Prepare to be ‘razzle-dazzled’: Glencoe-based Three Kings real-fruit vodkas begins to hit stores

At a dinner with his wife and her friend about 25 years ago, J. Andrew Barr, Glencoe resident and the president of Three Kings Vodka, tried a drink with flavored vodka and thought to himself, “I can do this better.”

That moment inspired him to pursue a new hobby: making his own flavored vodka with real fruit.

Now, that hobby has turned into a business, and the product is hitting shelves as Three Kings Vodka, which is marketed as the only flavored vodka sold with its flavor and color derived from real fruit.  

But getting to this point has been a journey of trial and error, with Barr spending years tinkering to make sure the product would be up-to-snuff both for himself and others. 

“I started with strawberry because everyone loves strawberry, and it was just a complete fiasco,” he said. “And then I went to blueberry — another fiasco. Then I went to the farmers market, and I started buying raspberries and blackberries … and those really worked very well.” 

He describes the process as a “Goldilocks of good, better, best,” as he’ll make three iterations of a vodka before picking the method and approach for optimal flavor. 

Well before turning his hobby into a business, Barr and his wife served the real-fruit vodka at their tailgates at Northwestern. Everyone who got a sample from them knew the black raspberry vodka as “purple passion,” an homage to Northwestern and its purple and white team colors.

Because the products were a big tailgate hit among friends and passersby alike, they inspired the website, drinkyourteamcolors.com (coming soon), and the slogan, “Three Kings Vodka – The Official Vodka of Tailgates, and, again, Don’t Just Wear Your Team Colors, Drink Them!”

In contrast to competitors, which use “natural ingredients,” part of what makes Three Kings unique is that the vodka takes on the color of the fruit used, making it a perfect way for people to represent their team colors and show their spirit. 

Barr said he conducted an initial survey of the top 20 stadiums in the country, and his vodkas can mirror the team colors for 18 of them, with the exception of the greens, such as those worn by Michigan State Spartans. 

The flavors with which Three Kings is currently going to market are: raspberry, known by its “fanciful name” Razzledazzleberry; mixed berry, aka Berry Bonanza; and peach-mango, aka Tropical Thunder. 

The company’s trade name, Three Kings, comes from the Bible story, commemorated on Epiphany, of the three men who visited a newborn Jesus, as well as Barr’s self-proclaimed obsession with crowns, even keeping his keys in a crown bowl.

Barr said he knew it was perfect: The company logo has three crowns, not just one. 

He is always playing around with new flavors, too. Though they are not going to market with them yet, Three Kings has a mango-jalapeño flavor and is working on perfecting the blueberry flavor, which he said can be finicky. 

Three Kings’ headquarters is in Glencoe, and the warehouse and production facility is in Zion. They blend their own vodka from Canadian wheat. It then sits on the berries for months, soaking up the flavor, before being blended and bottled. 

“The way I see the difference between our vodkas and competitors is, if you have a club soda with a slice of lemon in it, that’s what ours is like,” Barr said. “If you have a LaCroix lemon, that’s what theirs is like.”

Due to government rules and regulations, Three Kings could not officially call their drinks “flavored vodkas” but instead, for example, the raspberry one is called “vodka with raspberries.” Barr jokes the government rules worked in his favor as it proves Three Kings is flavored with actual berries as opposed to the artificiality of others. 

He estimates that the alcohol content of the spirit is 38 percent. 

On Saturday, July 16, Good Grapes at 821 Chestnut Court in Winnetka held a tasting to celebrate the market launch of Three Kings. Barr said the community feedback was overwhelmingly positive. 

The vodkas were used to create four mixed drinks, and a number of attendees requested to taste the vodka straight-up, because they had enjoyed the mixed drinks so much. 

“[People found] that our Berry Bonanza with just club soda and a squeeze of lemon was the best cocktail, because it accentuated the vodka, rather than mask it, which is particularly good feedback because usually the idea is to hide the vodka with a mixer,” Barr said. 

Razzledazzleberry, Berry Bonanza and Tropical Thunder are now being sold at Good Grapes at $27 for a 750 mL bottle. As the business grows, Barr said he hopes to have the product on shelves at Vin Chicago next. For more information, message threekingsvodka@gmail.com.

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