Lisa Sawyer Derman wanted to bring bourbon from her native Kentucky to cocktail lovers in New Jersey. For help, she turned to her three kids in their twenties, who “instinctively knew” how to bring bourbon to the next generation, she says.
The founder of Sparta-based Five Springs Bourbon, launched this June, Derman has brought her family-run brand into New Jersey bars, liquor stores and home bars. Instagram abounds with photos of the Paper Plane, this summer’s hot cocktail, crafted with Five Springs bourbon.
Bourbon runs deep in Derman’s roots. “In the Bluegrass State, we revere bourbon,” she says. “Along with racehorses, bourbon is our pride and joy and a pillar of our state economy.” Every Kentucky family, she says, is loyal to its chosen brand. “We love to just sip it,” she says. “We might add a bit to tea or coffee, or swallow a spoonful for a sore throat,” she says. “Bourbon is woven into our culture, and I couldn’t leave Kentucky without bringing that connection with me.”
Five Springs Bourbon founder Lisa Sawyer Derman Photo: Courtesy of Five Springs Infused Bourbon
After law school in Washington, D.C., where she met her husband, Adam, of Metuchen, Derman took a legal job focusing on alcohol regulation. They later settled in Westfield, where they had three children. Derman continued to specialize in liquor law.
Two decades later, Derman wanted to change hats and get inside the liquor industry. She crossed over to the company side and became general counsel of Absolut, then chief operating officer of Stoli, then chief executive at The Macallan. These mega-companies shape consumer tastes, she explains, by buying and developing liquor brands. In order to sign off on these transactions, Derman had to establish a brand’s value. “I’d find out, in detail, about their management and their process,” she says. “How the liquor is differentiated, distilled and marketed—from the grain farm to the distillery to the store shelf.”
After 33 years of intense involvement with liquor brands, she realized that her next chapter was creating her own: “It was my time to be a pioneer and forge a path for other women in this industry.” And it’s no surprise what she chose. “Bourbon is my Kentucky heritage,” she says. “It’s not an overexposed liquor. It has a huge upside and a whole new audience, like my kids, who are in their twenties and love the new bourbon bars as well as the classic bourbon cocktails.”
Determined to put bourbon “front and center on cocktail menus,” she set up a tasting lab in her family’s Sparta kitchen and devised a variety of naturally infused mixing bourbons. She named the venture Five Springs after her Kentucky hometown’s nickname.
The Derman family Photo: Courtesy of Five Springs Bourbon
Derman and her family perfected three distinctive flavors that are a giant step toward a finished cocktail, she says. All are 70-proof and suited to both grounding a cocktail and being enjoyed on the rocks. The zesty Blood Orange flavor is ideal as the base of a delectable classic Manhattan, Old Fashioned or “a nuanced and fantastic Bourbon Aperol Spritz,” says Derman. Vanilla Maple is warm and inviting, whether in an eye-opening espresso martini or Bourbon Smash with mint and lemon juice. The herbal Honey Sage is versatile, comfortably starring in a Kentucky Mule with ginger beer, a Bee’s Knees with lemon and sugar, or the trendy Paper Plane, made with Aperol, Amaro and lemon.
Derman has developed numerous cocktail recipes showcasing Five Springs Bourbons; you can find them on their website. Or you can order a bartender’s brainstorm that spotlights Five Springs bourbons, at Jersey bars and restaurants including Meximodo in Metuchen, Ristorante da Benito in Union, Industry in Sparta, The Ainsworth Hoboken, Sweet Waters Steak House in Westfield, and Publick House in Mountainside. The cocktail-curious can buy a bottle online or at a growing number of NJ liquor retailers.
“My Kentucky family farm was on a lake in Five Springs,” Derman says. “Once again, I live on a lake—Mohawk—and Five Springs looms large.”
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