When it comes to the lifestyle of a ski town, Utah is a real pioneer. When High West Distillery and Saloon began distilling in Utah nearly 20 years ago, it was the first ski town distillery in America. Ritual Chocolate followed suit, moving to Utah in 2015. In this episode, Last Chair explores the magic of whiskey and chocolate, and the unique experiences these two Utah companies are offering visitors.
The main characters of this podcast: chocolate & whiskey!
Back in season one of Last Chair, we talked with High West founder David Perkins, who told the unique story of how Utah became its home. Today, High West is a must-visit stop in either its Park City or its Wanship locations, and is one of America’s most innovative distilleries. The High West brand represents the spirit of the west.
So imagine this. When Ritual Chocolate co-founder Anna Seear came to town, she started envisioning what it would be like to soak cacao nibs in used High West barrels. The distillery was also intrigued. Anna gets used High West barrels and create distinctive Ritual Bourbon Barrel bars. Then she gives the barrels back, and High West uses the chocolatey wooden kegs to create a unique Barrel Select – whiskey up front with a hint of chocolate aroma and taste in the back.
There’s a lot to learn in this entertaining episode of Last Chair, including a user’s guide to enjoying some of the world’s most notable whiskey and chocolate.
From left to right: Cayla Gaseau, Anna Seear, Holly Booth, Tom Kelly
Podcast Guests:
Holly Booth
Beverage Manager, High West
Holly Booth defines her role at High West as a creator and facilitator of memories that revolve around whiskey, cocktails, and adventure, celebrating the spirit of the American West. You can find Holly on the mountain, but she’s most at home with a fly rod on Utah’s lakes and streams.
Anna Seear
President & Co-Founder, Ritual Chocolate
Anna Seear and her partner Robbie Stout didn’t know much about chocolate, but they loved it! They started their company in Denver, moving to Utah for a lifestyle change – to be closer to the mountains. You can find Anna and her family skinning up Pine Canyon Road from their Midway home.
Cayla Gaseau
Sensory Manager, High West
What’s a sensory manager? Well, Cayla Gaseau has one of those dream jobs! Her role is to help with tasting each barrel and working with the High West team on whiskeys that might have up to 25 different blends, like Midwinter Night’s Dram. You can find her hiking places like Mt. Superior in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
What goes into a High West cocktail?
Holly Booth: “Our job is really to highlight the whiskey – to highlight the beauty of what we distill. Things that we can highlight are already existing within that particular whiskey. And then we kind of build around that.”
The main characters of this podcast episode: whiskey & chocolate.
How do you blend bourbon into chocolate?
Anna Seear: “We soak our cacao nibs in the bourbon barrels for a few months to absord all those lovely kind of oaky cherry notes,” said Seear. “Then we take the the nibs and make the chocolate, add the sugar and produce our Bourbon Barrel Bar, which has been very popular.”
Describe the process of distilling whiskey with chocolate?
Cayla Gaseau: “This is one of our Barrel Selects – a single barrel. We took the Ritual chocolate barrel and put in a unique blend of straight bourbon whiskeys between four and nine years old. The majority, though, is around seven years old. We really wanted to highlight the element that cacao complements in bourbon, which is a lot of the vanilla caramel and that deep sweetness. We finished it in this barrel for nine months and then dumped it and went directly to bottle – didn't proof down. I believe it's right around 102 or 103 proof – so a little spicy, but really delicious on the palate.”
“The synergy between our companies and what we've done in Utah, bears that pioneering spirit that's inherent within Utah.” - Holly Booth, High West
What's the origin of Rituals name?
Anna Seear: “It's a call back to the history of cacao and how it was used in the rituals and ceremonies by the Mayans and the Aztecs and how it was it was truly held in high regard and respected. Chocolate should be appreciated like any other fine food.”
A perfect Bourbon Barrel Aged Ritual Chocolate bar.
Recipe for High West Campfire Old Fashion
2 oz High West Campfire Whiskey
.25 oz Simple Syrup (Holly likes sugar in the raw or demerara sugar)
2-3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
Orange & Lemon peel garnish or orange peel & Luxardo cherry garnish
Enjoy with a Ritual S’mores bar
Suggested whiskey and chocolate pairings
Cask Series Distillery Select B#35195 - Bourbon Barrel Bar (created in the barrel)
Midwinter's Night Dram Act 12 - The Après Chocolate Bar (sparkling white wine and dried raspberries)
Transcript
Tom Kelly: Today we have one of my favorite podcast setups. We are at High West Distillery and we're going to talk whiskey and we're going to talk chocolate. Great combination. As we sit around the table we've got all these chocolate bars. We've got this whiskey I like to call it lunch. So Holly Booth, beverage manager at High West, welcome. Thanks for joining us on Last Chair.
Holly Booth: Oh, thanks so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here.
Tom Kelly: Now we've got a bunch of segments for you today. We're going to talk about Holly first -- we're going to talk about cocktails. We're going to talk about different High West, brands that we have here. And Holly just came back from representing High West at a James Beard showcase in New York City. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. And before we get into High West, let's talk about your background, Holly. And how did you find your way to Utah?
Holly Booth: Yeah. You bet. Well, I'm an Intermountain West, girl, through and through. So I grew up in Colorado. And like many people, I came to Utah with friends for skiing and snowboarding. And that was a while ago. Like, I'm going to gonna date myself here and say, over 20 years ago.
Tom Kelly: Man, so you love it.
Holly Booth: I do love it. I mean, I love the Intermountain West as a whole, but Utah's especially unique in that, you know, you can be in a mountain town and only 40 minutes from an international airport. And you have access to some of the, I think, some of the best desertscapes in the world, some fantastic fishing, some fantastic just outdoor sports in general. So, yeah, it's a special place.
Tom Kelly: So if you've been here for about 20 years and you were around town during the really the origins of High West and what David Perkins put together some years ago?
Holly Booth: Yeah, definitely. I started with High West, I think 18 months after it opened to the public here at 703 Park Avenue, which is our flagship location. And I remember coming to the soft opening that they did, and it was like one of those kind of magical sort of moments. We were downstairs in the livery and, you know, now that I've lived in Park City for a while, um, you know, I know it's not so uncommon, but at the time, I hadn't seen it. A moose walked, like, right down Park Avenue. Um, and it was just such a like. It was one of those moments where you're like, oh, I have to work here. Yeah, this is someplace I'm going to have to go.
Tom Kelly: Isn't that though? That is just the nature of the lifestyle here. And I know Park City has grown a lot, but it's still it still has that feel where it's not that unusual to see a moose or an elk walk by or an Olympic champion.
Holly Booth: Yeah, absolutely. We're so lucky. Um, I mean, you know, to your point, the elk. Right? The entire herd crosses 224 by the white barn often in the winter. And, you know, I will tell you, you can't go to a gym or a trail here in Utah and not run into some former Olympian who makes you feel less than spectacular about your sportiness.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, but they're going to be your buddy.
