74 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM {food coloring} It all started on a ski lift. “It was a perfect powder day,” recalls Dariusz Paczuski. Perched above this pristine world of white, the evergreens far below his dangling skis, the air crisp and sharp, Dariusz started daydreaming. “Okay, what can I do to make it possible to do this more often with my friends and family?’” he recalls thinking. An answer popped into his head: Start your own business. But what kind? A vodka business perhaps? “I’ll ski in the morning on the fresh snow, and then I’ll pitch my vodka in the afternoon to all the restaurants and bars and resorts,” the Polish immigrant and Menlo Park resident decided. Thus Rocket Vodka began. But breaking into the beverage industry wasn’t easy. “There are so many vodkas out there that are not adding any value to the world or community because they’re just the same as everyone else,” Dariusz explains. To set himself apart, he went beyond common base ingredients like rye, wheat, corn and potatoes to experiment with something a little uncommon: apples. The choice paid homage to the backyard apple trees of his childhood home, which his father used for making moonshine. As a bonus, Dariusz also got to stick it to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had banned Polish apple imports at the time. Dariusz says that, while growing up, most farms made alcohol from their excess crops. “When I was growing up, vodka wasn’t consumed in cocktails,” he shares. “We were sipping the vodka with salty, pickled, fatty, smoky foods, as a complement to that. So it was more like a food pairing.” As Dariusz explored his business idea, he decided to make use of a trip to visit his mother in Warsaw. “[I wanted] to find some crusty old Polish dude making some amazing vodka that I could basically import,” he recalls, “change his life and mine … I call it my vodka quest.” Sadly, this vodka virtuoso never materialized. “I joke now that I think I’m turning into that crusty old Polish dude,” Dariusz chuckles. Back in the Bay, Dariusz sought someone to show him the ropes. He found Roman Polonsky, a Russian engineer at Google who made vodka at home. “The first experiment was in my garage,” Dariusz shares. After stocking up on a variety of apples from the Menlo Park Farmers Market, RoSPIRI TS liquid courage words by JOHANNA HARLOW photography by PAULETTE PHLIPOT ABOVE: Dariusz Paczuski makes his award-winning vodka with apples.
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