Boutique liqueur maker Barlovska Craft Liqueurs is holding its own on the national spirit stage. The uniquely crafted small batch liqueurs have won the Champion Trophy Winner at the 2023 NZ Spirit Awards for the Liqueurs category with their blackberry product for the second consecutive year.
Barlovska is co-owned by good friends who are all originally from Poland. The trio comprising of Maciek Ganc, Bart Stus, and Karolina Stus, acquired the business from Zuzanna Chmielewska and they all admired the product and wanted to see its success continue.
In 2020 they moved the product production from the Hutt Valley, Wellington to the beautiful Kāpiti Coast just before COVID hit.
Maciek said the team are so proud of the achievements of the liqueurs over the past two years.
“When we moved production to the Kāpiti Coast, we found a beautiful farm in Te Horo, Stanmore farm, where all the magic began,” said Maciek.
“Upon meeting Kate and Tim Gibbs, who has owned Stanmore farm for generations, we knew this was the perfect place to continue Barlovska. We attribute the delicious taste of our product to the blackberries grown on the farm giving us the highest quality ingredients and also high-quality groundwater. "
The trophy winners for the 2023 NZ Spirits Awards were announced at a gala dinner in Auckland in June. Now in its fifth year, the awards showcase New Zealand’s exceptional spirits.
This year, 426 entries from 24 different countries were received, with 281 being products from New Zealand. The entries were assessed by 30 judges from both New Zealand and Australia. Barlovska took out the Champion Trophy Award for Liqueurs Category, also receiving a gold award for their Blackberry Liqueur and silver awards for their Spiced Honey and Feijoa Liqueurs.
“Winning the recent Trophy at the NZ Spirit's Awards for the second consecutive year speaks volumes about our success and the dedication of the whole team. We are incredibly proud,” said Maciek
“The awards are a great opportunity to reflect on our product goals of delivering to premium international standards and we received valuable feedback from judges so we can continue to innovate and elevate our product standards.”
