FIVE SPRINGS INFUSED BOURBON

By Meghan Swanson

Readers of historical fiction will know the scene well - someone is sick, or wounded, and ambulances (and even germ theory) are a far-off fantasy of a future world. A squirrelled-away bottle or someone’s hip flask will offer the ultimate panacea: spirits–frequently, whiskey. While this scenario is a common trope in fiction, it has its roots in real life. Kentucky native Lisa Sawyer Derman knows it well; she grew up with the vaunted medicinal qualities of whiskey contrasted with its forbidden nature in her dry home county. “Even my Aunt Georgie, who never had a drink–I don’t think–in her life, knew that [when] somebody had a sore throat…you get a little bourbon and honey and tea, and that’s your cough syrup.” she says. The notion of bourbon as a special substance imbued with healing properties captured Lisa’s imagination, and is the ethos of her newly launched brand, Five Springs Infused Bourbon. 

“I just fell in love with the industry; it felt like home because of the roots, I think, of Kentucky and being proud of bourbon.”

Lisa’s career in the beverage alcohol industry started long before Five Springs, during a humid Washington D.C. summer in the early 1990s. Lisa had majored in mathematics and had an interest in computer science and statistics. At the time, however, “There was no Microsoft; it was working in the basement at EDS or something like that. And I didn’t want to do that,” she states. “I went to law school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do.” she reveals. She ended up a summer associate with big law firm McDermott Will & Emery. While there, she met T. Raymond Williams. “He was from Alabama…and I was the only female from the south in this big national law firm. And he happened to be this world-renowned beverage alcohol partner,” she recalls. “I thought, like–this, I can do.” Lisa began working with Williams and his client Jim Koch to grow Koch’s fledgling beer brand - Sam Adams. From there, she worked with Brown-Forman (owners of such recognizable brands as Woodford Reserve, Jack Daniel’s, Old Forester, and more) and Jim Beam. “Just from that, my career progressed,” she says. Her adventures in the beverage alcohol space continued, expanding to include time at Stoli in an executive leadership role, a mescal startup, and most recently multi-division leadership at Macallan.

Today, Lisa’s three children are grown and charting their own paths forward—and she now knows exactly what she wants to do. “Once my kids were out of college—my youngest is a junior—I decided it was time to do my own thing,” she tells us. “I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit, even though I came up through the legal side. I just knew I had to do something with bourbon or with whiskey, being from my little town in my little dry county,” she says. Lisa originally hails from Albany, Kentucky, a town located in dry Clinton County, Kentucky, just across the border from Tennessee. Beverage alcohol was so forbidden that the family bar in Lisa’s parents’ home was hidden—and she didn’t even know of any other family that had one. “My parents would go to Lexington, Kentucky, and bring home a bottle of Lancers wine and a bottle of Maker’s Mark. And that was pretty much all the alcohol we had in the house—and you didn’t tell anyone you had it.” She remembers. “Whiskey was either associated with a party and friends, which was always great, or it was because you had a sore throat…or a toothache,” she explains. “It was always a little bit more ceremonial than you normally wouldthink.” She sums up.

“When I was seeing my future and seeing what I wanted to do…as much as I had these incredible mentors, I didn’t want to be the CEO of a company, I didn’t want to be general counsel for a global company—I wanted to build something.”

Lisa’s long experience in the industry offered her front-row seats to entrepreneurial success stories like Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, High West Distillery, and Wyoming Whiskey. Watching those stories unfold inspired her and gave her a road map to follow when it came time to launch her own brand; getting her label approvals and regulatory ducks in a row was a smooth process. “I think I cut off a couple years, just having been in that space for so long, I was able to do it…and then it just comes down to the branding and the liquid.” She had a strong idea for the liquid in question–definitely bourbon. It was her adult children who set her on the path to infused bourbon.

‘RTD’, as it’s known in the industry–short for ‘ready-to-drink’--seemed to Lisa the way her kids’ tastes were trending. Then, she went out with them. “They were ordering bourbon cocktails, and were, you know, interested in it. I was like, ‘I thought you were drinking only High Noons and stuff?’” she recalls. She had observed trends of flavored and infused tequilas rise and fall over time, spreading to vodkas, morphing from artificial into more natural botanical flavorings and attracting a more diverse consumer. “I thought, you know, this hasn’t necessarily been done with bourbon…can we try it?” Like so many who set out to blaze a new trail, Lisa started at home. She and her husband entertain frequently at their lakeside home, and the kids were all home from college for the summer. “We just started playing around in the kitchen,” she explains. Guests were treated to bourbon cocktails made with quality bourbon brands from their local liquor store and quality, fresh ingredients from wherever they could be found. “My brother-in-law brought us some homemade maple syrup from Boston. So we were like, oh, let’s try this maple syrup. That’s really how it started,” Lisa recalls. 

