Not Just for Swimming

You wouldn't want to take a gulp of Lake Michigan water. But when it's passed through the able hands (and stills) of North Shore Distillery, it makes for a surprisingly smooth, versatile spirit.

Since 2005, husband and wife Derek and Sonja Kassebaum have been working botanical magic at Illinois' first microdistillery, making handcrafted batches of gin, vodka, absinthe, aquavit, and now a single-batch spirit called Mole Poblano.

Poblano is a complex, sweet-savory spirit crafted from cacao beans, spices, and seven types of chiles. But with only 500 bottles, it's a fleeting local treasure that’s available at only a handful of restaurants and bars (find locations here).

North Shore releases a new single-batch spirit each spring; during the rest of the year, they focus on their gins and vodkas, each made from Midwest grains and organic and wild botanicals. The Distiller's Gins No. 6 and No. 11 are dry, London-style, supremely mixable gins (Paul McGee of the Whistler uses No. 6 in his Padua Exhibition cocktail, named for the hometown of Aperol; click here to download the recipe). Sirene Absinthe and Aquavit round out the collection, with notes of cumin and coriander added to the standard caraway.

In the distillery's early days, Derek (a trained chemist) tested a slew of waters in search of the smoothest results. The winner, as it turned out, was right outside his door.

Safe to say, the Great Lakes have never tasted so great.