Let the Good Times Flow: Exploring the Local Liquid Arts Trail
Coffee gets your work day started. Beer turns game night into a party. Spirits and wine elevate your meals and kombucha pumps you full of probiotics and antioxidants. Wherever you go in Snohomish County, someone's brewing, distilling, or roasting something you wish you were drinking right now, and you can find it all on the Local Liquid Arts Trail. It's not a literal path for you to follow and find them all, but a much more useful list you can work your way through or use to find a new favorite business you'll visit again and again.
Sip your way through Snohomish County // Image courtesy Local Liquid Arts
How'd the trail come to be? The wheels were set in motion in 2013 when Debbie Burton from City of Snohomish founded the Craft Beverage Guild (AKA Local Liquid Arts) to help promote the many beverage-oriented businesses in Snohomish County. Current executive director Yvonne Gallardo-Van Ornam met Burton in 2016 and immediately began volunteering. She took over in 2017 and was able to devote her full attention to it after resigning from her demanding job in 2020.
Gallardo-Van Ornam had big plans, with lots of events in the calendar and partnerships lined up, but we all know what happened next. Pandemic 2020. After a year of doing what she could on her own, Gallardo-Van Ornam conceived the Local Liquid Arts Trail and applied for funding from a county Economic Resiliency Grant when they became available in December. The Guild was awarded that grant as well as funding for the Local Liquid Arts Mobile Shop.
The Mobile Market at a recent event // Image courtesy Local Liquid Arts
Mobile Shop events are an opportunity for eight member makers at a time to easily distribute their goods. They take orders directly from customers, and the Guild works with the makers to distribute the orders on their behalf at the event. Whoever hosts the event gets a lot of new people stopping in, too. Everybody wins!
Tory and Kayla from Dreadnought Brewing in Monroe, hosting the December 29 Mobile Market // Image courtesy Local Liquid Arts
Think you can visit all 67 businesses on the trail? The 12 in Everett are a great start. Live in Everett has been to ten of them so far: At Large Brewing, Crucible Brewing, Lazy Boy Brewing, Middleton Brewing, Scuttlebutt Brewing, Bluewater Organic Distilling, Port Gardner Bay Winery, Aesir Meadery, Cracken Coffee Roasters, and Soundbite Cider.
Want to visit the Mobile Market? Follow Local Liquid Arts on Facebook. In the meantime, print a copy of the Trail and start your thirsty journey.
Christopher Bragg works from home in Everett and loves walking, swimming, and cats. You can find him all over town, but only if you keep weird hours and avoid crowds like he does.
