St. Paul company Dapper Barons producing low-sugar liqueurs

Jess Fleming, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

Friends Jeff Roslund and Ryan Boudreau love cocktails.

But they also are often following the Keto diet, which restricts sugar.

And the cold, hard truth is that cocktails are often laden with sugar, much of it coming from liqueurs, which add essential flavor to the drinks.

Margarita? Triple Sec has almost 11 grams of sugar per ounce. White Russian? That coffee liqueur is one of the most sugar-dense cordials on the market.

So Twin Cities residents Roslund and Boudreau, who were imbibing more at home during the pandemic, looked for an alternative.

“We looked around, and no one was doing this,” Roslund said.

The pair, who had extra time on their hands, decided to do something about it.

“We spent a lot of time making stuff in my kitchen,” Rosland said.

Once they had a formula that they thought tasted great, the pair, both engineering grads from the University of Michigan, wasted no time finding a distillery to partner with, and Dapper Barons was born.

Roslund is the chief executive and Boudreau the chief research officer of the company, which launched in late 2021. Studio Distilling in St. Paul produces the liqueurs, which use all-natural, alcohol-based sugar substitutes and a small amount of sugar (1.3 grams per serving) — the least amount required to be legally considered a liqueur by the federal government.

“We experimented a lot to come up with a formula that doesn’t have a weird aftertaste,” Rosland said.

Dapper Barons’ product lineup currently includes amaretto, coffee liqueur, creme de cacao, triple sec and peppermint schnapps. They’ve also recently launched a ready-to-drink espresso martini that has no sugar at all.

They have sold about 2,000 bottles of the product so far and are carried by about 50 restaurants and 30 to 35 liquor stores. A point of pride for the guys: Porterhouse Steak & Seafood has replaced traditional liqueurs with Dapper Barons’ versions in all of its house cocktails.

“These are not alternative cocktails; they’re just their house cocktails,” Roslund said.

Interested in trying Dapper Barons? Roslund and Boudreau will be offering samples at Minnesota Monthly’s Food & Wine Experience, which runs March 3-5 at the Omni Viking Lakes Hotel in Eagan. For more information, go to dapperbarons.com.

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