Forward/Slash Distillery’s Kentucky Derby julep: A peach of a local libation

One year ago, Forward/Slash Distillery & Blending House had barely been open a month but co-founders Tim Bradstreet and Michael Buffa, blenders of American whiskey, wanted to acknowledge this signature spirit’s signature sporting event.

But they didn’t have much time to slap together a soirée.

Throwing out a few announcements on social media, letting folks know that they should dress for the occasion, they didn’t expect a huge turnout, but customers came in droves to sip and sample in their race-day finery, which inspired the pair to plan a redux for 2024.

Tart it up for Kentucky Derby day with this mini-Hot Brown appetizer

And these papas got a brand new barrel.

Seventy pounds of Southern Hill Farms peaches went into the mix for this peachy potable, and the pair will be parsing it out in beautifully mixed peach juleps over “ice crushed to order by the hammer of Thor,” says Buffa.

Staffers here headed to the Clermont farm to procure the fruit, which was in full swing during the peach season (a tiny window here in Florida).

“It’s an insane ratio of peach to bourbon,” says Bradstreet. “Super sweet, so we back off on the amount of sugar that goes into the julep.”

Like the season itself, this bourbon is a limited edition, so you’ll want to hit Forward/Slash (650 S. Capen Ave. in Winter Park) on Derby Day (May 4) to sample. If the barrel lasts longer, it might be a day or two. But fear not, for these Winter Park whiskey makers have a stash you’ll want to sample regardless.

Buffa and Bradstreet met several years back through the Orlando Whiskey Society, which Buffa founded in 2015 with a devotion that’s skin-deep. (Literally, art from his favorite distillery, Compass Box, is tattooed on his arm.) At the time, he was riding a wave of success with Buffa Bitters, working with Manifest Distillery up in Jacksonville.

The product was doing well, but Buffa was tired of the round trip, hoping to do something closer to home.

Bradstreet, meanwhile, was riding his own wave of success as the beverage director of the World Center Marriott. It was a wave that never crashed, though.

Long hours were arduous, in particular as the birth of his first child approached. He, too, was looking for a new gig and like magic, a position with pristine demands materialized at the Gaylord Palms. Bradstreet was home by 6 p.m. every night. It was 2019, though. Like the rest of us, Bradstreet was blissfully unaware of the meteor that was about to hit.

The gig lasted five months before COVID-19 crashed the party.

It was a blessing and a curse, for with far less to do, the pair — whose friendship had grown into one of burgeoning business partners — had time to dig deeper into their distillery dreams.

“We saw a big gap in the whiskey market,” Bradstreet explains. “There was this huge influx of product, but consumers don’t really know what anything is. And what we saw was that 70 percent of these brands were coming from four giant distilleries.”

It’s not a secret, they tell me, but it’s not largely talked about.

“These big names are buying from behemoth distilleries and spending millions in branding, but it’s not their whiskey.”

In fact, some of it is the exact same whiskey, sold with different labels and at different price points.

“And there was no love for the smaller guys,” Buffa notes. “You had to really hustle if you were a small, independent distillery, especially here in Florida, which is the second largest whiskey market in the U.S.”

Compass Box, Bradstreet explains, is completely transparent, focusing on different regions of Scotland and creating unique blends by bringing them together.

“What if we did that with American distilleries?” they wondered.

And so they did.

Forward/Slash works with small, independent distilleries and farmers. They choose carefully. They blend meticulously. They keep nerd-level notes. And they let all their fellow nerds in on the process.

“We tell our customers everything,” says Bradstreet. “The distillers, the coopers, the mash bills, everything. Complete data dump.”

Visitors to Forward/Slash can see the percentages of each whiskey in the blend. They can go even deeper and taste each element by itself if they want. It’s a theme park for nano-level enjoyment.

But it’s also a killer bar with great cocktails. Because most people don’t really care.

They chuckle at the observation’s accuracy.

“Most of our customers just want a good quality beverage served to them with a smile,” says Buffa. “But the niche customers love [the details]. It’s mind-blowing.”

Forward/Slash doesn’t make the whiskey they bottle and serve. They blend it. But they do distill bitters and liqueurs utilizing Florida agriculture at their Winter Park venue, which, depending on the day, is both cozy and expansive. A warm little bar up front speaks to high-level sampling in chill confines. For events, they open up the back, where another bar shares space with the still and barrels.

A bar-adjacent Blending Lab is where much of the magic happens — and where parties of 2-10 can book private tastings that feature a welcome cocktail and a 90-minute experience that includes a complete tour, an in-depth discussion of the process and a curated flight of Forward/Slash spirits.

It starts at $75, and since these guys are chefs of the barrel (and you can hit Michelin-starred Soseki with a rock from here), I feel fine calling it the cheapest omakase in Winter Park.

Start with the Derby, though.

Methinks some of you will be sparked with a desire for deeper dabbling.

Find me on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com, For more foodie fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group.

Sunday Cinco Celebration

Derby Day should give newcomers a festive peek at the process, too, but if you can’t make it Saturday, you may want to stop in on Sunday for a Cinco de Mayo event that will feature the launch of Sin Nombre.

This wild, new blended agave spirit (it smelled like pears from the barrel) will be featured in a funky crafted margarita with a consommé dusted rim courtesy of the Fui Yo Mexicana food truck, whose birria was dehydrated to make the stuff.

“The whole building will be open, we’ll have a Volkswagen Beetle set up for photo-ops … it’s going to be a massive party. We’re definitely taking Monday off.”