Dry Land Distillers Announces 2023 Good Food Awards for Its Cactus Spirit

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Unique Spirit Wins One of the Most Prestigious Awards in the U.S. – Plus A Denver International Spirits Competition Gold Medal

Longmont, Colo. – April 26, 2023 – Dry Land Distillers, the Colorado small-batch craft distillery and tasting room in the heart of downtown Longmont, has won the 2023 Good Food Award for its Cactus Spirit – and also won a gold medal at the 2023 Denver International Spirits Competition in the same week.

“We’re incredibly honored to have our Cactus Spirit win the 2023 Good Food Award. It’s one of the most coveted awards in the country recognizing quality and taste in addition to sustainability and environmental stewardship,” said Dry Land Distillers Co-founder Nels Wroe. “This win recognizes Dry Land Distillers’ mission to make products with a purpose – using ingredients that are appropriate and sustainable to the American West. It’s a testament to the work it takes to create spirits that are both responsibly produced and incredibly delicious.”

The Cactus Spirit is a unique spirit distilled from prickly pear cactus that is native to lands throughout the western US. The cactus is smoked over a mesquite fire for 48 hours to merge the rich, earthy notes of the cactus with the complex bitterness of wood smoke. Fermented with champagne yeast, balanced with fresh cactus fruit and raw cane sugar, Dry Land distills with pure Colorado water from a protected native watershed. The mezcal-like spirit is bottled both as a silver spirit and barreled to produce a limited-release Cactus Reposado and Cactus Añejo spirits.

The Good Food Awards (GFAs) is an annual competition for outstanding American craft food producers and the farmers and suppliers who provide the ingredients. The GFAs celebrate foods that are “tasty, authentic, and responsibly produced,” and the companies who push their industries towards craftsmanship and sustainability while enhancing our agricultural landscape and building strong communities.

Dry Land Distillers also announced the Cactus Spirit took the Gold Medal at the Denver International Spirits Competition. The Denver International Spirits Competition is the largest spirits competition in the Rocky Mountain region and is conducted double-blind by a seasoned panel of sommeliers, retail buyers, journalists, mixologists, and beverage directors. Cactus Spirit won a gold medal in the Agave/Tequila category.

Dry Land Distillers began winning awards for its spirits shortly after it opened in 2018 with a bronze medal for the Cactus Spirit at the London International Spirits Competition. The distillery’s Pure Cane Run, Antero Wheat Whiskey and Heirloom Wheat Whiskey have each won medals at national and international spirits competitions, and in 2022 the distillery won a Snail of Approval Award from Slow Food Boulder County, the local chapter of Slow Food USA.

About Dry Land Distillers

Dry Land Distillers is a small-batch craft distillery in the heart of downtown Longmont that produces unique spirits influenced and inspired by Colorado’s landscapes. With a focus on reestablishing ancient grains and choosing ingredients with a purpose, Dry Land Distillers produces Heirloom, Antero and Emmer Wheat Whiskey, Cactus Spirit made with prickly pear cactus, Native Colorado Gin, and other spirits that represent the authentic flavors of the American West. Their distillery and tasting room are located in a newly renovated historic building located at 519 Main Street. The tasting room is open Wednesday and Thursday from 4:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m., Friday 3:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m., and Saturday 2:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Private tours, tastings, and special events can be hosted anytime with advance notice. For more information call: (720) 600-4945 or visit: www.drylanddistillers.com.  Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/drylanddistillers/ and Instagram @drylanddistillers.

About the Good Food Awards

The Good Food Foundation exists to celebrate, connect, empower, and leverage the passionate and engaged, yet often overlooked, players in the food system who are driving towards tasty, authentic and responsible food in order to humanize and reform our American food culture.

The Good Food Foundation hosts the Good Food Awards every year. The awards recognize products and companies that use responsible practices in their production while producing foods with superior taste. The Good Food Awards recognizes that truly good food – the kind that brings people together and builds strong, healthy communities – contains all of these ingredients. For more information and a list of 2023 winners, visit https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards.