Vera Spirits

Vera Spirits is a non-alcoholic distillery based in Slovenia founded and operated by Luka Nagode, Urska Dvoracek, and Jernej Peterlin - chefs and restaurateurs from Ljubljana. Their story begins with Vera, Luka’s beloved aunt, born in an old harbor town in the North Adriatic coast, to successful distillery owners.

Growing up within the noble circles of society, Vera came across became fascinated by the diversity of personalities she met during her youth. As she grew up, she became increasingly more curious about how people relate to one another. To her, it was very similar to the endless variations of taste and smell that one could come up with while distilling all sorts of botanicals.

Distillation process of Vera Spirits

Inspired by Vera’s lifelong travels along the Mediterranean coast on her quest to discover the perfect taste for each personality type, they decided to continue her mission and explore flavours, ingredients, and distilling methods in detail to create our unique blends. Their process begins with extensive research and experimentation and ends with refined combinations of local, high-quality organic ingredients.

The distillation process begins by carefully choosing their ingredients. they outsource botanicals based on quality and perfect timing, ensuring they rely primarily on local and seasonal ingredients. For production, they use spring water that comes directly from the Alps.

After studying each ingredient and its optimal distillation conditions, They develop recipes and procedures for each product. They distill their botanicals with great care, giving them the perfect conditions to extract wanted aromatic compounds.

Maceration and vapor infusion

They use two different methods: maceration and vapor infusion. Maceration involves soaking and cooking the botanicals in a still. They use this procedure for more delicate botanicals and juices. During vapor infusion, they place botanicals in the path of the vapor coming off the still before the steam is condensed. The moisture picks up the flavours from the botanicals as it passes by.

The resulting product is considered by many to be more fresh and delicate than that produced by maceration. After distillation, they carefully blend their distillates to achieve harmony between aromatics. The final product is then filtered, pasteurized (to ensure quality and safety), and finally, bottled.