Spirit Style: Vodka

Producer: Square One

Base Material: American Organic Rye from Montana 

Where: Rigby, Idaho

Country: USA

Critic tasting note: "The neutral aroma hints at orange peel. On the palate, this vodka is silky, with a faint anise note and a brisk, bracing finish. It's ideal for vodka martinis and other cocktails. Made fromorganic rye." - Wine Enthusiast

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About the Producer:

Square One Organic Spirits, founded by spirits and cocktail lover Allison Evanow, is a female-owned boutique organic spirits company founded with the sole mission of creating innovative organic spirits and cocktails with an eco-conscious mindset.  Back in 2004, as a spirits industry veteran, Allison knew that many spirits used artificial ingredients and additives in their products and she wondered why none of them were bringing the farm-to-bottle philosophy to the bar just like the chefs were in their restaurants.  So she set out to research why, and was surprised to find that there were almost no certified organic spirits on the market at the time, and to her knowledge, none that dedicated the whole company to making exclusively organic spirits.

Upon further reflection and in thinking about what types of spirits she enjoyed, and those that she actually didn’t enjoy, she realized that the flavored vodka category was full of brands that used mostly artificial flavors, colors, added sugar and chemical additives.  Certainly none of them were using real organic botanical ingredients! An idea was born!  

For Allison, the opportunity to pioneer a vodka with real organic ingredients had bloomed right before her eyes.  So, in a very bold move she started at Square One. 

We, here at Square One, pioneered the concept of organic spirits 15 years ago and our distinctive and USDA certified organic spirits, mixers and cocktails portfolio use only superior grains and plant botanicals to craft our award-winning portfolio.

Our spirits portfolio is made with 100 percent organic American-grown rye using only organic yeasts and natural nutrients in a process certified both by Oregon Tilth, the U.S.'s most stringent and prestigious U.S. Organic Certification Agency, and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP). The only other ingredient is pure, fresh water from the pristine watershed of the nearby Teton Mountains.  The result?  A truly unique organic vodka that is clean, yet delivers a rich, sophisticated taste experience.

Square One continues to drive innovation with the introduction in 2019 of handcrafted certified organic cocktail mixers.  Our mixers contain nothing artificial, are low in sugar and high in juice content so they taste fresh and bright.  They mix incredibly well with our spirits and won’t disappoint.

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Rye is a challenging grain for bread makers as well as vodka producers because of its dense fiber structure. Nevertheless, vodka lovers favor it for its nutty, complex flavor profile as compared to corn, wheat and other grains. Rye likes cold, dry weather best, and the northern plains of the United States is the origin of our rye.  Currently we are sourcing all of our organic rye from farmers in Montana. 

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Not too many vodka brands will brag about their packaging.  After all, it’s what is inside that counts, right?  At Square One, we took it one step further.  We wanted to make “green” decisions not only as it related to our vodka itself, but also in the packaging. Here are some examples:

• We use chlorine-free shipper cartons (that’s why they are brown, not white) using as much recycled content as possible while still protecting our bottles during shipping, and using only soy-based inks.

• We use soy-based inks wherever possible on all of our labels and marketing materials.

• After much research, we migrated away from paper stock for our main face label, to one made from tree-free materials and a foot label paper that now has recycled content in it.

• We use post-consumer waste paper stock for printing our sell sheets and marketing materials.