How We Got Started
Started by three friends and former next-door neighbors, Happy Raptor Distilling was officially incorporated in 2017 and opened its doors in the spring of 2020. When Meagen and Mark were married in Martinique, they brought a little spice packet home and let it soak in a bottle of rum for a few weeks. Having discovered the Caribbean tradition of the rhum arrangé , they loved it and promptly threw the spice packet away. Years later, around the kitchen table over another bottle of rum, Meagen, Mark and Peter decided to open a distillery and reflected on the most interesting, most creative, most fun style of rum they could remember. What happened next? Book a tour! (We can't give away all the good stuff before your visit!)

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Our Rum
Happy Raptor Distilling specializes in infused rums made in the Caribbean tradition. Our inaugural products, 504Hibiscus and 504BananasFoster, are a light-hearted, unique twist on spiced rum. Each rum is hand-crafted at our facility with a variety of spices, botanicals and citrus, infused over time in a premium white rum. Whole ingredients such as hibiscus petals, as well as bananas and limes dehydrated by hand, make these products stand out with the familiar and beloved smells and flavors of Louisiana and the Caribbean. Not to mention, our rum begins with a rich, dark molasses made from 100% Louisiana sugarcane that we pick up directly from the field. 

Our Location
​Once the site of a graffiti-covered storage facility, the distillery’s location at 1512 Robert C. Blakes Sr. Drive (a two-block stretch of Carondelet Street) is nestled in a high-traffic but often overlooked area of Central City in New Orleans, one block from Saint Charles Avenue. While it's found a fresh new look, this building has been a staple of this neighborhood since the early 1900s, having seen many different owners and eclectic uses over the last century. Little did our building know it was bound for its most exciting venture yet.