“There are so many flavors that can’t make it through a traditional distilling process, so the rotovap gives you the ability to get some more soft and more distinct flavors. “It’s not something that a lot of distilleries are using, but because of my chemistry background, I was able to bring it into our process,” she says. The broad palette of flavors is possible thanks to Donaldson’s untold hours in Furman’s chemistry lab, where she became familiar with a piece of lab equipment called the rotary evaporator or “rotovap.” There’s some bitterness to this one as well, which helps to rein in the considerable sweetness at this proof point.” On the palate, the resin of juniper provides a solid backbone, along with huge floral notes, ginger and anise-like spice. The critics have had high praise for Chemists’ varied offerings: For instance, Jim Vorel of Paste magazine said: “On the Nose (Chemist Spirits’ Navy- Strength Gin) has a pleasant and assertive bouquet of citrus and spiced pear, along with heady baking spices and some florals. The interior of Antidote / Chemist Spirits And in June, Chemist was named the official gin of the 2022 Daytime Emmy Awards. Garden & Gun magazine also named Chemist a finalist in its Made in the South Awards. Chemist’s American Gin was chosen as the Gin of the Month for the popular Craft Gin Club of London. The distillery also collaborated with Asheville’s Biltmore Estate to produce Biltmore Conservatory Rose Gin.Ĭhemist Spirits has won Double Gold at the Women’s Wine and Spirits Awards in London, Best in Class at the Berlin International Spirit Awards and Double Gold at the John Barleycorn Awards. A tasting room provides samples during tours, and a cocktail bar, Antidote, serves craft concoctions made from Chemist’s products, which include American Gin, Navy Strength Gin, Barrel-Rested Gin and a chocolate-orange gin liqueur. The three-story facility holds four large, hand-hammered copper stills. In 2018, co-owners Word and Donaldson opened the doors of Chemist Spirits in downtown Asheville. Eventually, she became an award-winning distiller – a rarity in a male-dominated field – and decided it was time to go into business. While Donaldson continued her full-time work as a clinical pharmacist at the Asheville VA Medical Center, Word traveled to Scotland and consulted with the owner of a small distillery in Perthshire. “It was a fun project that we worked on together and never could have imagined what it would turn into,” Donaldson says.Ī few years of research and development followed.
The two began distilling gin, experimenting with local botanicals, inspired by the spirit’s traditional use in folk medicine in the region. The partnership continued when Donaldson bought her mother “a cute little 5-gallon copper still” for Christmas in 2014. But because of my background and knowledge, I knew that I could.”ĭonaldson, Word and Donaldson’s husband, James Donaldson, at the bar at Antidote, a cocktail bar that uses Chemist’s products. “I had never made anything potable in the chemistry lab before, so that was a new experience. “Distilling is the first reaction we learn to set up in our hands-on lab experience,” says Donaldson. One day, Word asked her daughter, “How hard is distilling?” She asked the right person: Donaldson had graduated from Furman with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
Her parents were living part-time at their mountain home in nearby Cashiers, North Carolina, and her mother, Debbie Word, had become fascinated by a unique part of local history: moonshining. She already knew the area after many family trips to the mountains to escape the summer heat in her hometown of Savannah, Georgia. Donaldson was doing a pharmacy residency in Asheville, North Carolina, after finishing graduate school in 2014.
Danielle Word Donaldson ’09, co-owner of Chemist Spirits in Asheville, North Carolina, is making a big splash in craft cocktails – with a little help from her Furman chemistry degree.Ī simple question set Danielle Word Donaldson ’09 on an unexpected journey, one she never could have predicted but that she wouldn’t change for anything.
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