Holly Booth: Yeah. No. They're great.
Tom Kelly: You'll see them at the gym. And so we had David Perkins on, I think, in the very first season of, of Last Chair. It was a wonderful podcast where he told the whole story. But do you remember when you talked about how you came to that opening? Yeah. Back in in. I don't even remember what year it was. But what was it that struck you about the concept at that time?
Holly Booth: Yeah, I mean, there was so much that was really unique about it, right? Like, for instance, just this very structure that we're sitting in right now was empty for a while, right? Like, no one could really kind of make it work. The city had taken it. Um, and essentially it went out to auction, which I'm sure you talked about. And I know Dave and his group of investors weren't even necessarily the highest bid, but they had the most interesting concept, which says so much. But beyond that, you know, whiskey outside of Kentucky was really, at that time, pretty unheard of, you know, not just, you know, not just whiskey outside of Kentucky and in Utah, just whiskey outside of Kentucky in general was pretty unique. And so, you know, it just kind of it just sort of struck you that this is going to be something really special. And I think preservation, you know, we were at that period of time where I think, you know, Park City has always done such a great job preserving its buildings. But I think, you know, their ethos of preserving these two buildings and the history and just really working to weave our narrative into the narrative of the town. You know, it just it just had a special kind of feeling to it from the jump, you.
Tom Kelly: Going back in time, we also had Greg Schirf from Wasatch Brewing on. Greg was, really one of the early brewpubs or breweries in a ski town. And then eventually David Perkins with High West was the first distillery in a ski town.
Holly Booth: Both pioneers. Right. I mean, and, you know, a lot of credit goes to Greg Schirf for opening those doors for us even. Um, and I like to believe that, you know, we've helped open the doors to other distilleries that have opened over time over this last essentially 15-year period. I mean, I think it's really ... we all stand on the shoulders of the people who come before us and are brave enough to kind of chart territory. Um, and, you know, I think it seems so common now, but I think it's really important to think about kind of the landscape that was here around booze before the Olympics. Right? I know you're a big part of the Olympics, and getting them here initially and getting them back. Um, congratulations. That's exciting. Yeah, that was exciting. Yeah. Um, but, you know, I mean, I think any sort of alcohol in Utah, people were. I think it boggles the mind at that point. When you think about how hard it was to do alcohol in Utah. We've come a long ways. We really have in a relatively short period, you know, 20-something years, really, when you think about Greg.
Tom Kelly: So I think I speak for all of the skiers and snowboarders who come to Utah to visit the state and to ski and to ride in our beautiful mountains that we love to go to the bar during the day and have a nice cocktail, maybe have a beer. You you've kind of dove into the science of it, though. How did you first get into spirits? Yeah.
Holly Booth: You know, it's a funny story and it's a pretty circuitous path for me. I actually worked in finance. I worked for J.P. Morgan. We had a small kind of family office here. And then, the recession hit and like a lot of banks, they sort of consolidated and went to kind of a hub and spoke model. And the hub was going to be Phoenix. Phoenix is lovely. Arizona is fantastic. But there was just no way I could leave the mountains and the Intermountain West. So it was kind of like, well, I'm going to pivot to something different, and maybe I'll just kind of work a bar job for a while and see how that feels. Hospitality is obviously so huge in ski towns. And it was, you know, very you know, it was a very easy sort of transition. Um, and then, you know, I got more and more into understanding cocktails and the history of cocktails and kind of just going beyond that kind of standard, you know, dump and pour simple mentality, which is also great. Like, don't get me wrong, I love those cocktails too. Um, but, you know, it was also just kind of dovetailing with this period of time, just within the industry in general, where there were a lot of really interesting craft bars that were opening in New York or that had opened in New York, and it was spreading to Chicago and Los Angeles. Um, so, yeah, it kind of just all came together like that. It was, you know, I definitely feel like I rode a really awesome wave and kind of got to, you know, work on it here in Utah, which, you know, seemed kind of strange at the time, again, because it's alcohol.
Tom Kelly: Well, let's talk a little bit more about the science and not looking to get into the science of distilling, but more the science of what you mix High West with to make a good cocktail. I mean, what do you look for and what combinations are you seeking?
Holly Booth: Our job, I say this all the time behind the bar, is really to highlight the whiskey. Cayla, who you're going to talk to here in a little bit, and the blending team do such a lovely job. Isaac and the production team do a beautiful job. So our job is really just to make sure that we don't, um, we don't muck it up. Uh, So, um, part of it's to highlight the beauty of what they distill. And I think you're looking for characteristics. I know you're going to go through a tasting here in a little bit. Um, and you'll kind of hear Cayla walk you through that. But, you know, we're looking for tasting notes, and things that we can highlight that are already existing within that particular whiskey. And then we kind of build around that. In addition to that, you know, we have a responsibility to the guests who come through our doors. Um, and we want to make sure that things are interesting and that we have something for everybody, but not necessarily everything for everyone. So we have everything from a really accessible, light and refreshing cocktail to maybe something a little more complicated and sporty. Um, that's for kind of the whiskey geek. And, you know, that's really the objective in terms of things that will mix with whiskey. You know, obviously citrus is a big one for kind of the light and refreshing category bubbles. Um, but we make a lot of bespoke ingredients, um, you know, bespoke syrups, um, infusions, things like that, tinctures that are just really intended to elevate any given cocktail and make sure it complements both the whiskey and kind of meets our guests where they're at.
Tom Kelly: Let's talk about the old-fashioned. I think in New York last week, you were serving a High West old-fashioned? Yeah, a pretty traditional drink. Yeah. How do you make it, though, at High West? Yeah.
Holly Booth: You know, it's interesting. Um, when we're on the road, we tend to make it with just double rye. But when we make it here in Utah because of Utah laws, we make it a little bit different. We actually use an ounce and a half of double rye and an ounce of our High West bourbon. Um, and that's because the laws essentially dictate that you have to use an ounce and a half of a primary spirit and up to an ounce of a modifier. However, the law doesn't necessarily indicate what the modifier has to be. So we're we're essentially using two different expressions of American whiskey. Both beautiful. Both done here. And that really makes a lovely cocktail.
Tom Kelly: I'm probably going out on a limb here, but does the nature of that law kind of push you into making something that's maybe a little bit more creative.
Holly Booth: Yeah, absolutely. You know, necessity is the mother of invention, right? Exactly. And I think it's pushed a lot of craft bars here in Utah to do things that are different. One to get to, you know, really interesting cocktails. Um, you know, we'll do split bases. It's essentially called a split base. And so we'll split base whiskey with tequila. We'll do it with gin. We'll do it with a lot of different things. Rum is actually one of our favorite split bases. Um, and so it really, it really has pushed us to do that. Um, we're also kind of entering this period of time where, um, low alcohol sort of beverages are kind of becoming very popular and people are kind of going more down the sober, curious road. So, I mean, we even like to use our whiskey in some of those low ABV things, and we make it not necessarily the star, but it kind of just supports the drink and brings some really lovely elements to it that support the structure of something that's just a little lighter for the people who don't want to go so heavy.
