Introducing 503 Distilling’s Limited POG
How POG Ended Up in Hawaii
So how does a cocktail that started as a club release in Portland end up on a 7-Eleven shelf in Hawaii?
It helps when somebody asks for it.
When we started working with Odom Corporation to bring 503 to Hawaii, they had an idea: What about a POG?
Passion fruit. Orange. Guava.
If you know Hawaii, you know POG.
And yeah, we could make one.
Actually, we already had.
Back to the Recipe
We’d made a POG cocktail before as one of our club releases. It wasn’t part of the regular lineup, but we’d hung onto the recipe.
Good thing.
Rusty pulled it back out and started playing with it again.
“The trick was getting all three fruits to show up without one taking over,” Rusty says. “Passion fruit brings the tartness, guava gives it that big tropical aroma, orange rounds it out, and the lime keeps the finish crisp.”
A few tweaks later, we had POG Vodka Crush.
Passion fruit, orange, guava, a little lime and 503 vodka. 10% ABV. About two cocktails in a can.
Pretty simple idea.
Getting all those flavors to play nicely together is the harder part.
A Long Way From Portland
Then we sent it to Hawaii.
POG started showing up at 7-Eleven, KTA and independent stores around the islands, alongside some of our other canned cocktails.
And then Dave walked into a 7-Eleven in Hawaii and saw it sitting there.
Our can. On a shelf. In Hawaii.
Not bad for something that started as a club release back in Portland.
Especially when you remember how 503 started: two guys, a bunch of volunteers, canning days and farmers markets.
Back Where It Started
Now we’re making another batch of POG in Portland.
Most of it has a long trip ahead of it. But we’re keeping some here, too, which means POG is making a limited return to the 503 Distilling Cocktail Lounge.
That’s a pretty good journey for something that started with us playing around with flavors for the club.
Then again, that’s kind of what we do.
We make drinks. We play with flavors. Sometimes they end up in Hawaii.
Think outside the bottle.
