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Karen Hoskin

Thoughts on Rum's Evolution

Karen began bartending at age eighteen in the dark ages of 1986, in a busy dive bar in Bar Harbor, Maine. It didn’t take her long to realize that the dive bar cocktail scene wasn’t her calling. Even before she could drink legally in bars, she was mixing cocktails for friends using fresh ingredients like infusions, citrus, spices, and herbs. When she headed to college, her dorm room became a cocktail speakeasy. Even in these early days, Karen’s cocktails were dominated by aged rum.

In 2008, Karen opened her own craft rum distillery and rum bar, Montanya Distillers, in the high mountains of Colorado. From the first day, every offering defied what consumers were expecting. Since that day, Karen has designed and launched four craft rums, created thousands of unique rum cocktails for her bar, and written two books about craft rum and cocktails.  Karen is also known for leading the charge on sustainability and gender diversity in craft distilling.  www.montanyarum.com

Thoughts on Rum's Evolution