Tom Kelly: So, are you hearing that from customers that they'd really like something a little bit lighter?
Holly Booth: Yeah. You know, we're really in an interesting time, I think, post-Covid. Right. Where there was this huge surge in alcohol consumption. You know, we're now kind of at this time where I think we're finding, like Gen Z and millennials drink a little bit less. We're also just finding that in general, like people are, you know, either kind of taking like respites from drinking, you know, 30 days or whatever, or they're sober, curious or, you know, and this is, I think, where bars like us and really fit nicely, people who really just want to go out and have just a couple really nice drinks they want to savor, they don't necessarily want to go out and consume a lot. And I think what we do here really speaks exactly to that kind of person. So I feel like we're well positioned for that sort of change within the drinking industry. But yeah, we were definitely hearing a lot of that.
Tom Kelly: We're going to do a tasting in the next segment where we compare some chocolate with some of your whiskeys, but why don't you just highlight a few of your favorite High West brands?
Holly Booth: Yeah, I mean, you know, our two most regular that I think most consumers pick up are Double Rye and our Bourbon, and I think those are fantastic, either neat or on the rocks. But also for cocktails if you're just making cocktails at home. I think those are beautiful expressions. And you can make a great Manhattan, a great Old Fashioned, a great whiskey sour with either one of those two. I think as we go up in price, I think, you know, people start to consider whether or not they're going to use us as a cocktail base or just enjoy them neater on the rocks. Uh, I think Campfire is beautiful. Um, I love campfire. You do love campfire. It's a blend of bourbon, rye and scotch. And I think Campfire has gotten even more beautiful over time. We're using more of our own make within that blend. And it's given this. It's given this really, like, lovely stone fruit sort of middle to it and just this more round texture that I've really come to enjoy. It's really beautiful. You'll have to ask Caleb about it when you talk to her. Um, but Bourye, for me, is one of my favorites. It's a blend of mature Bourbons and rise. And, um, it's got the jackalope on it, right? It's very sporty. But it's still one of my favorites. But I would be remiss if I didn't say, you know, Midwinter Night's Dram, which we actually release our 12th iteration of this weekend. We're really excited. I think it's really beautiful. Um, you know, every year we think, you know, how could it get more beautiful? And I think our blending team and our production team do such a beautiful job of making it just a little bit different every year, but still working with essentially the same sort of components. It's it's really fantastic. I'm excited for everybody to have that.
Tom Kelly: Which is the one that you can only get in Utah.
Holly Booth: Yeah. I mean, currently, I believe Bourye is only available in Utah. High Country Single Malt is only available in Utah. We have a Casa Noble collaboration coming out, that I believe is only available in Utah. Is that right? I think so. I'm just checking in with Cayla over here. And then we do some barrel selects, which are just essentially like we send out an email, we have a very limited amount, and people line up to get it. And when it's gone, it's gone. So it's essentially one barrel's worth. And those range anywhere in the past they have ranged from, you know, Double Rye finished in Oloroso or Bourbon, finished in Sherry or Rum finishes or anything like that. So yeah, they're really fantastic.
Tom Kelly: It's pretty amazing. Let's talk a little bit about the event you were at last week in New York City.
Holly Booth: We were.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, we were both there. I hosted the media event and it was it was really interesting. We had we had five chefs, two spirit specialists, including yourself from High West. When you go into an event like that, you're being showcased under the James Beard brand, which is certainly right at the top. I know you've been involved in nominations for James Beard Awards in the past, but. But how do you approach an event like that where you're kind of on stage and showcasing your product?
Holly Booth: Yeah, I think there are a couple of ways we approach it. One is to make sure that, you know, we're whiskey first, no matter what, whether we go as culinary or bar, but we are whiskey first, always. Um, and so we brought out a couple really fun things for people to taste. We brought out our Prisoner's Share. And then we also brought out this coming iteration of Midwinter's Night Dram. So it's kind of like a little something special just to let people know, like, these are coming. They're beautiful, but they're also unique. Um, and you have to kind of seek them out. And then from there, you know, on the cocktail side, I really like to feature things that are interesting and people don't necessarily think of for whiskey. So we featured a spritz, which I think a lot of people really kind of think lighter spirits or not even like heavy spirits, right? They just kind of think, you know, an aperitif sort of liqueur. It's a great way to show that bourbon can be used, or even rye can be used in a variety of different ways. Um, and then we also did an espresso martini. Right. Another kind of cocktail of the moment that's seeing a resurgence that I think a lot of people don't necessarily think of with whiskey either. Um, and I, you know, I will I will put this out there. I think it's a more beautiful cocktail with whiskey, because there's so many interesting flavors that you can bring to bear, including vanilla and caramel, which, you know, with coffee, I think those are just sort of given compliments. Um, so, yeah, I think that's generally how I try to think of it, just different ways of getting people to engage with whiskey on the cocktail front.
Tom Kelly: What did you have for whiskey in the spritz Bourbon?
Holly Booth: High West Bourbon.
Tom Kelly: Those were that was the one that I tried. And it was really it was just light and refreshing. I expected something completely different.
Holly Booth: Right. And I and I think that's really common. Like, I think when people think of whiskey cocktails, they think heavy and like Old Fashioneds and Manhattans, which are great. It's hard not to love a great Manhattan or Old Fashioned, but you know, you can go so many directions with whiskey, and you can really make it whatever you want it to be and put it kind of highlight it any way you'd like it to be highlighted. And so that's why we kind of like to show a case of spritz or something light and refreshing like that.
Tom Kelly: We're going to get to our tasting with Ritual Chocolate and High West here in just a minute. But I want to talk about the outdoors and this amazing setting that you're in. I mean, right now we're sitting in the in the High West location in downtown historic Park City. The leaves are turning up above us. The town lift is getting ready to run in a few months. Yeah, winter really is a special time.
Holly Booth: Here it is. A winter is special. I mean, fall, I mean, this fall has been really lovely. I don't know if anybody's been on Guardsman Pass lately, but the colors are pretty much at peak. So if you haven't, get out there. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think the beautiful thing about living in a, in a town that's seasonal, both in terms of its recreation and in terms of actual seasons is just when you're ready to to move on, everything starts to change, right? We start to get a little bit cooler air. The nights are nice and crisp. It's fun to put on a sweater now and go outside. It's, you know, it's a really lovely time. That kind of gets you ready for winter season and for locals. As you know, this is just a really lovely time to be a local, right? It's a quieter time of time, period of time within the town, and we kind of just get to do the things that we love to do.
Tom Kelly: You know, there's so many things to do. And I know that a lot of us mountain bike, we ski, we snowboard. You love to fly fish. So tell us about the streams out here. Yes.
