As a photographer here in Aspen, I am always on the look-out for the unusual and the unique. When I find something that I love , it is all the better! If you know me, you know that I have a love for a good rum, and this is just what I found in Crested Butte, Colorado. On Elk Avenue, which is the main street, there is an old building that used to house the electric company for Crested Butte and is now home to Montanya Distillers. They make great rum here in the mountains of Colorado!
This is not the Caribbean, and this is not an average rum. Their description of the process and ingredients involved in distilling rum emphasizes that having good mountain water is key. It now makes perfect sense to distill rum here in Colorado. We all know Colorado has some of the best water in the whole United States–it is snow melt after all. The next ingredient is raw sugar. This is easily transported to Crested Butte and fermented to make a very high quality and excellent tasting rum. The last part of the process is to age the rum. Another Colorado distiller helps with this process. Stranahans Whiskey provides the barrels to age the rum, creating a synergistic relationship for Montanya. When they distill the rum in the stills pictured, this produces a-lot of heat, which keeps the place warm year round.
So, you can go there in the dead of winter and escape the cold with a great rum cocktail. It is really a neat spot to stop. Take in the old history of the building, see the copper stills, feal the heat from them, and then partake in some of the labor of love produced there. I recommend purchasing a bottle or two to have when you are at home, and you want to escape back to Elk Avenue in Creasted Butte. If you want to have the same coctail you had at Montanya, their web site even has the recipes for your favorite drink here:
Welcome to Colorado-we like to brew our own beer, vodka, whiskey and Rum! On a fine fall afternoon, you could find me here at Montanya sipping some rum and thinking about my next photography adventure.
ML