The Five Springs test kitchen was born - a pot on the family stove. Every member of the family took their turn nurturing Lisa’s idea. “My husband is the one who finally pushed me to do this. We met in law school, and now I think this is his secret passion, as it turns out.” she says with a smile. While husband Adam encourages the 10,000 foot view of the business, youngest daughter Kayla–a computer science major nearing the completion of her master’s in data science at Berkeley–dives deep into social media and market analytics on behalf of the brand. “She’s really my partner in this.” Lisa shares. Eldest daughter Alexa, a playwright living in Brooklyn, helps with the written word. “She’s very quick to improve on any copy we have,” Lisa points out. Son Jackson was the wizard of the family’s six-burner stove, A.K.A. the test kitchen. “Where’s the mixology? This was all my son,” Lisa tells us. 

“It was really important for us to have a fresh, inclusive approach. We have all types of friends…and I wanted the…appeal of the brand to be something that everyone felt they could identify with.”

When she was coming up with her own brand, one thing Lisa knew she wanted was for it to feel genuine. “We didn’t want this to be a gimmick. I wanted it to be something I was proud of,” she asserts. She wanted Five Springs to be accessible to many different types of consumers. “I kind of learned that from Macallan, you know, because it’s so male-forward in all their marketing,” she explains. “I’m a bourbon drinker, and I love Macallan–it’s my favorite scotch. I never realized I could love it until I was [working] there, because they were never marketing to me.” she says. Lisa wanted to marry the best parts of her memories of Kentucky with the exciting pace of her current residence, New Jersey. “You see innovation and creativity like, every single minute up here, and I love tradition, I love old school from Kentucky,” she says. “But I also love the advances that can be made.”

Sometimes Lisa will encounter critics who say Five Springs can’t call itself a ‘bourbon’, really. “We start with the fact that we use a bourbon base,” she clarifies. “I’m not putting on [the label] that we’re bourbon. I’m telling you what our products, what our ingredients are.” she sums up. “Making that distinction with bourbon is our first piece of education.” she tells us. 

“If a straight bourbon is too strong for you at this point because you’re still developing your palate…this is a bourbon that’s been made more approachable by adding the natural flavors you already get when you order a bourbon cocktail.”

When Lisa launched Five Springs in Kentucky, she had some trepidation over its reception, especially at bourbon festivals. “One of our most recent festivals, we were placed next to 15 Stars Bourbon,” Lisa recalls. The well-known, premium bourbon brand was an intimidating neighbor. “I thought, ‘I think we’ve missed the mark, no one is going to be interested.’,” she reveals. Happily, she realized she was wrong–folks did head to 15 Stars first, to make sure they got their experience with the famous bourbon, but then they would come to try out Five Springs. “We were getting everyone coming to us at the end, saying, ‘Oh my god, everyone told us to come here, this was the best tasting,’” Lisa describes. “I was like, ‘Okay, I think we’re on the right track.” she says.

This experience fit neatly into her education-first standpoint for Five Springs. “We start with bourbon,” she reminds us. Many flavored ‘whiskeys’ don’t even necessarily start with a spirit that could be legally called whiskey–they begin with a neutral grain spirit. Lisa, however, was adamant that true, high-quality bourbon be the foundation of Five Springs’ products. From there, instead of experimenting with artificial flavoring, she insisted on natural flavors and ingredients. That, too, was a trial-and-error process; even the sage that formed the basis of their Honey Sage Infused Bourbon was a challenge to wrangle at first. “We started off with ten leaves [and] just ruined it…after a week of infusion, which was too long.” she recalls. “Raw sage made it cloudy. We ended up going with a sage extract, but making sure it was still all-natural sage extract.” Lisa tells us.

“Whatever you’re celebrating, we want to be there.”

Lisa and Adam are long-time bourbon fans–they served Maker’s Mark at their wedding in the 1990s, a time when ‘it was more of a vodka crowd’--and now that their children are old enough to partake and have acquired a liking for the spirit too, Lisa felt that the Five Springs brand needed to reflect that familial feeling. “Bourbon has just always been a part of my important moments in my life, [such as] drinking a mint julep on Derby Day which I do every year. It feels like home, feels like family.” she explains. The Dermans own a 500-acre farm in Kentucky, right where Lisa grew up–in Albany, Kentucky, which is also unofficially known as the community of Five Springs. “And there are five of us in the family,” Lisa points out, smiling. It felt like the perfect brand name to convey the idea of a creative new wellspring of flavor, giving bourbon a refresh and a wider appeal. 

It was important to Lisa to develop multiple flavors to release at once to avoid Five Springs getting lost on the shelves. After a year of research & development and help from industry contacts, Honey Sage, Blood Orange, and Vanilla Maple were ready for the spotlight. “People will come up to me and say, ‘Yeah, I don’t like flavored whiskeys.’ I’m like, ‘Well, okay, but this isn’t…just try this.’” Lisa tells us. “Flavored whiskeys are flavor with a splash of whiskey, we’re really bourbon with a splash of flavor.” she explains. “Once I can get them past that, they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I like this.’” The bourbon, in fact, is Five Springs’ highest cost item. “We wanted it to be a premium product, we wanted a certain mash bill.” Lisa says. “And this is where my background came in, because I have a lot of contacts. I know where to go to buy bourbon.” she sums up.