Holly Booth: I mean, like a lot of people, I came here for skiing and snowboarding. I have a knee that doesn't love it anymore. So, um, I do still love to get out in the winter. And I love to mountain bike, but fly fishing has kind of become my thing over the past few years that I've really come to enjoy. Um, and maybe because I'm still working at it and I'm so bad at it, but, um, it's a work in progress. But I have found there's just something so lovely about being on the stream. Um, and, you know, out with my dog. It's an activity I can take my dog with me to. And it also just has pushed me to explore different places, you know, different lakes in the Uintas, different hikes, different bodies of water that I wouldn't necessarily have explored, even, you know, in Wyoming and Idaho. So, yeah, it's really been kind of a, a different way to explore these landscapes. It's been lovely.
Tom Kelly: So, I don't want you to give away any of your secret holes. And I know that people probably know about the Weber and they know about the Provo, but when you when you go up into the Uintas, and I think a lot of visitors don't realize what we have as a resource up in the Uintas. What are some of the lakes you like to get to?
Holly Booth: Yeah, I mean, honestly, Notch Lake is really easy to get to. It's literally right there once you do the Bald Mountain parking, I think it's like a mile hike in and that's super accessible. I also just love to explore lakes that don't necessarily get much traffic. I don't even know if there are fish in them sometimes, but it's fun to find out. I think Fehr Lake is also a great one for, that's also just a mile hike in. And I think that's really the thing that people don't realize, right? Like there are hikes to lakes that are just a mile in, like they're just like right off the off the road, but still back enough to feel like you're in it. You know, Crystal Lake, that's a bit of a haul, obviously. Like you park in Christmas Meadows and you have to go up. Um, and I'm dying to do Red Castle. I haven't done that one yet, but I'm excited to do that one.
Tom Kelly: I took the grandkids up on a hike a few months ago, and, I think we, I mean, it wasn't a long hike. I mean, we, we hiked maybe a mile and a half, two miles in, but I think we went by seven or eight different lakes. And it was just amazing how many lakes there are up there.
Holly Booth: I know, right. And you don't really know until you kind of get out there and just do a couple of those hikes, like the Lily Lake Loop. Yeah, I mean, you're probably accessing four or five just on that, just in that loop. And I think that's only a five-mile loop at best. So yeah. And then there's obviously Wall Lake, Crystal Lake, you know all those.
Tom Kelly: Yeah. Those are fun. We like to go up. Uh, what is it? Oh. Teapot lake. Teapot Lake is only like, 45 minutes up there. It is immediately right on the Mirror Lake Highway. So we love to go up there, take a picnic. I'll go out in the kayak. Carol will take a walk around the lake. It's just great. Great resource. Nice. It's a little more difficult in the winter, by the way, folks, so get this one in the summer or fall.
Holly Booth: Yeah, and do it soon because, you know they're going to start closing the gates and kind of limiting access soon, I would assume.
Tom Kelly: So. Holly, thank you so much for this information. We're going to take a short show break, and then we're going to come back and taste some chocolate, taste some High West. And then Holly, we'll have you back for the close. Awesome.
Holly Booth: Thank you so much TK. This has been fun.
Tom Kelly: Great. We'll be right back on Last Chair.
Tom Kelly: Welcome back to Last Chair. We are at the High West Distillery today. And you know, ski towns are about lifestyle. Nothing says lifestyle more than the combination of whiskey and chocolate. And we've got two of the best here today. My pleasure to welcome from High West Distillery, Cayla Gaseau, and also the co-founder and president of Ritual Chocolate, Anna Seear. And ladies, welcome. Thanks for joining us on Last Chair.
Cayla Gaseau Thank you for having us. Yeah. Happy to be here.
Tom Kelly: You know, it's really cool to be in a town, live in a town like this and have brands that we can talk about like this is our. It's our High West here in Park City. It's our Ritual Chocolate here in Park City. I know you're located down in Heber now, but we're going to claim it here in Park City. So really appreciate having you here today. Cayla, I want to go to you first. You're the sensory manager for High West. What is a sensory manager?
Cayla Gaseau It's a job that I didn't think existed when I was in college or growing up, but it's really a dream job for me. So whiskey is living. Once we put it in barrel, it changes with the season. You can have the same mash bill, same distillate, put in two different barrels and they will turn out completely different. So, while that's wonderful from a consumer side, we get to taste all of that complexity and age in the blend itself. It makes it really difficult from a production side because we have to manage that variation. So we believe in making the best quality whiskey that we can, so much so that it's a full-time job. So we taste everything that we make. We'll take the new make spirit off the still will taste the barreling batches before it goes into the barrel. As those barrels age, we taste them periodically to see where they are in their barreling journey. And then, once it's harvested, that's where my job really begins, where we sit down, take all of our components and start making the perfect blend. So sometimes that can be quick, but often it takes at least 25 blends. This year's Midwinter blend, putting it together, was about 25 blends after we got the barrels harvested to put together that final blend.
Tom Kelly: When you when you say that some of this changes with the seasons, what are some of the factors that go into initiating that change?
Cayla Gaseau Absolutely. It's really one of the things that I think is coolest about Utah, Kentucky, where most of this whiskey, were whiskeys classically from it has a different climate. It's a lot more humid. It sees less annual variation in the summer and the winter. But out here in Utah, we see very cold winters, very hot summers, but generally a very dry climate. So what that means from the barrel chemistry side is that we get different extractions from the new oak wood that the whiskey is barreled in. So here in Utah we see a lot more. We see proof increase over time. So we get a little bit more tannins, some deeper barrel maturation char flavors than you get in the whiskey that is produced in Indiana, where they lose proof over time and get more of those flavors that are soluble in water.
Tom Kelly: Man, that is pretty amazing. I had no idea it got that complex. And let's go to chocolate. Maybe it'll be a little simpler. I'm guessing it is. It isn't. So your story is great. Why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about how Ritual Chocolate was started, and then how it made its way here to Utah?
Anna Seear: Yeah. So we started Ritual Chocolate in 2010 and actually in Colorado. And at the time, there really wasn't a lot of high-quality chocolate available. And for me and my business partner, Robbie Stout, we were getting into fine food, you know, cheese, good wine, beer. And we just felt that with chocolate there just there was something lacking. And so for us, we just started researching into it, like how is chocolate made? Where does it come from? And for me, I knew nothing about chocolate. I didn't know anything about this amazing process. It's very intricate. I mean, in a lot of ways, it's very much like distilling or winemaking, but you don't really think about chocolate in that way. And so we were delving into that and also the sourcing. There just wasn't much transparency with the larger chocolate companies out there with what beans they were sourcing. So it was a bit of a rabbit hole. We went down, and then we visited a cacao farm in Costa Rica. And, you know, it was just there was a point of no return for us because we're like, wow, this comes from a fruit. You can get these amazing varieties with these full flavor profiles. And we just really wanted to share that with people. And so for us really, I mean, we just were making chocolate out of our tiny studio apartment, and it was just a bit of a. Quest to be like, what does it take to make good quality chocolate? Um, you know. Can we do it? Can we source the beans? And so it started so small, but it just kind of grew from there.
