A small distillery in Keyport, New Jersey, has carved out an unusual place in the world of spirits, becoming the world's first producer of vodka made entirely from peas. The product is a long way from the potatoes and grains usually associated with the drink, and its story reaches back across decades and continents to a grandfather's kitchen in the Soviet Union.
The business carries a name that nods to that history. It is called 3BR, short for Three Bottles or Riot, a phrase rooted in a particular moment in Soviet life. The owners have built the brand around that memory, turning a piece of family lore into the identity of a modern craft distillery far from where the tale began.
The name harks back to the late 1980s and what was described as the start of a second prohibition in the Soviet Union. It was not a full ban, but the people loved their vodka. According to the family, the ration at the time was two bottles per person a month, an allowance that many felt was simply not enough, and the imagined demand for a third bottle gave the distillery its defiant name.
At the heart of the story is the grandfather of the owners, Maxim and Alexander. Their grandfather, Oleg, was an engineer and a moonshiner in Moscow who did not love the prohibition any more than his neighbours did. Rather than go without, he turned to making his own vodka, a decision that would eventually echo down to his grandchildren's enterprise in New Jersey.
It was scarcity that led to the pea. With sugar also rationed, people had to get really creative, and Oleg was one of them. He realized that peas were something that was super plentiful, and that even if the store shelves were empty, peas were going to be there. That insight pushed him toward making vodka from peas, an approach born out of necessity rather than novelty.
Five years ago, Maxim and Alexander opened up shop in Keyport, taking Oleg's recipe and turning it into a business. In doing so, they became the world's first producer of 100 percent pea vodka, a spirit they market under the name Mendel. What began as a survival tactic in a time of shortage has been reborn as a deliberate, distinctive product.
The making of the vodka starts in a tank that, with its lid open, amounts to a glorified pot. The peas are loaded in and water is added, and the mixture is cooked at a high temperature to release all of the starch locked inside. That starch is the foundation of the spirit, the first step in transforming a humble and once-reliable vegetable into the unlikely base for vodka.