Spending more on the contents of the bottle meant there was less left over to spend on the bottle itself; the bottles are stock, not custom, and the label simple in design and colorful. “We wanted to focus on that outdoor, free, exploration kind of feeling,” Lisa tells us. She is quick to point out, however, that Five Springs is not ‘hardcore outdoor’. “We’re just ‘outdoorsy’,” she clarifies. “It’s about enjoying Five Springs in outdoor spaces, whether you’re on a camping trip or…on an outdoor patio around a heat lamp. It’s more just that free spirit concept.” she says. “We’re hoping to get into the consumer’s mindset of, ‘Oh, I’m going to a barbecue, I’m going to a friend’s picnic party, I’m going camping, I’m going skiing, I’m going hiking…what can I bring?” Lisa is aiming for Five Springs to be the first thing that comes to mind. “I read a lot of historical books about the importance of wine and mead and whiskey in civilization. We want to be there, not just as an aspirational collectible bottle…we want to be there as part of your celebrations.” she explains. 

“When I’m thinking about having a spirit or having a cocktail…bourbon just always grounds me. It brings me back to home, to that comforting feeling of like, ‘Oh, it’s going to take care of me,’ you know, from the old medicinal days.”

This first year has been all about testing and experimentation. “I knew we liked it, and I knew my kids liked it in cocktails,” Lisa says, “But this really has been a year of seeing you know, is it appealing to women? To purists? This has been all about testing the waters and we feel really good about it,” she tells us. “I feel like for bourbon’s growth and bourbon’s history, we want to be the stepping stone…the ‘gateway’ drink,” she says. ”So that people get really excited about the industry.” If you’re feeling a little bit run down or feeling like celebrating something with friends, Lisa hopes you’ll reach for a bottle of Five Springs. To her, what’s inside is a little bit of a panacea in the truest sense of the word; a bit of magic, concocted by her family and offered to yours, designed to welcome you, comfort you, and unlock the door to the realm of bourbon for anyone who didn’t already have a key.

TASTING NOTES

Honey Sage Infused Bourbon (35% ABV)

Nose: Old Books, Vanilla, Honey, Sage, Black Pepper

Palate: The mouthfeel is very soft and syrupy with a faint burn towards the end. The palate is sweet up front with heavy notes of vanilla and honey along with more subtle citrus flavors. Those flavors persists throughout the midpalate, joined by a slight herbal bitterness and just a hint of oak on a long finish.

At first sip, one could not be blamed for immediately thinking, "This is not whiskey," and to be fair, legally, it is not. We’ll get that out of the way here. The syrupy texture gives up the game that this is a sweetened product. That said, if you push on for a second sip, and a third, the whiskey moves closer and closer to center stage. In the end it is a bit of a conundrum. Is it whiskey? Not really. Does it taste like whiskey? Yes. Does it taste really good? Absolutley. Does it present many different drinking experiences and opportunties? Without question.

Blood Orange Infused Bourbon (35% ABV)

Nose: Tree Resin, Orange, Candied Sugar

Palate: The mouthfeel is still soft and syrupy, but slightly dryer than the first. The citrus flavors hit you right away. It's sweet throughout, but citrus sweet which inherently has an oily bitterness to it as well that props up classic new oak flavors on a long finish.

This tastes like if whiskey and orange bitters had a baby. The whiskey character is more present throughout, if not accentuated by the blood orange flavor. I think this one most clearly encapsalates the idea of the infusions enhancing the bourbon. Throw in a dash or two of Angostura bitters and pour over a big rock and this is a solid Old Fashioned with little fuss.

Vanilla Maple Infused Bourbon (35% ABV)

Nose: Oak, Vanilla, Maple, Clove

Palate: The mouthfeel is once again soft and probably the most syrupy thus far with next to no burn whatsoever. The vanilla pops out first, with a backbone of citrus and pepper before settling into maple flavors with oak and spice on a relatively short finish.

This one is a tough one for us. On the one hand it does have the most traditional bourbon whiskey flavors. Vanilla and maple are popular notes that can be teased out of bourbon given the right combination of yeast and barrel management. That said, while it tastes the most like a traditional bourbon, it's sweetness also pushes it the closest to a liqueur. We have no doubt this will be popular given the flavors and ease of drinking, and that it could pair well in a cocktail, though because of the boldness of those flavors and the sweetness level it probably would be better suited as a modifier in a cocktail than as the base.

As an addendum we would like to add that we have never seen a response like this to any other product we have reviewed. We are aware that some whiskey purists out there might stick their noses up at the mere mention of infused or flavored bourbons. The sub 40% abv may further push away those who cling to proof and burn as a sign of worthwhile whiskey. That said, these products have been universally loved by nearly every person we have tried them on, from the non-whiskey drinkers to the dedicated whiskey lovers. Consumers are craving new flavors and new experiences. You can’t shut out innovation in favor of stubborn adherence to what has been. Five Springs is on to something here, and this is likely just the beginning. We are very excited to see what comes next.