The Cooper Spirits Co. was founded in 2006 by entrepreneur Robert J. Cooper (1976–2016). Its marquee product, introduced the next year, was St-Germain, an elderflower liqueur that mixed well with sparkling wine and many spirits. It became so commonplace in American craft bars that bar wags jokingly referred to it as “bartender’s ketchup.” The eye-catching and statuesque bottle was supposedly based on a perfume bottle Cooper bought in Paris. Having built the brand to near ubiquity, he sold it to spirits conglomerate Bacardi in 2013.
Cooper Spirits continued to produce the violet liqueur Crème Yvette but focused on rye whisky and rock and rye. Rye whisky was a personal favorite of Cooper, who was an early supporter of the category even when it seemed on the brink of disappearing. The company’s Lock Stock & Barrel, produced in Alberta, Canada, was one of the first premium straight rye whiskies on the market. Cooper liked to say that he tasted through a warehouse full of barrels to find the special ones. See whisky, rye.
Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye was inspired by a conversation Cooper had with bartender Chad Solomon about bottling an Old-Fashioned cocktail. Rock and rye, a popular nineteenth-century concoction of rye whisky and rock candy syrup, is arguably an Old-Fashioned without bitters. See Old-Fashioned Cocktail and rock and rye.
That Cooper Spirits took the drinks industry by storm was no surprise; Robert Cooper came from a long line of distillers and spirits merchants. The family traces its roots to the early 1900s, when his grandfather, Maurice “Buck” Cooper, started a brewery in Pennsylvania, and the family went on to own the Charles Jacquin company of Philadelphia, the creators of the original Crème Yvette at the turn of the twentieth century. After Cooper’s untimely death, the management of the business passed into the hands of his wife, Katie, who continues to introduce new products.
See also Bacardi.
Simonson, Robert. “Robert J. Cooper, 39, Creator of Popular Elderflower Liqueur, Dies.” New York Times, April 27, 2016.
By: Noah Rothbaum