Tom Kelly: So you and Robbie didn't have any experience in chocolate?
Anna Seear: Oh, no. Neither of us had a culinary background. We just loved it. But I think the interesting thing, when you look at a lot of crafts, a lot of people that start like a distillery or they don't have that background because, you know, chocolate making is very much its own thing. It's different than being a chocolatier where you work with bonbons and things. It's very much a science and, and a skill that you develop. So it's very yeah, it's very different than, I think working with, with flavors like a chef.
Tom Kelly: So how did you come up with the name Ritual?
Anna Seear: Oh, gosh. I think it was like the second name that we came up with. And then we went through about a thousand different names and landed on it. But it really it's a call back to the history of cacao and how it was used in the rituals and ceremonies by, you know, the Mayans and the Aztecs and how it was it was truly, you know, held in in high regard and respected and how that's been lost through the years. Because I think the thing for us is once we started learning about chocolate, we're like, it should be appreciated like a fine food. So much goes into how it's made, how it's grown and harvested and that's really been lost along the way. It's become a commodity product and almost used as a vehicle for other flavors to be added. So, for us, it was just sort of a harkening back to when it was truly respected. And it's our hope to bring that back.
Tom Kelly: And what was it that convinced you to make that move west to Utah.
Anna Seear: Yeah. So we were in Denver for four years renting a factory. And, you know, it was a very fast-growing city at the time. But for us, we we were so we loved the outdoors and we were working so much and we didn't. I think we really started ritual to not compromise on our life and our lifestyle. Um, we wanted to be inspired every day. And, you know, it's hard work building a business. And we felt that, you know, we loved Denver. but you can see the mountains. You can't get into them. And we really we'd come out and visit Park City because. Because Robbie, he grew up here and and we loved it. Just the access to the trails and things. And so, you know, we like to say it was a business move; I think I think it has worked out very well business-wise. But really, it was a quality-of-life move. We wanted to be here so we could go up on the trail after work and, you know, take an afternoon off and go skiing. We just we loved that.
Tom Kelly: So, you know, I think your story, though is very similar to a lot of brands where the place, the lifestyle really helps you to gravitate there. Um, I want to learn more about each of your outdoor background. I'll go with you, Cayla. what is it that really attracts you to this area in the outdoors?
Cayla Gaseau Yeah, I love Utah. I think I'm not from here originally. I grew up in Tucson, Arizona, so pretty polar opposite. But the amount of water we have here, you know, it creates our great snow. We also have the reservoirs. There's just so much greenery. My background, um, kind of prior High West was in forest biology. And so, moving here, especially compared to Arizona, I just loved the life and the vibrancy that was around. So any way I can get out in that, I love doing, I love hiking, I've got two rescue pups that love hiking with me, so we'll go up the canyons in the winter. I'll take them out cross country skiing. I do some downhill skiing, but I'm. I learned late in life, so I'm not gifted at it. But I really enjoy that. And the after. After, um, really just hanging out with friends in this beautiful country that we have.
Tom Kelly: And what's a nice outdoor day for you here in Utah?
Anna Seear: Oh, gosh. Well, so I have, uh, three small children at the moment and busy with the business. So for me, time is, you know, I don't have a lot of time, but I really love the summers and the winters equally. I love to hop up on the trails behind our house. I live in Interlaken in Midway and do a mountain bike ride or hike in the mornings. But, for us, in the winter, we have to get a bit more creative because we don't really have as much time to get on the resort. So, um, we will actually, um, take our kids and our dogs and we will skin up Pine Canyon or Snake Snake Creek and just skin up for an hour and then take the kids down in the trailer on the way. The way down slowly. So. But you can fit in a good hour and get outside, and it's, oh, it's lovely.
Tom Kelly: Do the kids skin up with you?
Anna Seear: Well, we put them on our backs or on the trailer. Yeah, but hopefully, I think this year, we can get our three-year-old on some skis.
Tom Kelly: If any of our listeners don't know where this is, it's down in Midway. And both the Pine Canyon Road, which is the road that drops down from Guardsman and Empire Pass down into Midway, and also Snake Creek, which actually eventually winds its way up to the backside of Brighton. So they're they're just amazing routes and amazing backcountry routes. Okay. We need to get onto our tasting here. But before I do, how did how did the two your two brands start this connection between chocolate and whiskey?
Anna Seear: Oh gosh. Well, you know, we moved to Park City and, of course, just fell in love with High West. And so it was always a dream for us to collaborate in some way. And, you know, the interesting thing is, that oftentimes when people think of chocolate pairing, they think about wine and chocolate, and that can be wonderful. But I really feel like whiskey and chocolate just pairs so incredibly well. And so I think over time and maybe a little bit of badgering, we, we really started by we had this idea to barrel age the chocolate and bring some of those flavor notes into the chocolate. So we finally got a barrel or two from High West, and this is probably back in, I don't know, 2018 possibly. and we soaked our cacao nibs in the bourbon barrels, for a few months and got in all those lovely kind of oaky cherry notes. And then we take the the nibs and make the chocolate, add the sugar And yeah, we produced our Bourbon Barrel Bar, which is just been been very popular.
Tom Kelly: Cayla, were you involved back then or do you know any of the origin of how High West approached this initially? Yes.
Cayla Gaseau Well, I was not involved, but my manager, Tara Linley, was. She is a big chocolate fan, as I think we all are. Loved Ritual.
Tom Kelly: Yeah. Who isn't? Right?
Cayla Gaseau So I think she just really saw the closing of the loop. You know, we give the barrels to get them barrel-aged. Why don't we take them back and put whiskey in there to finish? So that was a really fun project for us. We did have a few interesting trials at first. You know, cacao nibs are dry inherently, so the barrels would dry out a little, and it made a very leaky barrel when we went to refill it. So, there was definitely a learning process with the Ritual team. But now we've got it down pat and I think make a great product.
Tom Kelly: So let me get this right. So the first part of this process is, Anna, Ritual is taking a whiskey barrel from High West, and you're putting your chocolate in. And then are you giving the barrels back to High West and you do whiskey in them again?
Anna Seear: Yes.
Cayla Gaseau Yes.
Tom Kelly: Is anybody else doing that?
Cayla Gaseau Not to my knowledge.
Anna Seear: Yeah. I don't I don't think so. It could be. It could be the first of its kind. Yes.
Tom Kelly: It's just such an amazing concept to have this kind of exchange of barrels.
Tom Kelly: I know, it's great.
Anna Seear: It could just. The exchange could go on forever. Yes.
Tom Kelly: That's fine. So, Cayla, why don't you lead us in a little tasting? Sure.
