The St. Louis area has another new small-batch spirits company. Kelley Barr and Ian VanDam founded Truly Floral Spirits this year and launched their first product, Truly Floral Blue gin, in January.
The mother-and-son team are no strangers to entrepreneurship. Barr also owns two Webster Groves businesses: The Frisco Barroom, a restaurant and bar, and Civil Alchemy, a lifestyle retail company. VanDam said Truly Floral Spirits grew as an offshoot of the Civil Alchemy brand.
VanDam and Barr partnered with Distillery of Defiance located in St. Charles County to contract distill the Truly Floral line. He develops the gin recipes and Distillery of Defiance produces and bottles the spirit. “We have a long-running relationship with them,” he said. “They care about their craft.”
VanDam said the company’s first gin features floral notes like juniper, honey, orange blossom, lavender, violet and jasmine. He is also currently developing a second gin, Truly Floral Pink, with pink floral extracts like rose, as well as liqueurs and possibly an aquavit.
Truly Floral Blue gin is available at Civil Alchemy and area bars, restaurants and specialty food shops.
Taylor Coutain is an editorial intern at Sauce Magazine.
This article appears in Guide to Beer 2019.