In this flavorful, entrepreneurial conversation with Chinola Liqueur co-founder Andrew Merinoff, some of the topics we explore include:

 

• Andrew’s family legacy in the spirits world, including his very real ties to Canadian whisky magnates and Prohibition-era New York Bootleggers.
• How Chinola started in a blender in a Dominican Republic apartment and blossomed into a category-defying cocktail ingredient thanks to some old-world European liqueur expertise.
• Why many people are under the mistaken impression that passion fruit is pink - and what the Chinola team is doing on the agricultural front to ensure that their fruits remain delicious, all-natural, and sustainable.
• We also dig into the very important ways that Andrew and his team actively partner with the community in the DR so that they’re not merely showing up appropriating a native fruit, and exporting its flavor to the US market.
• Along the way, we learn why passionfruit evokes a feeling of nostalgia in many people (myself included), the surprising similarities between Chinola and a product that many people call “bartender’s ketchup,” why the Spanish word for “one who gossips” might come up at your next brunch, and much, much more.

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