Five Questions with Bob Harkins

February 11th, 2011

Attention greater Portland cocktail lovers, it is time to mark your calenders for the 2nd Annual Cold River Bartenders Bash. It will be held at the gorgeous Gateway Complex on February 28th from 5 until 8:30PM.

Twenty of Maine’s best mixologists will be bringing their top sips to compete for prizes and bragging rights. There will also be a sampling of Maine potato-based noshes to accompany the drinks. Click here FMI and for tickets.

In an effort to whet your whistle, I thought tipple saavy flavoristas might enjoying learning a bit more about the team at Maine Distilleries. Bob Harkins volunteered for a Five Questions interview. He is the Managing Partner and Director of Sales & Marketing at Maine Distilleries, producers of Cold River Classic Vodka, Cold River Blueberry Vodka and Cold River Gin.

Bob is a former United States Ski Team Coach and a longtime Sunday River Ski Area executive. Bob lives in Paris, Maine with his wife, Sally. His favorite way to enjoy Cold River Vodka is in a frozen martini he sips while sitting around the fire with family and friends at his camp on Tripp Lake in Poland, Maine.
 
What was your latest project?
We just launched our super-premium, gluten-free Cold River Gin in August of 2010.  Gin was a natural direction for us to head, given that its base is a neutral spirit, which we already produce to make our Classic and Blueberry Vodkas.
 
Like our vodkas, our gin is also made with Maine potatoes from our own Green Thumb Farm in Fryeburg, Maine.  The reception to our new Gin has been very positive; people seem to really embrace the flavor profile, its reasonable price point, and the fact that it’s the only gluten-free, all natural, "ground-to-glass" gin in the world.
 
Photo courtesy of Ted Axelrod Photography
 
What is the one food or beverage ingredient that you cannot live
without?
Maine potatoes!
 
 
Who is your mentor, professionally or personally?
I’ve been lucky enough to have had several mentors over the years, but I’d have to say my dad, Bob, is first and foremost in my mind.  He was a great dad, a hard worker, an excellent athlete.  I had a great childhood, and was lucky enough to have a man like my dad as such a fine role model.
 
On the skiing side of things, when skiing was my profession, I was lucky enough to be mentored by the likes of Tom Reynolds, program director at the University of Maine at Farmington; Tim LaVallee, a fellow coach of the U.S. Ski Team; and Bill Marolt, alpine director of the U.S. Ski Team.
 
What is your favorite food memory from childhood?
Beans and hot dogs on Saturday nights, how’s that for a true Mainer?
 
What would be your ultimate meal?
Oh boy. . .  I love all kinds of food, but put me in jail and ask me what my last meal would be, and I’d say a steak – a medium-rare, perfectly seasoned, big ol’ ribeye or sirloin.
 

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