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Weekly UpdatesJOKA VODKA
After a career in real estate development, native New Yorker Joe Nedlin relocated to Aspen in 2004 and wanted to create a self-sustaining business that would give its profits to American veterans. Inspired by Paul Newman's business model, he started with high-end golf clubs and skin care, but sales dropped with the onset of the recession, so he moved into a more recession-proof category: alcohol.
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More specifically, Joka Vodka, named for his "Joker" nickname when he served in the Army in the 1960. Joka is distilled from sweet corn in Bend, Ore., and filtered through lava and charcoal five times. "That's what gives it the flavor," Nedlin says. "That and the quality of the water."
Priced at the low end of the premium category, Joka gives all profits--"$3 a bottle, minimum," Nedlin says--to veterans via the Blue Star Mothers chapter in Grand Junction. "The whole thing is designed to help veterans. $25 to $35 retail.
Made by Aspen Black Diamond LLC, Aspen, (970) 618-0062, www.jokavodka.com. Available at numerous bars and liquor stores throughout Colorado.
HEROES, VILLAINS, DAMES & DISASTERS
As the Rocky Mountain News entered its final months, Michael Madigan, a retired longtime editor at the paper, began contributing a 150-issue series of historic front pages from the Rocky over its century and a half in print. But the February shutdown of the paper quashed the series 50 installments short of the paper's 150th birthday, so Madigan set out to publish the collection in one oversized, 192-page soft-cover book.
"Choosing the first 75 covers was pretty easy," Madigan says. After that, he turned to colleagues for advice and made sure to include iconic Colorado characters like Alferd Packer and Baby Doe Tabor. Madigan says his favorite spreads in the book showcase the Rocky's front pages during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis ("It was the first moment in history that resonated with me personally") and that of the April 13, 1942 edition, the first to feature a tabloid format. Bookending the tome are "the very first and the very last" front pages from the paper in 1859 and 2009, respectively. $29.95 retail.
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By Michael Madigan (published by Mad Ideas LLC), Arvada, www.michaelmadiganauthor.com. Available at Tattered Cover stores, Amazon.com, and most chain bookstores in metro Denver.
ZUBERFIZZ SODA
Almost a decade ago, aspiring microbrewers Banden Zuber and Dan Aggeler found themselves with the liquidated assets of a shuttered Ouray brewery and a too-crowded market in Durango. "We wanted to open a brew pub, but there was no more demand," says Aggeler, former head brewer at Durango's Steamworks.
So the duo started making micro-cream soda, which Zuber marketed at the local Dairy Queen--owned by his parents--and soon spun it off into a new business, going full-time in 2002, and Zuberfizz was born. Aggeler followed suit in 2004, and the company has been growing at a steady 30 percent annual clip in the years since.
The nine Zuberfizz labels include the original cream soda as well as a new cola, a popular root beer, and a pair of ginger ales that are the world's first sugar-free all-natural sodas. In all sodas but the ginger ales, Zuberfizz uses cane sugar instead of the industry standard, high-fructose corn syrup (adopted in the wake of the embargo against Cuba), which Aggeler says "is the leading cause of diabetes and obesity in the country." $4.99 for a six-pack retail. Custom 15-packs available online for $36, shipping included.
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Durango Soda Co. Inc., Durango, www.zuberfizz.com. Also available at King Soopers and City Market locations and numerous other retailers in Colorado.
BALIYO
A spinoff from Golden-based knife maker Spyderco, BaliYo is a butterfly knife without the knife. "Up-and-coming CEO" Eric Glesser, son of founder and CEO Sal Glesser, "is a real big fan of high-end pens and bali-song, or butterfly-style, knives," says BaliYo spokeswoman Joyce Laituri. "So he took the concept and combined it with a Fisher Space Pen"--the pressurized pen developed for astronauts.
After the BaliYo's launch last summer at the 2008 World Yo-Yo Contest in Orlando, "It's taken off," Laituri says. "It's like an action pen for people who are real fidgety." The market is dominated by males aged 9 to 19, but Laituri notes, "We do have a couple of doctors who BaliYo." $28 retail for the premium BaliYo (made in Golden); $8 retail for the standard model.
Made for BaliYo by Spyderco Inc., Golden, www.baliyo.com.
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