Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile Serves Punch to Support Barnstormers Theater

This summer, Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile will release the Barnstormers Punch, a bottled cocktail created to support their friends and neighbors at the Barnstormers Theater.

Can't get HAMILTON tickets? Take a road trip up to the quaint New England town of Tamworth, and catch some American theater history at the Barnstormers Theater - washed down with some Barnstormers Punch, of course. Just five hours from New York City and a bit over two hours from Boston, it's an easy weekend jaunt that feels worlds away from the city.

The Barnstormers Theater was founded in 1931 by Francis Cleveland (son of President Grover Cleveland), making it the longest running professional summer theater in the country. Its name comes from its early performance practices: the company would travel throughout the region and literally storm barns, often the only "performance space" in town. At the end of each week, they would return to Tamworth, greeted by First Lady Frances Cleveland, to put on a show for the hometown crowd.

In the early days, those performances would take place at Tamworth Garden, which at that point also operated as a boxing ring. Today, it serves as the barrelhouse for Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile. Founder Steven Grasse, whose interest in history has been the impetus for many of his products (including the Art in the Age line of craft spirits), was intrigued by this shared history, and Barnstormers Punch was born.

Inspired in part by the prohibition era in which the Barnstormers were founded, the punch is not unlike something those early Barnstormers might have mixed up at Tamworth Garden with a bit of illicit hooch. A base of raw apple cider from a local New Hampshire Orchard is fortified with unaged apple brandy, and infused with whole cherries and house-made bitters. The result is a ready-to-drink bottled cocktail, with sweeter flavors of kola, cider, and sour cherries balanced by wild cherry bark and gentian root. The finish is vivacious, with brandy aromatics and a touch of black peppercorn and almond.

Like the performances it was created to accompany, you'll have to savor Barnstormers Punch in the moment. As a handmade bottled cocktail made with fresh ingredients, it is as ephemeral as it is delicious, and should be consumed within a week or two of purchase. (Refrigerate after opening for best flavor.)

About Tamworth Distilling & Mercantile

Welcome to Tamworth Distilling. Our story is as old as America, leaving the old world behind to start afresh in the new. Planting our flag in the heart of a historic New Hampshire village, we've set up our distillery in accordance to the land around us, not against it. What we take, we give back. And what we have, we give to you.

Taking a cue from the 19th-century Transcendentalists of New England, we pull our inspiration direct from our atmosphere around us. Our recipes are born from the crops we grow and the histories buried in the soil below.

Described in Food & Wine Magazine as "the punk-rock prince of small-batch spirits", Steven Grasse is an entrepreneur equally influenced by punk rock and New England transcendentalism. Steven has created some of the most outrageous booze brands of the 21st century: Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, Art in the Age Craft Spirits - all seemingly out of thin air. Additionally, he is the part owner and creative mastermind behind Narragansett, the beer that dethroned PBR as the crushable can of choice. Tamworth Distilling is his first distillery. Hidden deep in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, he calls it his own "Willy Wonky Factory for small-batch, experimental booze."

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