Dutch Tulip Vodka - Sharmila Vaidyanathan

Shots of tulips but not without a reason.

If you are planning a visit to the Netherlands in the near future, I am sure you are looking up information about the tulip season. Let me tell you there might be more than one way to enjoy the beauty of these flowers- feast your eyes, and your taste buds. What am I talking about?

From the country that showed us food waste can be repurposed into delicious products, comes a vodka that prevents tulip flower waste. I spoke to Bart Bouter, co-founder of the Clusius Craft Distillers that turns this hallmark Dutch symbol into a high-end spirit giving you a kick for the right reasons. Meet Dutch Tulip Vodka.

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From the Netherlands With Love

Bouter shares that the idea of making vodka from tulips came to his nephew Joris Putman about four years ago. While talking about the end of the season tulip waste, Putman speculated that it should be possible to use the sugars in these flowers to make alcohol. Also, being an iconic Dutch symbol the product would immediately be associated with their country. With no similar product in the market, the team decided that the only way to know if this would work was to give it a shot :).

“Normally tulip bulbs are protected against inflammation by the use of chemicals, so we could not use regular tulips for consumption purposes. We had to try the process using organic tulip bulbs, but there is not a big demand for them in the market. There are only a few farmers who produce tulips organically. We tried making alcohol with organic bulbs, and it worked. It did take us a couple of years to fine tune the process, set up our production line and manufacture on a bigger scale,” says Bouter talking about some of their initial struggles.

A zero waste distillery recycling tulips to create vodka. A shot worth taking- Meet #DutchTulipVodka Click To Tweet

Creating a new product meant setting up the facility to manufacture it as well. Putman and Bouter established a craft distillery, Clusius Craft Distillers (named after the Dutch Botanist Carolus Clusius) in Katwijk, Netherlands where they manufacture the “Pure” and the “Premium Blend” tulip based vodkas, products launched in December 2017.

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Tulips Version 2.0

Dutch Tulip Vodka does not only encourage organic agriculture, they also address waste by utilizing the smaller bulbs and the ones with curved stems. These are usually rejected by the market for aesthetic reasons. But their waste redressal does not end there. The pulp left behind after distillation is given to a local farmer to be used as feed. They also recycle the water used in the distillation process, making it a zero waste distillery.

“For the “Pure” vodka we use about 350 tulip bulbs to make one bottle of vodka. That is very expensive. So we also make a “Premium Blend” where we add alcohol from organic grains. This product is often used by mixologists to create cocktails. The natural flavours contribute to an interesting palate,” says Bouter talking about the products. Their Premium Blend also contains naturally filtered water from the Dutch sand dunes.

The uncle-nephew duo is supported by their family in this venture and bottling vodka is often a family event. However, looks like this team will soon need many extra hands. Dutch Tulip Vodka recently won the “Dutch Entrepreneur Guts Award 2018” and has teamed up with KLM Dutch Royal Airlines while gaining popularity worldwide for what they represent.

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Vodka with a twist

When Bouter and Putman first decided to introduce their vodka to the market, they went to a three-star Michelin restaurant De Librije where the chef was already cooking with tulips. The test was pretty straightforward. If the chef did not like their product, he would simply spit it out. Safe to say that the vodka not only passed the spit test, it also made it to the restaurant’s menu. “Our goal was to make a high-value product with something that would otherwise be considered waste or sold for a low price. So we are essentially upscaling the value of organic tulip bulbs. When we saw the chef’s enthusiasm for our vodka, and this was even before we had our bottles and labels ready, we knew we had made the right product which also tastes good,” Bouter adds.

So in this conversation of sustainability, is it the product or the process that needs focus? Both says Bouter, “If we had bad vodka and it was made sustainably nobody would buy it. In our case, we made a new product which was not previously available in the market. We could work on all the aspects of our process to make it sustainable -our base product, the water we use, and the waste that is generated. That is the best combination. People love the story and the product.”

And plans ahead? “We really want to bring our products to the world. We are ready to go worldwide,” comes the immediate response. Looks like we don’t have to book our tickets just yet.

For more information visit Dutch Tulip Vodka and follow their updates on their Facebook Page.

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