ISCO x Gertrude’s Aquavit
Providence, Rhode Island, United States
- ABV
- 40%
- Base spirit
- Unknown
- Color
- Clear
- Style
- Unaged Aquavit
ISCO x Gertrude’s Aquavit is a collaborative aquavit produced by ISCO Spirits for Gertrude’s, a Brooklyn restaurant in New York City. The spirit was developed for the restaurant’s cocktail program and is used most prominently in the Dirty Gertie, Gertrude’s house variation on a dirty martini combining the aquavit with dry vermouth and pickle brine.
Contemporary coverage identifies the collaboration as a dill-and-caraway aquavit, giving the Dirty Gertie a distinctly savory botanical character. The aquavit also appears elsewhere in Gertrude’s drinks program, including the beet-based Borscht Bloody.
The collaboration reflects the close connection between ISCO’s aquavit program and Gertrude’s savory cocktail style. ISCO itself specifically references Gertrude’s briny pickle martini when describing uses for its aquavit, although the exact production specifications of the restaurant collaboration have not been publicly detailed.
About the producer
ISCO Spirits
Providence, Rhode Island, United States
ISCO Spirits, formally The Industrious Spirit Company, operates in Providence, Rhode Island, where it opened its distillery in 2020. The company was co-founded by Manya Rubinstein, Dan Neff, Doug Randall and John Curtin. Its Providence facility occupies part of a former industrial mill complex associated historically with Providence Steel and Iron Company.
ISCO produces its spirits on site, carrying out mashing, fermentation, distillation, bottling and packaging at the Providence facility. The company has emphasized organic and regeneratively farmed grains and has developed a broad range including vodka, gin, bourbon, aquavit and experimental specialty spirits.
Aquavit forms both a regular and experimental part of the range. ISCO’s standard Fresh Dill Aquavit is a caraway-forward spirit made with dill, while limited releases have extended the category into unconventional recipes such as Everything Bagel Aquavit and Banana Bread Aquavit. The latter retains caraway as its defining aquavit botanical but combines it with a corn-based spirit, actual banana bread and roasted bananas.
