wooded bluff overlooking Lake Monroe, Scenic View offers views, indeed — the sweeping, tree-top, big-sky, birds-eye sort — and even a bit of the lake itself, hence the name.

It's one of the wonderful establishments in Bloomington that serves Cardinal Spirits in its cocktails. 

We chatted with Sadie Clarke, the general manager at Scenic View, about what to expect on its latest cocktail menu, which highlights local and regional producers. In: Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum. Out: Bacardi. 

The view. Pretty even on a gloomy day.

Cardinal Punch, with our Bramble, Flora and Tiki Rum, plus lemon, lime and orange juices.

The small but mighty bar at Scenic View.

Cardinal: Let’s talk about the literal view. Can you share any fun facts about the view of Lake Monroe from the restaurant? What kind of boats do you see out there?

Sadie: It does take 45 minutes to an hour to get to that spot (from shore). People think it’s a lot closer, but it’s not. We have a lot of people joke because they never see boats down there. 

Cardinal: What’s special about the drinks at Scenic View?

Sadie: We do not normally have mainstream alcohol. We don’t have Grey Goose. Instead of Bacardi, we have Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum. We always try to get customers to try new things. We make all our syrups here and all our mixes for cocktails.

When I first started working here, we had domestic beers on draft, now we don’t have any domestics on draft — it’s all local. Most people, especially in Bloomington, are more locally conscious. 

Scenic View has five new cocktails with Cardinal Spirits products.

Cardinal: What drinks are most popular?

Sadie: People love our Bloody Marys. We probably go through hundreds on Sundays. We make the mix here. The base is V8 and then we add our own spices and pickle juice, and then we do seasoned-salt rim and garnish with hand-stuffed blue cheese olives and sweet pickles. Our Bloody Marys are just really hearty. I love Bloody Marys — wherever I go, I try one, and since I’ve worked here, I’ve been disappointed almost every time.

Cardinal: What’s new on your cocktail menu?

Sadie: This is the first season that we’ve really stripped our cocktail list and added more signature, seaside-type drinks. They’re more than your Rum Rummer, Sex on the Beach-type drinks. They’re definitely craftier than that.

And we have five cocktails with Cardinal Spirits.

We carry Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum, Bramble and Flora. For one of the drinks, we have them all together with fruit juices, and now that’s our Cardinal Punch. People love that.

I love Moscow Mules. So we made our version of one called the Blackberry Hibiscus Limeade with the Bramble — it’s awesome. 

Sadie makes a brunch drink with Cardinal Spirits Flora and champagne. 

Cardinal: Do you have a favorite Cardinal Spirits product?

Sadie: You know, I don’t normally drink flavored vodka, but I do love Bramble (a vodka made with black raspberries). It’s not overly sweet or floral, and it’s great in a Moscow Mule with fresh lime juice and ginger beer.

Cardinal: On a nice weekend day, Scenic View is packed and there’s usually a decent wait. Any insider tips for avoiding a wait?

Sadie: We take reservations for parties of 8 or more, inside or in our beer garden. The front patio is always first come, first serve. I always say come in between 3-5pm, however, on Saturdays and Sundays when it’s nice, people know that now … so even then, it’s been busy.

Limited-edition Graduation Vodka (and the one vodka cocktail recipe everyone loves)

Know someone who is graduating from IU this weekend? Send them out into the real world with a commemorative bottle of a Bloomington-made product. 

We've created a special bottling of our vodka just for the Class of 2016. Bottles are $25, available at the distillery only.

Are you graduating this weekend? Congrats! Treat yourself and take a piece of Bloomington with you wherever your next adventure leads you.

Now, how to drink it? If there's one vodka cocktail you should commit to memory, it's this:

The Moscow Mule. 

It could not be easier to make — it's just vodka, lime juice and ginger beer — no shaking or hard-to-find ingredients, and yet everyone adores how refreshing it is. Make it for your new roommates/friends/coworkers in Seattle or Indy or Minneapolis or wherever your next stop is. 

MOSCOW MULE

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Vodka
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
Ginger beer, to taste
Lime wedge, for garnish

Add vodka and lime juice to a copper mug, then fill with ice. Fill with ginger beer and garnish with lime wedge. 

Income Tax cocktail recipe

Cardinal Spirits bartender Stella Snyder shows how to make this classic cocktail using our Standard Dry Gin.

INCOME TAX

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Standard Dry Gin
1/4 ounce dry vermouth
1/4 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce fresh orange juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
Orange twist, for garnish

Add all ingredients except garnish to a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a coupe glass an garnish with an orange twist.

3 ways to drink our new Lake House Spiced Rum

Our newest spirit is a celebration of all things landlocked — namely lakes and the people who frequent them.

Introducing: Lake House Spiced Rum.

Lake House Spiced Rum debuts this weekend at the distillery with bottle sales beginning at noon Friday, plus special rum cocktails and even free distillery tours on Saturday, as long as you RSVP.

Lake House Spiced Rum is made in small batches from natural, whole botanical ingredients like orange peel, vanilla, cinnamon, black pepper and cardamom — no flavoring extracts, no coloring.

It hits the spot when you're grilling out. It's part of the perfect boat cocktail for a Saturday on the lake. It's what you bring to your neighbor's pool party. It's your reward after cutting the grass. It's meant for nights spent around a campfire.

Here's how we'd drink it if we were you:

1. RUM AND COKE. 

Lake House Spiced Rum will make you fall in love with rum and Cokes all over again. Whether it's your go-to drink, or it's one you haven't had since college, our rum has a way of making this simple mixed drink something to savor. 

"The cardamom we use in our spiced rum really comes through," says our distiller Justin Hughey. "Some rums don't push through Coke. But ours does."

Hey, we are the first to admit that we love fancy cocktails with six ingredients that are made from scratch and fresh squeezed and what not ... but we cannot deny the bliss of a straightforward, no-recipe mixed drink like a rum and Coke. 

2. SERIOUS COCKTAILS.

Remember two seconds ago when we said we love fancy cocktails? It's a good thing we did not throw fancy cocktails under the bus just to make a point about rum and Cokes, because Lake House Spiced Rum is right at home in serious cocktails, too.

At the distillery this weekend, we'll be mixing two special rum cocktails. One will have our spiced rum, our Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur, honey syrup and lemon. And the other will have our spiced rum with ginger syrup, lime and bitters. Don't choose. Try both. And then ask our bartender for the recipes so you can recreate them at home.

(Also, try Lake House Spiced Rum in an Old Fashioned. You're welcome.)

3. TIKI DRINKS.

Lake House Spiced Rum likes a trip to the tropics just like any other booze. Try it in classic tiki cocktails like Pieces of Eight or a Daiquiri. You bet we'll be using it on Tiki Tuesdays around the distillery.