Cayla Gaseau So, this first barrel is one of our Barrel Selects. So. A single barrel. We took the Ritual chocolate barrel and put in a unique blend that is a blend of straight bourbon whiskeys between four and nine years old. The majority, though, is around seven years old. And we just really wanted to highlight the element that cacao complements in bourbon, which is a lot of the vanilla caramel and that deep sweetness. So, we finished it in this barrel for nine months and then dumped it and went directly to bottle. Didn't proof down. So I believe it's right around 102 103 proof. So a little spicy, but really delicious on the palate I find great.
Tom Kelly: And which one is that? On the on the left. Yes that's left.
Tom Kelly: Okay, great.
Cayla Gaseau And then, in our sensory program we'll typically take our tulip glasses and tilt them around. Um, that exposes more of the surface area and the volatile aromatics of the whiskey. So that way when you go to nose it, you get a lot more of the aroma than just simply taking the whiskey and nosing, sticking your nose in. And it is higher proof than wine. So I would say start sniffing further back and then bring the glass to you.
Tom Kelly: Okay, I know, I know what's in here, but this really does exude the chocolate.
Cayla Gaseau Yeah. Isn't it remarkable?
Tom Kelly: This is really amazing, listeners. You're just going to have to come down to High West and do this for yourself. But this is really remarkable.
Cayla Gaseau Yeah, I just love ... For me, I get a lot of that cherries and dark chocolate. It just a lot of that dark, rich red fruit, for me, comes out on this, but also some bitterness, a little bit of dark roast coffee beans. Just really complements.
Anna Seear: Absolutely. And I think, like you said, the whiskey, there's almost like a spiciness to it. And it just balances really well with those cacao notes that there's like that sort of light bitterness, which is but then a sort of smooth, chocolatey finish. So.
Cayla Gaseau Absolutely.
Tom Kelly: Anna, as you are now a chocolate expert, you've been in it for more than a decade. But when you first envisioned this, did you have a thought of what the outcome would be? I mean, as we taste this today, was this in your mind or did you have any idea where the road was going to lead you?
Anna Seear: No, I mean, I think actually when we did come out with the Bourbon Barrel Bar, I thought, gosh, it would be great one day to see what we could do with these barrels, because here we have these barrels that have all these amazing flavors. So but really, it didn't happen until earlier this year or end of last year that we gave we gave the barrel back. And again, we really didn't know if it would work or if the flavors would come back through, but it's really produced something unique, I think. And what I love about these flavors, I mean, going back to cocktails is that it makes a great old fashioned. They just there's there's a warmth and chocolatiness to it, which you can really apply to a lot of different cocktails.
Tom Kelly: It's really quite amazing. I almost hate to leave this one, but let's go on to the next.
Tom Kelly: Sure. Yeah.
Cayla Gaseau So this next one is our latest release of A Midwinter Night's Dram, which is our Rendezvous rye, an older rye mixed with our own High West Rye that is finished in ruby and tawny port barrels. So this year we really tried to highlight the variation that you can sometimes get from these different port barrels. I feel a lot of the tawny elements come through for me. So more of that deeper fig dark cherry notes. But we love to pair it with the apple chocolate, which I'll let Anna speak to.
Anna Seear: That's lovely. I'm just finishing my sip of the dram there. Um, yeah. So? So our upper bar, um, we actually soak our cacao nibs in sparkling white wine and so and add it into our. And then make the chocolate, which is a 70% blend. And then we add dried raspberries. And so what's so great about this pairing is you get the brightness of the dried raspberries. That really packs sort of a bright punch, and I think just balances beautifully with the sweetness of the port that comes through. So that's really nice. And um, the other thing I love about sharing about this bar is that this is part of our mountain line, and our mountain line came about with really just creating bars that are inspired by the Utah mountains around us. So our prey, of course, is to enjoy after a day in the mountains.
Tom Kelly: Love it. So how did you come to the idea of soaking the nibs in sparkling wine?
Anna Seear: Well, I think, you know, we started with, you know, even early on with ritual, we we were playing around with soaking nibs with, with wine and with all sorts. We tried absinthe and I think we were just the thing with chocolate is there's so many correlations with distilling. And I think oftentimes people that have a love for fine chocolate, you just you have a love for for other craft food and beverages. So I think it was just it was always there that we we were trying to find a way to include it somehow. Um, and so, you know, we did the, the barrel-aged, the bourbon barrel aged bar, and then we were instantly thinking of what else could we we play around with? Um, and so, uh, sparkling wine came to mind. And we loved having a bar that we felt had this celebratory theme. So we gave it a try. And it has some great, great notes in there.
Tom Kelly: So that's phenomenal.
Cayla Gaseau I love the raspberries coming through.
Tom Kelly: So these ideas ... I mean I'm sure this is in any business like this, you're just going to get these ideas just from having contact with different things. I'm sure you've done some crazy things that maybe didn't work as well, but it must be a great feeling. When you do a pairing, you come up with something interesting and innovative, and it really works.
Anna Seear: Oh, absolutely. And you know, oftentimes what you have in your head, it doesn't always doesn't always turn out or something that you love. And then you test it. And people aren't really that into it. And I feel like our Opry bar's one of our best sellers, and it's something that just really resonates with people. I think it's got a fun theme and it's got some beautiful, bright notes.
Tom Kelly: So Cayla, from a High West perspective, do you I mean, are you actively integrating ritual? Can you get a ritual here at the at the restaurant?
Cayla Gaseau Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And in Wanship we do a pairing that's with our whiskeys and Ritual chocolate. So if you want to experience what we're tasting now, I'd recommend you go to the refectory and taste that in Wanship.
Tom Kelly: Why don't you tell us a little bit more about what you have in Wanship? Because I think for most of our listeners, particularly visitors, they're probably not familiar with it. And it's quite an amazing place you have there. Yes.
Cayla Gaseau Yeah. Wanship was the first place I saw I moved to High West or excuse me, to Utah in about 2015, and it wasn't until 2018 that I finally went to High West, the Wanship location, and it was a foggy day. We came up over the hill and the clouds parted and the sun was shining on this distillery, and for me it was a magical moment. I knew I had to work there, similar to Holly. I just felt there was something special about this place. But it's a beautiful distillery. We are still distilling there right now. We're making our High West rye, so that's 80% rye rye, 20% malted rye. But there's an incredible distillery that we have tours for different levels of tours depending on how much time and what you're interested in. And then an incredible restaurant, too. That's where our chef, Mike Showers, is based and produces an amazing menu, especially the brunch on Sunday.
Tom Kelly: Do you also distill here in the downtown Park City location?
Cayla Gaseau We do. We are currently doing smaller production, so some of our peated malt and our gin. We recently released a gin that is Utah only and that is distilled here in Park City and Wanship.
Tom Kelly: If you don't know where that is, it's just down the road on Interstate 80, not too far from Park City, and certainly worth a trip up there. Okay, we have one more to taste.
