SHIPWRECK COCKTAIL RECIPE

At the heart of this cocktail is our Vodka and our Songbird Flora, a nectar-like liqueur that we make with elderflower, hibiscus, jasmine and raspberries. You need Flora. You want Flora. You can't make this drink without Flora. Add a little lime and club soda to keep this drink bright and bubbly. 

SHIPWRECK

Makes 1 cocktail

By Jake Cifuentes of Cardinal Spirits

1.5 ounces Cardinal Spirits Vodka
1 ounce Cardinal Spirits Flora
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
Club soda

Add all ingredients except club soda to a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a glass with ice, then top with club soda and garnish with a lime wedge.

Eight Super-Simple Ways To Keep Your Lover Happy on Valentine's Day

@raravis90

1. Hire a detective to follow them around. No matter how much you think you may know them through texts and irl convo, nothing beats a private eye.
2. Hire a snake handler to show them how to handle snakes if they ever encounter one in the wild or if they deal with them at work.
3. Hire a clown to write a series of love notes in your name.
4. Hire your grandmother to visit him/her at the office and bring a favorite food from childhood like bologna or a baggie of apple slices
5. Hire a pizza delivery person to drive them around on their regular delivery route that night, so they can experience the sights of your town while inhaling pizza aroma and other aromas in the car.
6. Hire a blimp to follow them around. Bonus points if you can get the blimp to put something on its sign relative to your lover like "👍" or I Love You
7. Hire a football player to carry them up any inclines they may encounter for the day. Make sure to tip him well because football players rely on tips to make a living. 
8. Hire a fashion model to braid their hair and tell them how skinny they are while they drink water together.

MEET OUR CREW: BAYLEE PRUITT

We have the best flock here at Cardinal Spirits, and we want to introduce you to everybody one by one. 
Today, meet Baylee Pruitt, one of our talented bartenders and half of Cardinal's #tikituesday team. Here, Baylee answers some Cardinal Qs.

BAYLEE PRUITT
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Where are you from?
Columbus, Indiana

How long have you lived in Bloomington?
5 or 6 years

What do you like about Bloomington?
I like riding my bike everywhere. It's a really good town for that.
And my friends. They're great too.

What's your favorite thing to drink?
Cocktails- Jungle Bird, swizzles, tiki drinks
Beer/Shot- Budweiser/Appleton VX

Go-to drink on the menu at Cardinal?
Any cocktail in the "Bartender's Creations" section is a safe bet.

Do you have any hidden talents?
I won a bubblegum blowing contest at the county fair as a kid.

If you could have a drink with anyone, who would it be?
If he could talk and safely metabolize alcohol, my cat. If not, it's always Chris Resnick.

What was your first job? 
In high school, I worked at an independent movie theater in Columbus. It was great.

Favorite cocktail ingredient right now?
Banane Du Brésil or Letherbee Fernet

Favorite cereal?
Any cereal a grandpa might pick. Crispix, plain Cheerios, etc. Boring stuff.

People should drink more...
Rum!

Find Baylee on Instagram:
@bayleepruitt

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MEET THE REST OF OUR FLOCK...

ALYVIA CAIN

CHRIS RESNICK

ALEX UTTER

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MICHELLE GOTTSCHLICH

KEVIN HINKLE

JAKE CIFUENTES

BEFORE AND AFTER: CARDINAL SPIRITS BUILDING

On our 9th anniversary, we wanted to take a minute to go back to the very beginning. 

This is our home: 922 S. Morton St., a mile south of downtown Bloomington. It's just out of the way enough that when you find it, tucked in to our otherwise industrial and residential neighborhood, it feels a bit like you're discovering something. It's exciting. It's a nice home, don't you think?

BUT — do you remember what our building looked like before it was home to Cardinal Spirits?

It looked like this:

And on the inside? 

Before:

 OOF!

And after: 

Sometimes we feel like an HGTV crew should have been following us around in 2014 as we tore this building apart and put it back together.

People always want to know what our building used to be. It was a sheet-metal shop, from 1960 through the early 2000s. Then, until 7-ish years ago, it was church offices and storage facility for faith-based mission. Hence the mattresses and such.

We had a lot of work to do to turn the building into a distillery and cocktail bar. First, we punched some holes in the walls.

Then, we ripped down some walls.

Then, we ripped up the floor because at this point we were in the habit of ripping things up, and also we had to make way for plumbing. 

You definitely want a sociology major in charge of your plumbing. That's Cardinal co-founder, Jeff. 

Next: Windows. Doors. Limestone bar. These are a few of our favorite things. 

And then we thought, hey, here's an idea: why not paint the whole thing black?

Let's make a sidewalk. And, put Cardinal co-founder Adam in charge of grouting the bathrooms/making a horror movie.

One day, ginormous pieces of distilling equipment started arriving, and that continued pretty much every day until we opened. This is the boiler, made in Indiana:

The still arrived, and we started making spirits. 

Once you make spirits, you have to put them in bottles. This was our first run:

Meanwhile, in the cocktail bar, stools, tables and shelves found their places. 

