Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past decade, you’re aware that craft distilling has exploded across America. Spurred by the popularity of the locavore movement, small-batch distillers have sprouted up in virtually every market---by the dozens, in many cases. Some are serious operations, while others simply bottle and release spirits purchased from other sources.

Manifest Distilling is as serious as they come. Located in Jacksonville’s Sports district, the company was founded in 2016 by David Cohen, Scott Kennelly, Trey Mills and Tom Johnson. They are committed to nothing less than “the resurgence of independent American craftsmanship,” and are accomplishing this by the use of non-GMO and organic ingredients, informed and precise distillation techniques, and an unwavering search for quality. Their product line currently consists of non-GMO potato vodka, organic gin, barrel-aged gin and organic rye whiskey.

In Glass Half Full, our roundup of the most interesting food, wine and spirits stories on the web, we examined the skyrocketing price of white truffles, the continuing decline of Budweiser, the investment in a cannabis company by a wine and spirits conglomerate, and a restaurant with three Michelin stars that now forbids you to photograph their food.

Here are last week’s posts:

Manifest Distilling: Jacksonville, Florida

Glass Half Full: 11/10/2017