Cayla Gaseau Great. So this is one of our most polarizing blends, but definitely one of my personal favorites. It's a blend of bourbon, rye and peated scotch, which we sourced directly from Scotland. So lots of smokiness that comes through a lot of the sweet American bourbon character that balances it out. One of the tasting notes we often mention is a smoked chocolate, so it seemed like a very natural pairing for to pair this with the s'mores bar.
Anna Seear: Yeah, I have to say, I'm a peaty Scotch person, so I love the Campfire and it was so fun to pair it with our S'mores bar, because it's sort of a similar, similar theme, right? And so, so with our s'mores bar, we have a our blended chocolate base which has various origins Uganda, Belize, Madagascar and our Peru. So some kind of bright notes, um, balance rich, chocolatey notes, and then we've topped it off with a sprinkling of graham cracker. And then we caramelize sugar that we also place on top. So it's just got some of those lovely sort of burnt sugar notes, but texturally it's, it's really nice, sort of melts in your mouth.
Tom Kelly: I'm kind of curious, when you opened your own factory down in Heber, did that give you a little bit more flexibility in some of the things you could innovate like this?
Anna Seear: Well, when we moved to Heber, we moved to larger facilities. So we had a little bit more room. Um, and we actually already had our s'mores bar, but yeah, I think we've, we've, uh, just been putting a lot of time into coming out with limited releases and experimenting with different flavors. I think it's really important for us that we are experimenting all the time. We actually have a monthly subscription box that we put a new micro-lot in every month for people to try. But a lot of it is just for us to experiment with flavors and see what people think. Because I think with chocolate, what I love so much about it is that it's really endless what you can do. And I think it's really it's really fun to play around with flavors and also just see what, what people love.
Tom Kelly: How far out do you distribute now? Are you around the US? Around the world?
Anna Seear: US, really? I mean, coast to coast and we do ship a lot to Canada. I mean dotted dotted around a few places. We just did a large shipment to the UK. Um, and we've, you know, we shipped to Singapore and a few, a few places, but we really focus on the US.
Tom Kelly: So High West is all over the world. You could probably figure something out.
Tom Kelly: Absolutely. Two for one.
Tom Kelly: I have to say, it's still never ceases to amaze me to be over in Europe at a ski resort. And I and I do this now. I always look at the back bar and see if there's High West, and pretty often there is High West. Isn't that.
Cayla Gaseau Amazing? I know, it surprises me too.
Tom Kelly: So I have to tell you, and tastings are always interesting because you always think, okay, who's who's come up with this? And is this really. These are amazing. The combination. So. So this is campfire. Correct. Okay. So campfire is my favorite. The combination of the campfire with the s'mores chocolate is is just ideal.
Tom Kelly: Isn't it phenomenal?
Tom Kelly: It really is. I mean, this really does work. And again, listeners, you have to take my word for it or go out and buy a bar ritual or more and buy some High West. This is really amazing stuff.
Cayla Gaseau Yeah. And there is some chemistry that goes behind that too. Whiskey. As it ages, it extracts some of the tannins from barrels. Which chocolate also naturally has. And when it hits the tongue, it can react with the proteins in your saliva and just really pull the create an astringent drying feeling. So having the milk fat in the chocolate to complement that, it really just allows you to taste the best in both both elements.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, it's.
Tom Kelly: It's pretty amazing. Cayla. Anna, thank you so much. We're going to keep you here for a minute for our final closing Fresh Track segment. But thank you for the tour. Yeah.
Anna Seear: Thank you for having us. Thank you so much Tom.
Tom Kelly: We'll be right back on Last Chair.
Tom Kelly: Welcome back to Last Chair. Our final segment. Today we have an amazing opportunity here. Today we've been tasting Ritual chocolate and sampling some High West whiskies. Quite an amazing experience. We have our guests here for one final section. I've got some just off the cuff questions to ask each of you, just to talk a little bit more about your products and also about the Utah experience. And first thing I want to do is your favorite Utah outdoor experience. We've talked a little bit about this, but Holly, what's your favorite Utah outdoor experience to do?
Holly Booth: Oh wow. I mean, there are so many. But you know, like for me, it's often just a simple drive into a place I've never been before and just experiencing it for the first time. And there are so many great kind of backroads that you can take here. I think the San Rafael Swell, well, it's gotten a little more popular. I think just getting back there, like the first time I ever drove through that, like Navajo sandstone. I just remember just being blown away by it.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, it is the western side, the kind of the wilderness area that's not too discovered yet. I should we shouldn't be talking about it, but we are.
Holly Booth: We're going to cut this.
Tom Kelly: So, Anna. Anna, what's what's a great experience.
Tom Kelly: For you and the family?
Anna Seear: Again, it's really hard to choose, but I think one of my favorite things is actually to go skate skiing at Soldier Hollow. And sometimes I will go in the mornings at like 8 a.m. before work, and there's not a soul on the track. And I'm like, here I am on an Olympic track on my own, and it's glorious out and I have it to myself, so it's pretty magical. It is.
Tom Kelly: Pretty amazing. Cayla, how about you?
Cayla Gaseau I really love. Last year we did hiked the south face of Superior for the first time. So it's a combination of rock climbing and hiking and it just it's so fun. You feel like a kid again climbing rocks. It's a really long way up. And then you get this beautiful trail down views everywhere. And then you can finish at Snowbird and get burger a beer.
Tom Kelly: Did you get all the way to the top? Yes. Yeah. I have not. I've gotten to the saddle, but that's about it.
Cayla Gaseau Yeah, it definitely takes a time and a lot of effort, but it's so fun.
Tom Kelly: Okay. Favorite ritual? Chocolate. Cayla started out.
Cayla Gaseau It used to be the s'mores, which is still up there, but I recently had the Madagascar drinking chocolate at the High West party with a little bit of bourbon and some sea salt sprinkled on top, and that was phenomenal.
Tom Kelly: Wow, Anna.
Anna Seear: Well, we just released our holiday bar, which is a gingerbread toffee crisp in an oat milk chocolate and it is fabulous.
Tom Kelly: So yeah, I'm excited. Holly.
Holly Booth: Well, I was a bit of a Ritual Chocolate girl for a very long time, but I had the Caputo's Collaboration bar. Caputo's. Obviously another great Utah company. I really loved that. Oh, great.
Tom Kelly: You did a Caputo's collaboration.
Anna Seear: Yeah. So Caputo's have this amazing line. It's the Wild Cacao series where they purchase a wild cacao. They're really trying to save a lot of these unique genetics and heirloom cacao variations. And so we made chocolate with a wild Bolivian cacao. And it is fabulous. Just really smooth, subtle notes. There's a nuttiness to it and definitely recommended. So you can get it at caputo's. You can get it at our shop.
Tom Kelly: Caputo's downtown Salt Lake City. That's where you can get all of your Italian, foods when you're doing a nice Italian dinner. Favorite High West brand? Holly, kick it off.
Holly Booth: I you know, it's so hard to choose. But I'm going to say bu rye. I mean, it kind of depends on the day you catch me, but, um, a blend of mature Bourbons and ryes. I think it's kind of the best of both worlds. And I think it's. It's always great. Every iteration is great.
