You never plan on a global pandemic land-ing in the middle of your business's launch but that is exactly what happened to Jessica and Philip Miller. Af-ter three years of preparation and development, Colony Cocktails, a brand of canned cocktails, was scheduled for production in early April just as COVID-19 had most states locked down and stay at home orders in place. An unimaginable hurdle but it didn't stand in the way of the Millers who likened the last few weeks before launch to the children's book, The Little Engine That Could.

The Millers set out to build Colony Cocktails with an ethos rooted in the pursuit of a plea-surable and vibrant life. It was a sentiment they inevitably have while traveling, wandering streets exploring cities and mov-ing at a slower pace. The spirit of travel even found its way into the naming of their cocktails, choosing cities that evoke the feeling of escape and curiosity.

The timing of Colony Cock-tails' launch couldn't have been more appropriate, with people sheltering at home and desiring craft cocktail experiences with-out the hassle of complicated ingredients. The journey began much earlier, in 2017, before the rise in popularity of canned cocktails and hard seltzers. As cocktail enthusiasts, even the Millers found themselves want-ing a more convenient craft cocktail experience that didn't require complicated infusions or hard to find ingredients but still wanted vibrant, natural flavors unlike the plethora of low-alco-hol spritzers and seltzers avail-able today.

In developing the cocktails, the original recipes called for dis-tilled spirits. The Millers didn't want to have a product that would have limited distribution poten-tial in some states. So they inten-tionally found a way to use a neu-tral wine spirit in order to share shelf space at any wine and gour-met shop. "Don't let the wine part of these cocktails fool you. They taste like you ordered off the spe-cialty cocktail menu. That's the experience we intended to make convenient and portable. And you won't think you're drinking selt-zer.", says Philip. In order to en-sure the finished products stayed true to the original recipes they insisted that all the flavors and colors come from natural ingre-dients.

The result is a line-up of three wine-based cocktails with flavor profiles that appeal to a wide variety of tastes. For those who like vodka or gin and tonics, The Biarritz is a wine-based French 75 with hints of lemon and bo-tanicals for a more sophisticated cocktail experience. The Tangier is fruit-forward with the flavors of grapefruit, rosemary and car- damom that can be enjoyed any time of the day, in place of mimo-sas or sangrias. Finally, for those who lean toward bolder flavors like whiskey or aperitif cocktails such as the Negroni, The Charles-ton has strong botanical and spice notes balanced by lemon and lemongrass.

These will be a hit at your next dinner party and they're sure to be spotted at the races when we re-turn to normal. Colony Cocktails can be purchased at The Locke Store in Millwood, The Market at Bluewater Kitchen in Upperville, The Town Duck in Warrenton or right here in Middleburg at The Market Salamander.