When visiting Vermont without kids, we spent a fantastic late afternoon and early evening at Barr Hill in Montpelier. We took a tour of the distillery and then settled into a table indoors to enjoy Bar Hill Distillery drinks and food service. In short, it was amazing. And with 4 of us, we got to try a lot of what they had (we need to go back to try some more, though).
Above you can see a sample of some of the Bar Hill Distillery drinks they projected onto their wall, but the drink menu was much more extensive than this. And of course, it features their Barr Hill Vodka, Barr Hill Gin, Bar Hill Ginniversary, Bar Hill Tom Cat Gin, and more. They make their own honey syrup and tonic too.
I started off with the Path of Purpality, which used Barr Hill Gin infused with Vermont lavender and butterfly pea flower, cardamom, lemon, and raw local honey. You’ll notice the purple ice cube. Not sure what was in that, but it was a berry flavor and I did not let it go to waste. I brought it with me on the distillery tour and patiently waited until it was soft enough to eat.
You can see how the yellow drink turns purple after pouring it into the glass with the ice cube below.
My friend ordered the Clearly Creemee (below), made with Barr Hill Vodka infused with fenugreek seed and waffle cone, maple tea, Stannard Farm Vermont maple syrup, lemon, orange and removed Vermont milk. I tasted it and then ordered my own.
My only complaint about the drink is that I wanted more in the glass. I easily could have had a double in there, even though it was super sweet. Notice the ice cube. One side of it had bee hive hexagon shapes.
And because we were hungry and the food menu looked great, we started ordering. And kept ordering. Too bad we picked a table that was pretty small. The Vermont cheese board below included a selection of Vermont cheeses, dried and fresh fruit, spiced nuts, Barr Hill raw honey, and a baguette made locally.
I unfortunately did not take a picture of most of the other food. We loved the tuna crudo nicoise – an interesting take on a nicoise salad. It did not last long. We also all raved about the whipped feta with crispy chickpeas, harissa, dried black olives and mint – served with some flatbread.
Above was my favorite dish, the labne – a Middle Eastern cheese made from yogurt. It inclued maple roasted carrots, pecan-ginger dukkah (a seasoning) and bread. Pretty sure there were figs in there too, You’ll see the fresh herb as well.
My last Bar Hill Distillery drink was a Bees Freeze, made with Barr Hill Gin, lemon and raw local honey. I love the Bees Knees drink in general and thought the frozen version would be okay. It was fantastic. You could really taste the honey in the aftertaste – it came through strong in each sip. As a bonus, Barr Hill donates $3 from every frozen cocktail to Northeast Organic Farming Association of VT.
If you get Barr Hill Distillery drinks:
Where: Barr Hill, 116 Gin Lane, Montpelier
When: They are open daily except for Tuesday.
Tours: $20/person plus tax, 15 participants max.
Events: Check out their events, which include not just tours, but cheese and cocktail pairings, cocktail making classes, music
Buy their spirits: They sell Barr Hill (Caledonia Spirits is the company) in New Jersey, and it was one of the first states they began selling in.