Yes, eagle-eyed reader, that's a diaper bag on the left. Co-founders Adam and Jeff both had newborn boys at the time. 

Cardinal server Alyvia chalked away.

The staff learned their way around the bar:

And then we thought everything looked pri-tay, pri-tay, pritay good, we said, OK, let's do this. Doors opened, and goods and services were exchanged for U.S. dollars. SEVEN years ago!

We said "we" a lot here. By "we," we mostly mean these people, the contractors that made Cardinal Spirits possible: Howard's Home Improvement / HFI  / Bloomington HVAC / Riverway Plumbing / Clutch Fabrication / Matte Black Architecture / Central Arizona Supply / B-Tech

It's fun to look back on how far we've come. When we opened in February 2015, we distilled exactly one spirit: Vodka. And our bar served exactly one spirit in cocktails: Vodka. Sure, gin and rum and liqueurs were close behind, but we were blown away by how supportive and jazzed you all were from the start!

We've made dozens of spirits since then, most of which have won awards and medals and high ratings, appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, poured into cocktails at the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Daniel in NYC. We're now distributing in 12 states and D.C.

In pre-pandemic times, we opened our production area to tours every weekend...

Our tasting room grew into a full bar, and in year 3, we added a kitchen so that we could serve dinner and brunch on the weekends. During the pandemic, we were carry-out only for 16 looooong months, and we’ll always be grateful for your support during that wild time. We’ve since re-opened for dine-in.

Cheers to another 9, and even more! 

THE CRAZIEST THING ABOUT OUR FIRST COCKTAIL MENU...

When we opened up our distillery and cocktail bar in February 2015, the immediate hit on the drink menu was the tart and citrusy Cardinal Sling. There was the Red Bird, a riff on the Negroni. And the Hot Hopscotch, the perfect boozy coffee. And ooooh, the Cafe a l'Orange, a dreamy combination of coffee and orange that had been missing all your life. 

But did you know that every single drink on our first menu was made with...

... Vodka?

Every. Single. Drink. Our brunch drinks. Our #tikituesday drinks. The hot drinks. The cold drinks. All with our vodka.

You might be thinking: Doesn't it seem a little insane to open a bar that serves just one kind of alcohol? 

By Indiana law, a distillery is only allowed to serve the booze it produces, and when we opened, vodka was the one spirit we had distilled and bottled. We knew we'd make more spirits (12 of them, in fact, by the end of 2015) but at the time, vodka was our sun, moon and stars.

Here was the menu when we opened in February 2015: 

Fortunately, our talented bar crew did some major tinkering with our vodka to make the menu diverse until our other sprits came along.

Vodka steeped with aronia berry, gentian root and other botanicals became a Campari-like elixir that went into the Red Bird cocktail. Vodka infused with coffee and vanilla bean approximated a smooth coffee liqueur for the Hot Hopscotch and Cafe a l'Orange. Our bar manager Logan Hunter even rapid-infused vodka with toasted oak chips to replicate an aged spirit — quite convincingly, we must say — for the Prelude, a take on a Manhattan.

All of those cocktails from opening weekend are still on the menu, in one way or another. They're our classics. 

In a year, we produced a dozen different spirits. Now we have Standard Dry Gin, American Gin, Tiki Rum, a Single Malt Whiskey, Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur and many more spirits, sold in more than 200 locations across Indiana. 

But it all started with our vodka, in our cocktails, at our bar, a year ago.

Whether it's been a week, a month, six months, or even a year since you had a cocktail at Cardinal, we invite you back this weekend — our first anniversary — to toast to an incredible first year. We'll have birthday punch, free anniversary T-shirts, free tours and cakes, and a party on Saturday night in the distillery area.

Details for the entire weekend celebration are right here. We hope to see you! 

CRAFTPACK, VOL. 17

No happy hour, no cold beer at grocery stores, and no booze sales on Sunday: Indiana absolutely made this list of 8 States With The Strangest Alcohol Laws.

Cardinal Spirits' first anniversary celebration is this weekend. Punch, cakes, free t-shirts, free tours ... RSVP here. (Also, how crazy is it that our building used to look like this.)

Have any of you tried Elvis Presley Coconut Water Vodka? Which is a real thing.

A fun video tour of our neighborhood, called McDoel Gardens — and hey, that's us at 1:05!

PepsiCo is opening a restaurant in NYC that will offer an artisanal menu with dishes inspired by the kola nut. It's sodas will be served, of course, but Pepsi says it'll also have a "cocktail curator" on staff. 

SERRANO DAIQUIRI RECIPE

A classic daiquiri couldn't be simpler: It's just rum, lime and sugar. You know the daiquiri. You love the daiquiri. Now it's time to have some fun with the daiquiri.

Adding a few slices of serrano pepper into the shaker zaps this cocktail with some satisfying heat. It warms you without being warm itself, you know? You could tame it down with just one or two slices of pepper if you'd like.

SERRANO DAIQUIRI

By Jake Cifuentes of Cardinal Spirits

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Tiki Rum
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
3 slices serrano pepper

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a slice of serrano pepper.

#WHISKEYMYWAY: WEEK 4 ROUNDUP

Week 4 of Age Your Own Whiskey — a big, boozy group project that meets on the Internet — is behind us. 

If you're playing along at home, you might be wondering: How many more weeks until the whiskey is ready? We're thinking that you'll see good color and flavor around Week 5, so you are in the home stretch! But, you can go longer, stop early, taste along the way .... it's #whiskeymyway, after all, so it's completely up to you.

Age Your Own Whiskey works like this: a bunch of you dropped an oak stave into a bottle of our unaged White Oak Whiskey on the day after Christmas. Once a week, you post a photo of the bottle on social media and tag it #whiskeymyway so that we can all see each other's progress.

Just starting to age yours now? You're not too late - start posting!

Here's how some of your #whiskeymyway bottles are looking after Week 4:

Instagram: @mrgoober03

Instagram: @cardinalspirits

Twitter: @Doc_Boc

Twitter: @JamesJpault75

Twitter: @FoodEvansville

Snap your Week 5 photo this Saturday, Jan. 30, post it and tag it #whiskeymyway. And let everyone know...

1. Have you tasted it? What's the flavor like so far?
2. Are you changing conditions at all?  (Varying the temperature? Agitating it? Adding another stave?)
3. How's the color?  

We'll post another roundup next week!

CRAFTPACK, VOL. 16

One genius trick that will change your cocktail game. 

To jigger or to pour? Which side of the debate are you on?

Uh, pivot much? Under Armor founder is opening a distillery.

Because it feels like winter is juuuust getting started: 8 hot chocolate recipes (some are boozy)

A few sneak peaks at tonight's amazing cocktail-pairing dinner at the distillery: here, here and here. 

BEHIND THE BAR: SCOTT LOWE OF BLUEBEARD

Bartenders hear our stories all the time. So let's hear theirs for a change. This is Behind the Bar: interviews with bartenders over a drink (or two).
— by Kajal Singh
 

This week, we're chatting with Scott Lowe, the bar manager of Bluebeard, the excellent restaurant and bar in the Fletcher Place neighborhood on the southeast edge of downtown Indianapolis. Named after Kurt Vonnegut novel, Bluebeard is one of the wonderful Indianapolis establishments that serve Cardinal Spirits. 
 

What drinks on your menu are made with Cardinal Spirits, and what are the stories behind the names?

27 Mutual Friends (Cardinal Spirits Vodka, Cardinal Spirits Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur, crème de cacao, mole bitters) is a play on social media. My girlfriend and I realized that we had 27 mutual friends on Facebook and we thought it would be fun name for a cocktail. Social media is prevalent these days and I think people really identify with it. 

Don’t be so Bonal (Cardinal Vodka, Bonal, house-hopped strawberry soda) is a play on the word banal. Hopped Gin and Tonic (Cardinal Spirits American Gin, Bittermens hopped grapefruit bitters, Fentimans Tonic) is a twist on the classic cocktail with hopped bitters. 

How long have you been in Indy? And how long at Bluebeard?

Sixteen years in Indianapolis. As of this coming April, I’ve been bartending for about 28 years. I was at Ball & Biscuit (on Mass Ave. in Indy) before Bluebeard. Before that I was bartending in Broad Ripple.

If you could have a drink with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?

Anthony Bourdain. I ran into him in New Orleans a couple of years ago, he just seems like an interesting guy to get a drink with. I’m a whiskey guy, so I would definitely be drinking rye whiskey. 

What’s your best advice for people who want the drinks they make at home to taste as good as the ones they order at a bar?

Honestly, just use fresh ingredients. Make your own stuff at home; it’s so easy to do now. You can make your own simple syrups. It may take some time, but they last a long time and it makes all the difference.

Do you remember the time you had your very first cocktail?

I was in Florida and it was just after graduation from high school. I worked on a charter fishing boat in Fort Walton and there was a place called Suds and Cinema. I was watching "Rocky Horror" with my aunt at Suds and Cinema and I had my first scotch and soda. It was so horrible. I literally spit it out. That was my first grownup cocktail. I was 18 years old.

So if you walked into Cardinal right now, what would you order?

I’m a big fan of the American Gin, so I would probably do a gin-based cocktail. The vodka is good too but I really love the botanicals in the American Gin. ... It’s awesome that we can make great spirits here in Indiana. Not just great beer, but great spirits!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Be honest. Be straightforward, look them in the eye and don’t fuck them over. 

What makes Cardinal Spirits different than the other craft distilleries around?

That’s pretty easy. Cardinal Spirits figured it out. Cardinal Spirits isn’t pretentious and is very straightforward; they’re not trying to split the atom. Everything Cardinal Spirits makes is solid, they’re not trying to be something they’re not. Everybody that I’ve run into that works at Cardinal Spirits is very straightforward. They’re just cool people. You know? Cardinal Spirits is kind of like Bloomington in that sense: very approachable and laid back.

(Editor's note: Aw, thanks, Scott!)