Holistic Spirits Co. Shaking Up the Spirits Industry

Wall Street Luxury Beverages is pleased to feature Holistic Spirits Co. as part of ReserveBar OnBoard’s ?2024/2025 boat show experiences and will be featuring their Origen Specialty Vodka and Harmony Gin.

Founded by entrepreneur Amy Holmwood and actor and environmentalist, Woody Harrelson, the Holistic Spirits Co. is shaking up the spirits industry by combining science, nature, and artisanal distillation to create innovative spirits that elevate the palate and the planet.

We recently spoke with Amy Holmwood who shared with us her mission to change the spirits industry with the power of plants and offer a product to consumers who want to be more considerate of what was going into their bodies when they had a drink.

Hi Amy. What inspired you to create the world’s first superfood infused spirits?

I was looking for healthier alcohol options for my husband and I and watching all the innovation in the non-alcoholic spirits market including the soft drink market with all the product development around better for you teas and infused beverages. I was wondering when someone was going to invent a healthier version of alcohol using medicinal plants as a foundation in the distillation and formulation process, using ingredients that would stabilize and still maintain anti-aging benefits. Since no one was doing this, I felt compelled to come out of retirement and attempt to invent this type of a spirit knowing how big this could be as a business and to make the world a better place.. Because I have connections in the nutrition and supplement sector, I was able to find the right people to help to the research on how to invent the spirits. It’s the next frontier in the spirits space.

How did you meet Woody Harrelson and develop a partnership for holistic spirits?

We were introduced to Woody from his manager who was a friend of one of our investors. Because Woody is a health activist and a 30-year vegan, his manager thought he would enjoy learning about our products, so he asked us to send Woody and his wife Laura a bottle of Origen Holistic Spirits Vodka. After he and his wife drank a good bit of a bottle and woke up the next day feeling fantastic, they became very excited about talking with us. We met a week later face to face and Woody decided to invest in the company. He is a co-founder and is helping us spread the word about Holistic Spirits Company and serving our brands at his bar, Holy Water in West Hollywood. He is passionate about holistic living and sustainability so this fit perfectly into his personal brand.

When we spoke you shared that you have a patent pending and that the ingredients you use in Origen Specialty Vodka and Harmony Gin include?proprietary blend of plant botanicals that include?polyphenols. Please share a bit about the health benefits of these ingredients and also talk a bit about?nutrigenomics and biohacking.

Again, we are not able to make claims about the benefits of our alcohol spirits. However, if one studied plant science they would learn that alcohol actually can stabilize the benefits of plant ingredients. One can obverse this in different types of tinctures that are used in traditional Chinese medicine. With that in mind, we studied dozens of plants that we believed would make a difference when stabilized in alcohol in terms of reducing free radicals in the cells which cause cell death. Our goal was to find ingredients that would taste good and create something that had never been done before in terms of flavor, texture, color, odor and provide benefits that no other alcohol has ever been shown to do, essentially making the alcohol less toxic to the body. When we talk about biohacking, we're talking about changing the expression of genes that actually turn on the body's ability to detoxify. Hacking our DNA is the easiest way to show and prove that something is less bad for you. When we can look at genes that can be activated in the body to make it easier for your body to metabolize things you ingest, and we can show the various enzymes that are activated in the body that can help reduce free radicals. This is a big deal. Unfortunately, we cannot use this information for marketing purposes, but people can do their own research and learn about our patent application which discusses the reduction of free radicals in the body and it discloses the genes and the enzymes that are activated to make our spirits less toxic.

Origen Specialty Vodka and Harmony Gin are unique in their copper rose-hued colors and are beautifully packaged.??As there are no artificial ingredients what led to the unique color of the products?

The unique color is from the four core ingredients that are all derived from nature. We use muscadine grapes, artichoke leaves, elderberry extract, and green tea leaves. All of these ingredients have very rich color. ?We did not use anything artificial to stabilize the colors. The intention of developing the brand was to make it less toxic to the body and however this turned out visually, we allowed nature to let that evolve based on the ingredients that stabilized and maintained benefits. However, we did focus on the flavor and texture in terms of our ratios of ingredients and how they interacted with each other. Our base alcohol also makes a difference. We use organic gluten free wheat for the base of Origen Vodka and organic non-GMO corn for Harmony Gin.

How to you source your ingredients and how important are sustainable practices?

We source our ingredients from sustainable producers that generally market to supplement companies. The science team that we work with also develops supplements and understands where to find these types of ingredients that have never been used in alcohol before. As much as possible we're using organically sourced ingredients as well. We have done extensive research on the suppliers to determine the different growing practices and the types of packaging and labor practices to make sure that we are delivering products with the highest integrity possible. We also are becoming a certified B corporation which caused us to have to do a deep dive on all of our suppliers and their sustainability practices.

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What is your favorite way to drink?Origen Specialty Vodka and Harmony Gin?

We try to keep it simple with our recipes and frankly our spirits are best served three ways: on the rocks, served up chilled in a martini glass, or served neat. We also recommend serving our spirits on the rocks with club soda or tonic and a wedge of citrus. We prefer an orange citrus wedge. Our brands also make delicious in martinis and gimlets. The goal is to keep the sugar down and still be able to enjoy the award winning flavor profiles of both Origen Vodka and Harmony Gin.

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Please contact [email protected] to learn more about Holistic Spirits?Origen Specialty Vodka and Harmony Gin or to arrange an introduction.