BUTTE — For more than a decade, a distillery in the Mining City has been offering liqueurs that reflect the spirit of Butte while celebrating the flavors of Montana.
"We have talked about this brand – the Wake Up Jim—as a coffee cream liqueur since the day we opened this company," says John McKee, the owner of Headframe Spirits.
McKee says the new Irish cream style drink offers a flavor profile that tastes like fruits and florals. Wake Up Jim is made from their single malt whiskey that contains Montana grown barely.
"The difference between a bourbon and an American single malt is the bourbon is very caramelly kind of thing. American single malt is made by malted barley and our single malt is made from all Montana-grown malted barley," says McKee.
Each whiskey product is connected to Butte history by way of mine names. McKee and his team have scoured mine registries that date back to Butte’s early days when 400 mines were registered on the hill.
"The owner was asleep these guys were working the load, and they finally hit a vein of copper, and they rushed up and said “Wake up, Jim! We’ve hit it!” So they literally called it the “Wake Up Jim” because they went and rushed to wake up Jim Twohy and say, 'Hey, you’ve just hit. Your load has played out,'" says McKee.
He says the new drink is an opportunity to share the spirit of Butte and the flavor of Montana with the rest of the world.
