Barrio’s “On the Road” with whiskey from Pur Spirits. Photo by Jonas Maaloe.Sure, Seattle may have a reputation among locals for its strong European heritage (here’s looking at you, Ballard). But if there’s one thing we do differently than our counterparts across the pond, it’s liquor. Just ask Kiki Braverman.Braverman, a German-born entrepreneur who moved to Seattle in 2000 and started Queen Anne-based Pur Spirits shortly thereafter, aims to bring traditional Kraut distilling traditions to the Emerald City. The market here seems ripe, and the audience attentive enough to drinking culture that business could take off in a big way. There’s only one problem: the law. “I can’t have a tasting room or sell directly to bars,” says Braverman, whose first three spirits offered in the U.S. each received a medal at last year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition. “I even have to buy my own bottles at the liquor store.”Braverman believes a tasting room would give her the opportunity to market her liquors. Today, she can’t even give samples to restaurants, so knowledge of her spirits remains basically limited to Seattle bartenders. Growing up in the German town of Lake Constance, an area well known for its distilling traditions, Braverman was frustrated with the bad booze she encountered in Seattle upon arriving 10 years ago. There is such a culture of eau de vie and quality liquors in Europe,” she says. “But it is hard to find it in the U.S.” Unsatisfied with what she was forced to drink and realizing there was a void in local liquor culture, Braverman started Pur Spirits and set out to bring German booze to an audience that was probably barely aware of its existence.Never heard of eau de vie? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. The term refers to a distilling process unique to parts of Europe — and especially Lake Constance, where Pur Spirits products have been made since the company’s formation in 2007. The aim of eau de vie is to bring out the fruitiness, so it gives a little kick to the taste buds. A good example is the whiskey Pur Spirits offers: made of distilled beer that has aged in chestnut barrels, it has a very clean and unique taste, making Braverman’s concoction a hit with Seattle bar owners.Cameron Williams, General Manager of Barrio on Capitol Hill, is one of them. “You kind of want that pop in cocktails,” said Williams on why he uses Pur Spirits’ products. “The quality of the stuff is just really awesome.”Case in point: On the Road, one of Barrio’s signature cocktails. Featuring Pur Spirits’ whiskey mixed with another local spirit, Scrappy’s Bitter by Tavern Law’s Miles Thomas, and some Mexican brandy and scotch, On the Road is “a mixture of an old library and a citrus plant.” (At least that’s what the guy I was drinking it with at the time says.) Personally, I think it’s an Old Fashioned with a little more edge.But be careful developing a taste for On the Road; you won’t find it on too many menus in Seattle, as Washington state liquor laws limit Braverman’s chances of getting her booze known. According to the law, Pur Spirits can’t do online sales or sponsor events, and bartenders have to place a special order if they want to get their hands on the eau de vie liquors.So Braverman continues on her quest for German liquors in Seattle cocktails. What a righteous cause.