Craftsmanship in motion: Thomas & Sons Distillery
Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Far and away, the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” It is with this sentiment that we are featuring this series of profiles in craftsmanship. Photo essays of passion, dedication, sweat, and an obsession with detail. In the same manner we approach shoemaking, these talented creators and makers are proving that design can be simultaneously timeless AND original.
It’s not often a tea company decides they’d like to start making alcohol. Kombucha? Yes. But to ferment the teas and botanicals and make them into a base for spirits—well, that had never been done before. And that’s exactly what Townshend’s Tea Company decided to do.
Thankfully, Townshend’s had Seth O’Malley on board. The now-lead distiller has a thing for beverages: he got a job at the Bend Townshend’s tea shop after trying every single tea on the menu. He tried his hand at brewing mead (a honey wine) in high school after reading about it in Beowulf, which led to adventures in home-brewing beer. And when he turned 21, his curiosities led him to botanical spirits.
The second bottle of alcohol I ever bought was aquavit.
– Seth O’Malley, lead distiller
So it made sense that he was recruited right out of college to lead the Townshend Tea’s distillery arm: Thomas & Sons. The result? A line of 8 unique tea spirits and liqueurs, all botanical in nature—and all 100% crafted in-house from scratch ingredients. And ultimately, Seth feels that the quality comes from that authenticity. “It has a lot to do with what’s in the bottle, versus what’s on the label. There’s nothing artificial in our spirits. Virtually everything could be picked off a tree/bush/out of the ground and then dried – we do it all.”
It may be a challenge to innovate in such a crowded industry, but keep in mind: O'Malley is about curiosity. “We’re always learning, and our goal is to never get bored—because that’s when you get a boring product. Our product is an expression of what we want to taste and see in the industry. We’re going to make stuff that we like, and we’re going to express ourselves and shut out everything else. And we did that, and it’s working.”
