Wild Roots Huckleberry Fruit Vodka
Wild Roots Vodka is as close to the Northwest as you can get without booking a flight
"We don't try to make a flavor; we let the fruit do that for us." That's how Chris Joseph, founder of Wild Roots Vodka, describes the bottles at the Portland, Oregon, distillery.
Wild Roots is known for its way of taking the best of the Pacific Northwest and turning it into something even better. And its latest release, a vibrantly hued huckleberry vodka, is no different. It has "the juiciness of a blueberry, the tartness of a cranberry and the color of a raspberry," and is a standout drink on its own simply poured over ice.
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It's the latest addition to the fruit lineup from the Portland distillery, which was founded in 2012. Its vodkas are made with real fruit from the surrounding area, like radiant red raspberries and sweet-tart marionberries.
Think of this like a vodka cranberry, but the cranberry (or huckleberry, here) is in the vodka itself—and with none of the sticky sweetness. It has a bit of a wine taste, thanks to the berries, but one that's much stronger in alcohol and is made using Cascade Mountain lava rock to filter local water. Essentially, it's about as Oregon as you can get without actually boarding a plane.