Sourcing Liquid: urban histories and foraging seasons

It is often forgotten (but something we at Sourced often go on about) the idea that booze is an agricultural product. It often comes from farming cycles or foraging seasons, and is not only a lubricant for celebrations but also a community activity. Skills are passed down generations and shared across cultures. But what does that mean within a modern, urban context of a large western city? How do we create locational sourcing, cultural context and community building in fast paced, multicultural spaces?

This is an interview that should be part of our audio series, but sometimes logistics scuppers best laid publishing plans and we had to email over questions instead. After Anna visited Copperpenny distillery in Vancouver this year, and thought what they were making was truly excellent, she wanted to dive in deeper to what they did and how they approached an idea of sourcing when making spirits, in particular gin. Ingredients was such a key aspect of their approach to the spirit making it was a natural fit for a Sourced interview. 

Interview with Jan Stenc, Co-Founder of Copperpenny Distilling Co, by Anna Sulan Masing (gentle edits for clarity and succinct reading!)

Why is sourcing such an important part of your process?

Many people are surprised to learn that most gin distilleries do not produce their own base spirit. For us, however, this is not something we can leave to chance. So much of the character in our final spirits is created during fermentation and distillation that being involved from the very beginning (from grain selection and yeast profiles to the on-the-grain distillation process itself) is mission-critical to our pursuit of quality.

By controlling that foundation, we are not simply adding flavour to a blank canvas. We are building each spirit from the ground up, with intention, traceability, and a deep connection to the place it comes from.

Each Copperpenny spirit is a liquid postcard. We work closely with local farmers to plan for and harvest specific sugar-rich grains, grown in some of the most fertile agricultural environments in the country. Through careful fermentation and a slow, methodical distillation process, these grains are transformed into a complex, premium neutral spirit - one uniquely capable of carrying flavour with elegance, depth, and clarity through further distillation. This base spirit becomes the foundation for many of our gins, vodkas, and liqueurs. 

How do you approach sourcing ingredients - do you start with an ingredient that is local that you want to use and find a way to use it, or does the idea of an ingredient come first? 

We are keen observers of the world around us, and that means paying attention with all the senses. That instinct was shaped during our careers in the film industry, where we spent years imagining and building scenes that could make an audience almost taste, smell and feel what they were watching on screen. That is difficult to achieve when sight and sound are the only tools available, so every layer of detail has to be believable enough that the viewer’s mind fills in the rest.

Making a spirit is much the same. Instead of image and sound, we rely on texture, aroma and taste to transport the drinker into the story we are telling through the liquid. Every decision has to be made carefully, and with intention.

That is why sourcing is such a critical part of how we build flavour. Special releases and collaborations are not just about creating a new gin or a limited-edition bottle - they are about telling a story through ingredients. Where something comes from, who grew it or gathered it, how it was harvested, and why it belongs in that release all matter. The ingredient is never just a flavour note. It has to carry meaning.

Our sourcing begins with purpose. Usually, we start with a memory, a place, or an experience we want to share with our drinkers, and then we search for the best possible versions of the elements that can bring that story to life. Also, we’d be remiss not to admit that a few ideas have come to us after a cocktail or two. It’s amazing where a relaxed mind can wander.

In the case of cherry blossoms, we are trying to capture the delicate eagerness of springtime in our hometown of Vancouver, BC. This city is part of an incredibly lush and vibrant ecosystem, where winter snow, spring rain and fertile coastal soil help fuel some 180,000 flowering cherry trees across the sprawling oceanside landscape. Thanks to Vancouver’s long and meaningful relationship with Japanese culture, cherry blossom season has become an important moment in the city – a signal that the season is changing, that growth is beginning, and that Vancouver is returning to its clean, green, vibrant self.

Anyone who visits Vancouver remembers that lushness. To capture it in a spirit, we have to go to great lengths to preserve the fragile nature of the cherry blossom. These flowers are fleeting, often harvestable only for a few days thanks to persistent rain storms during the spring, and their aroma compounds are extremely delicate and volatile. We pick the blossoms when they are cold and partially closed, often at night or very early in the morning, because cooler conditions help reduce how much fragrance evaporates before we can process them. It also means the flowers are less stressed by sun and heat, carrying more of the flavour to their distillation. 

With something as delicate as cherry blossom, that small detail matters. We are trying to capture the soft floral, almond and vanilla-like notes while they are still fresh in the bud.

That is the level of care sourcing requires. With releases like our cherry blossom gins, the ingredient gives the spirit a sense of place, seasonality and emotion. We want people to taste something connected to a real moment, a real landscape, and a real community. That is why we put so much attention into sourcing - it is what makes the final spirit feel authentic, rather than simply inspired by an idea.

What have been some of the more unusual ingredients that you have used, and the story of how you've sourced the ingredients?

Oyster shells immediately come to mind, along with other uniquely coastal ingredients from the Pacific West Coast shoreline, such as arbutus bark and sea asparagus. 

For our British Columbia, marine-inspired No. 006 Oyster Shell Gin, we use these elements to capture the minerality and salinity of a West Coast ocean breeze - the kind of briny character that makes for the perfect martini. The concept may sound whimsical, but when you grow up tasting sea air from fall storms on the coast, that flavour and feeling leave a lasting imprint.

Copperpenny partnered with a local aquaculture producer at Fanny Bay Oysters on Vancouver Island - home to some of the world’s best mollusks - for our local sea-to-table culinary events. That partnership sparked the idea of creating a coastal-inspired, savoury gin for martinis. We wanted to capture not only the saline quality needed for a classic dirty martini, but also the complexity, minerality and umami of the ocean. Oyster shell became an obvious and exciting ingredient.

It also gave us a way to put something beautiful to use. The aquaculture industry naturally produces an endless supply of shells, and we saw an opportunity to transform that byproduct into part of the spirit’s identity. What surprised us most was how much the character of the shell changes from one oyster bed to another. Just as the flavour and composition of an oyster are shaped by water conditions, seabed minerality, tidal movement and the kelp forests surrounding its growing area, we found that the flavour imparted by the shell into our gin could vary as well.

We developed a unique process to steam the desired elements from the shells into the spirit, allowing only certain aspects to be preserved and carried into the body of the gin. Oyster shells themselves are formed as oysters pull calcium and carbonate from seawater and build those minerals, layer by layer, into a hard calcium-laden shell. Along the way, the shell carries traces of sea salt and marine minerals from its environment, which help contribute to the subtle coastal flavour and briny complexity we are after. We finish it with a local wild sage and lemon thyme from our forages in the desert areas of our interior wine region to add a clean savoury finish. 

The result is a gin that is unmistakably of this place - savoury, mineral, coastal and designed for a martini that tastes like the edge of the wild Pacific.     

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Jan Stenc is the Co-Founder and Head Distiller of Copperpenny Distilling Co., a multi-award-winning craft distillery and cocktail lounge in North Vancouver. Alongside his wife and business partner, Jennifer Kom-Tong, they launched Copperpenny after careers in the motion picture industry and years of travelling the world, where the couple developed a deep appreciation for the diverse flavours and regional character of spirits.