New regenerative spirits certified organic by Anytime Spritz.
Maddy Rotman and Taylor Lanzet are college friends turned co-founders of a regenerative organic alcohol brand, sourcing ingredients from ROC-certified farms here in the United States.
“We met on Maddy’s first day of college in an environment class,” says Lanzet. “We bonded over our love of cooking, farming and dive bars.”
They then became roommates in New York while working for brands including Imperfect Foods, Daily Harvest, Chipotle, and Everytable.
Taylor Lanzet and Maddy Rotman, co-founders of Anytime Spritz.
It was at this time that they transformed their kitchen into a makeshift distillery, in an attempt to make Campari. It did not work. So they changed direction: putting herbs and plants in fruit juices. This led them to ask the question: how can farmers be more connected to the cocktail industry?
Last year they debuted Spritz anytime, a canned spritz company. But there was one difference from the rest of the brands on the market: They sourced their ingredients from organic farms in the Hudson Valley and disclosed the ingredients on their cans (something alcohol rarely does, says Rotman).
Today, they’re launching a ROC-certified gin and vodka, the first of its kind, she adds, made with ROC wheat. One of their main suppliers was Breathe Deep Farm in New York, which wanted to build a “regenerative grain corridor.” Since 2018, Chris Cashen, an organic vegetable grower, has spearheaded this effort: working with his neighbors, more than 735 acres are now regeneratively farmed.
In 2019, they began the transition, he says. “Through our participation in the ROC, we have been incentivized to double our cover crops and ensure the ground is covered year-round on nearly 100% of our acreage. »
This is believed to improve soil health. “Since becoming ROC, we have also more than doubled our annual plantings of small grains, adding crucial diversity to our agricultural landscape and extending our crop rotation.
Although soil health data is not yet publicly available, he notes that the farm has been collecting soil samples and tracking its changes. This year, Breathe Deep plans to participate in a long-term study of carbon flows in the Hudson Valley. We hope that all of this data will provide a clearer picture in the coming years of the impact of regenerative agriculture on the local ecology.
For Rotman and Lanzet, this is an essential part of the work they do with Anytime Spritz. “To date, only 1% of U.S. farmland is certified organic. We know there is a demand for organic products and only 1% of alcohol is certified organic. And so we say to ourselves that if organic is growing year after year, let’s kind of focus on that last part of the value chain that people really want to support, which is regenerative,” says Rotman.
“You know, we’ve been talking to people from big beverage conglomerates, and they’re having trouble keeping up with the demand for their organic beers. They cannot find sufficient supply to meet their demand for organic beer. So there is a demand in this area. And I think there just hasn’t really been a brand that has sort of resonated with what the customer wants, that’s been an authentic, values-driven brand that has mastered taste and flavor .
Their products are currently available in New York and California, with the goal of expanding this retailer base across the United States. But the world of alcohol distribution is more “complicated,” they note. It’s not as simple as selling other food products. On the one hand, they are required to sell through a distributor and this varies from region to region. However, they hope their experience working for fast-growing food companies will help them grow Anytime Spritz and meet the challenges.
Yet, are customers looking for an organic spirit and would they be willing to pay more for it? That’s the question that worries their company, Lanzet says.
“Well, when you look at alcohol, there are so few options that tell you what’s in it and use organic or regenerative organic ingredients. Perhaps the closest option is something with great millennial branding or the support of a female-run distillery. But there are very few values-based options in this category. And so for us, our experience has been building these connectors, building this complicated middle between what consumers want and what farmers are innovating, and connecting the two.
So could this be a new trend that pushes their competitors to also think about transparency and a farm-to-bottle (or can) approach that exists in wine but not as deeply in spirits? They certainly hope this will inspire others to follow suit.
“We’re not just waking up cocktails; we’re waking up an entire industry,” says Rotman.