Tom Kelly: It's all about the jackalope.
Tom Kelly: It is.
Holly Booth: It's fun. Right? That label stands out.
Tom Kelly: Yeah. A lot of people think the jackalope is native in Wyoming, but it's really ... It's Utah's jackalope.
Holly Booth: Yeah. If anyone's, like a Radio West listener, Doug Fabrizio did, like, a deep dive into, like, jackalope history, and it's fascinating.
Tom Kelly: He did? He did actually. Anna.
Anna Seear: You know, my go to I mean, I love so many again, but my go to is the double rye because I just I love making cocktails with it. And a Friday, Saturday night I like to make a good boulevardier with my double rye or an old pal, and it's just perfect.
Tom Kelly: It's a great choice. Cayla I would.
Cayla Gaseau Say for everyday drinking. I also love the rye like holly, but being so close to the distillery, it's wonderful to get access to some of these unique releases. We had a barrel select that was campfire finish in Oloroso sherry and that was phenomenal. I still am hoarding a bottle for for special occasions, but I just I love that smoky, sweet combination.
Tom Kelly: So your job all day long is tasting all of this stuff and somehow you still, at the end of the day, you can say, yeah, I'd like to sit down with a glass.
Tom Kelly: Of this, right? Absolutely beautiful.
Tom Kelly: How about your favorite apres spot? And it could be High West, but I'd rather we spread it around. So, Cayla, do you have a favorite apres spot?
Cayla Gaseau I'm more of a summer girl. So every year we'll go down to Boulder, Utah, and there's that phenomenal restaurant, Hell's Backbone. They also have a great cocktail program. Rye and jam with double rye. So it's hard to pass up on that one that.
Tom Kelly: That that is I mean you can't say enough about that place. And we haven't been down there in a few years, but it's still going strong. Anna.
Anna Seear: Well, living in midway, we will pop over to Sundance and I love finishing with the Owl Bar, and they have a hot cider whiskey, which is pretty special on a chilly day.
Holly Booth: That's such a great spot. Yeah, it's really special.
Tom Kelly: I just have to do a shout out for the Owl Bar. It's it's it is an amazing spot. There's construction down there now on weekends. It's a little bit challenging with the parking, but you have to if you're coming to Utah, you have to figure out a way to get down to Sundance. And maybe it's even for a day of skiing, because the skiing down there is remarkable. Now, if you have not skied at Sundance for a few years, it's worth the trip to see the new configuration, the new lifts, the new terrain that's open, and most importantly, finishing it off at the Owl Bar.
Holly Booth: The Owl Bar is special. It's one of my favorites. I'd have to second that. Honestly, I you know, I'm a little bit spoiled. I live in Daly Canyon, so, honestly, like, it's my house and I'll make cocktails, so come on down.
Tom Kelly: We'll put Holly's address into the show notes, and you can just all, all show up there. Just a couple of more. I'll start with you. Holly, your most unusual experience enjoying chocolate and whisky. I have no idea where this is going to go.
Holly Booth: Yeah, it could get sporty on you. Um, no. I think honestly, one of my favourites is we infuse Campari with cacao, and I think that is a combination that I think is really lovely. But I really for me, it's sort of the, the kind of like big chocolatey desserts, you know, like molten chocolate and whisky. It's I like that big sort of finish at the end of a, of a meal. So I think that's lovely.
Tom Kelly: Molten chocolate cakes?
Holly Booth: Yes.
Tom Kelly: Is that on the menu here at High West?
Holly Booth: We don't have it on the menu. I push for it often.
Tom Kelly: Talk to Anna. Yes. Anna can give you some chocolate for that.
Tom Kelly: Yeah, I think.
Holly Booth: That'd be awesome.
Tom Kelly: Oh, that would be amazing. Yeah.
Tom Kelly: Anna, how about an unusual or innovative experience for you?
Tom Kelly: Chocolate and whisky.
Anna Seear: Well, I was just. I was actually thinking of the experience, so I got. I got married at the Church of Dirt. Oh, it's not there anymore.
Tom Kelly: The former Church of Dirt.
Anna Seear: Yeah, I know, and I and we actually got married on New Year's Eve, so it was. It's funny because the Church of Dirt, normally you need to like, really like hold your spot and fight over it in the summer and the winter. Of course, no one else is up there. So it was just us. It was during Covid. It was a small group of us and we hiked up, got married. It was fantastic and the wind was blowing and it was freezing and I couldn't feel my fingers. And at the end we were like all huddled together in a little group, and I made this big batch of hot chocolate and we were spiking it with high waist, and it was just the most magical moment. So I think getting getting up into the mountains and having some hot chocolate with a little bit of a little drop of whiskey in there is just it's hard to beat.
Tom Kelly: So it's kind of the Church of Snow in the winter. It is. It is not much dirt. Church of Dirt. For those who don't know where it is, it's up in Empire Pass above Deer Valley and you can actually in the winter time, you could probably access it by just continuing the Daly Chutes Traverse out there if you were going to try that, but it's theoretically not there anymore. Cayla experience for you?
Cayla Gaseau Yeah, I this year I was lucky enough to go to Switzerland and first time going to that country. It was phenomenal. But we had great Swiss milk chocolate on the top of or the side of the Alps with Laphroaig whisky, which we could buy there. And it was just yeah, it was hard to beat that moment.
Tom Kelly: These are great.
Tom Kelly: Experiences. Okay. Last one and this is probably the toughest one. One word that describes whiskey chocolate Utah all of these great experiences. Cayla?
Cayla Gaseau I would say adventurous. I think Utah is a home to adventurous people, but we also love being adventurous with chocolate making and whiskey making and our culinary team for sure.
Tom Kelly: Anna?
Anna Seear: My word is bliss because really, this is just all of my favorite things coming together and I just think I, I feel so much joy living here in Utah and being here. I really am a Utah lifer. You know, I'm I'm English through and through, but I am a Utah lifer. And my, my passions really are chocolate and whiskey, so. Perfect.
Tom Kelly: I know, Holly?
Holly Booth: I'd say pioneering.
Holly Booth: I think, you know, making the choice to come out here and try something new and. But on both fronts. Right. Like making chocolate starting out of your studio in Denver, I didn't know that. I love that part of the story. And here. Right. Like making alcohol in a place that's not necessarily known for alcohol and creating this company. I think the synergy between our companies and and what we've done in Utah, I think, certainly bears out sort of that pioneering spirit that's inherent within Utah itself.
Tom Kelly: Well, you all embody the Utah lifestyle that we love. It's what's made skiing and snowboarding so great out here. Thank you all for being here. Cayla and Holly appreciate it. And get down to ritual in Heber City just south of Heber. Get over to High West, either Park City or the Wanship location and enjoy yourself. Thank you very much.
Tom Kelly: Thank you so much.
Anna Seear: Thank you so much.
