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✍️ By: Team BC1.NL
Texel
To most people, Texel is known first and foremost as a holiday destination. Every year, more than a million tourists visit this Wadden island off the north coast of the Netherlands. But the islanders are an enterprising bunch too. In this mini special, we introduce you to the traditional distillery Stokerij Texel.
Kees Groenewoud and Jaco Spek are the founders of the distillery. Together they've found a way to combine their love of the island, of locally grown produce, and of a good drink.
How do you make alcohol from leftover potatoes?
It starts with a farmer on the island who has around 100 tonnes of leftover potatoes a year, and you can distil a fair amount of alcohol from that. The potatoes are first cleaned and washed, then pulped. The pulp is cooked, enzymes are used to create sugar, and the resulting mash is fermented into alcohol.
Why did the recipe take so long?
They began by investigating whether a good alcohol could be made from potatoes at all. That worked, and from there the development of the gin got under way. It took them quite some time, in the end they went back to a basic gin and carefully introduced the Texel flavours of elderflower and sea buckthorn in a balanced way. A large group of people, along with a number of specialists, helped develop the flavour. Now that the recipe exists, it's easy to make, arriving at it was the hard part.
What's the guiding principle?
Making use of residual flows, and that principle goes beyond the drink itself. It also shaped the way the distilling room was built. Construction of the distillery began in September 2015.
The Blue Economy method
Stokerij Texel makes as much use as possible of residual materials, inspired by the Blue Economy method. Both the TX gin and the TX vodka are distilled using leftover potatoes sourced from various potato farmers on Texel. The distinctive Texel character of the gin comes from elderflower and sea buckthorn, among other things, while in the vodka a hint of cranberry provides the Texel note.
Crowdfunding & crowdtasting
When the distillery started out, it used a special form of crowdfunding. By buying a certificate, participants in the campaign receive a bottle of spirits each year for five years. Certificate holders can also take part in tastings and flavour tests, giving these early enthusiasts a real say in the distillery's future products.
You can also take a tour of the distillery combined with a gin tasting at the nearby Boutique Hotel Texel. Anyone who'd rather not travel to Texel but still wants to order one of these special drinks can visit the Stokerij Texel website. It's also the best place to keep up with what's happening at Stokerij Texel, because Jaco and Kees see plenty more possibilities for making good drinks from produce grown on the island.
