The Other Side of Brain Drain

I was sitting at home in New York City reading my Wall Street Journal when I came across an article about Terra Botanical Gin, a high-end boutique libation from a company called Cardinal Spirits in Bloomington, Indiana. After Googling the name, I found the gin was also recently reviewed in the New York Times. I’m an Indiana native who went to school in Bloomington, and I wondered how a microdistillery in a Midwestern college town managed to grab this kind of top-tier media placement.

The short story is simple. Cardinal partnered with Lior Lev Sercarz, of the Brooklyn spice shop La Boîte, to create the spice blend used for creating the gin. Sercarz is a legend in the foodie world, and his cachet created a hook for elite media coverage there.