The Noble Experiment is a distillery founded and operated by Bridget Firtle in
Bushwick, New York City. It is NYC's only rum distillery,
and is only available within the state.
Firtle began working on the company in 2011 while she was working on
Wall Street managing a
hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as s ...
. She left her job and began building The Noble Experiment in 2012, starting to sell white rum at the beginning of 2013. The product is named Owney's NYC Rum, after
Prohibition-era
In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, an ...
bootlegger
Owney Madden
Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden (December 18, 1891 – April 24, 1965) was a British-born gangster of Irish ancestry who became a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within ...
, and the company's name is taken after the nickname for the Prohibition policy. The rum is made solely from molasses, yeast, and NYC water.
Firtle has been featured on the
Forbes Food & Wine 30 Under 30.
Amy Zavatto of
Serious Eats
Serious Eats is a website and blog focused on food enthusiasts, created by food critic and author Ed Levine. A Serious Eats book was published by Levine in 2011. Serious Eats was acquired by Fexy Media in 2015 and then by Dotdash in late 2020.
...
described Owney's rum as "gently earthy" with a "mild, balanced, tender sweetness".
Wine Enthusiast Magazine
''Wine Enthusiast'' magazine is an American wine magazine published by Wine Enthusiast Companies in Valhalla, New York. Founded in 1979 by Adam and Sybil Strum, Wine Enthusiast Companies engages in the wine accessories, storage, information, educat ...
described it as crisp and appealing. It received a score of 93 at an Ultimate Spirits Challenge tasting.
References
{{Reflist
External links
owneys.com
Distilleries in New York (state)
Companies based in Brooklyn
American companies established in 2012
Food and drink companies established in 2012
Food production companies based in New York City
Microdistilleries