Blog
Craft distillery launches island's first gin
August 21, 2020
“You’ve got to tell your story,” says Aris Aristidou, co-founder (with his wife Marianna) of Aristides Distilling. That was his philosophy when he worked in the US, trying to get big chains to stock the liquor he made at a company called Copper Run just outside Branson, Missouri; that’s his philosophy now, in a warehouse in Tseri. Tell your story, explain what you’re trying to do – then you might be surprised, and maybe even “find allies in places where you never thought of looking”.
His story unfolds in this warehouse, a 150-square-metre space on the road to the highway – but his story is also a tale of audacious entrepreneurship in a place (and a sector) where a few big companies have always predominated. This is the first craft distillery in Cyprus, producer of a dry gin called Aoratos (the word – which means ‘invisible’ – is also the village term for juniper berries, gin’s most distinctive ingredient) and more projects also in the works, all with local ingredients. Rum made with carob molasses, vodka from our “world-famous potatoes”, single-malt whisky from the grain that’s already being planted specially for the distillery.