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What are Bootleg Bourbon Balls?

These high-proof, spirit-filled confections are hand-crafted in small batches using a variety of Kansas City’s own craft spirits, as well as regional distilleries of Missouri. We use locally sourced pecans and fine chocolates from Belgium and France. The Bootleggers only wish they’d thought of concealing booze so deliciously.

Blind Pig featuring RESTLESS SPIRITS DISTILLING CO.

What’s the Kansas City Connection?

Kansas City has a bit of a boozy history, making it the perfect home for our notoriously naughty chocolates. Missouri was nearly the last state to pass Prohibition laws, with initiatives to make alcohol illegal losing several times on the ballot. Once Prohibition did arrive in Kansas City, Tom Pendergast, a corrupt political boss, made sure there was not an interruption to Kansas City nightlife. Tom kept the hooch in the speakeasies through his bootlegging operation and large influence over the police and local government — not a single felony arrest related to the illegal sale and manufacture of liquor was made in Kansas City during Prohibition.

Today, Kansas City is experiencing a revival of distilleries that create some fine spirits. Lisa chooses liquor from several local distilleries (Holladay/McCormick, Restless Spirits, Tom’s Town, Union Horse, Copper Run and Lifted Spirits) to blend into her bourbon balls. Click here to learn more about our spirited partners.

Lisa Fitch Owner

How did Bootleg Bourbon Balls get started?

Our founder, Lisa Fitch, was raised in an entrepreneurial family in rural Missouri and made Kansas City her home. She learned early the importance of supporting local business and the community. That is why she makes it a practice to support local vendors with her own business. Lisa spends time talking to the owners of the distilleries. Contemplating their history and products, she can cook up the most complementary pairings of old fashioned treats with a new twist. Definitely unique!

IN THE NEWS...

Kansas City Magazine: 42 Essential Sweets In KC, From Bonbons To Apple Fritters

By Taylor Drummond
Published January 31, 2023
Click here to read complete article.

Bardstown, Kentucky, is the esteemed “Bourbon Capital of the World.” It’s got nothing on a woman-owned, small business here in Kansas City: Bootleg Bourbon Balls (bootlegbourbonballs.com). The company has perfected the creation of spirit-filled confections made with Kansas City’s craft spirits and mixed with Belgian chocolate.

Head Bootlegger Lisa Fitch describes her Kentucky thoroughbred balls as “notoriously naughty chocolates, but so nice.” Bootleg sells sample boxes through its website and delivers to four locations around town at no extra cost. The lineup of bourbon balls includes not only traditional balls filled with Tom’s Town Pendergast Royal Gold Bourbon and Union Horse Reserve Bourbon but also chocolate balls infused with local rum and whiskey.

The sampler’s standout is a sparkly chocolate masterpiece called Dame’s Dish, a dark chocolate and whiskey pecan blend with the Lifted Spirits Wheat Whiskey. The first bite of this immaculate confection, through the whiskey-soaked chocolate, reveals a delectable maraschino cherry to savor. It’ll leave you wanting to share with the whole family—if they’re over 21, that is.

“They aren’t your Grandma’s bourbon balls—and this ain’t your Grandpa’s bourbon,” Fitch says. —Taylor Drummond

KCUR 89.3 NPR: Kansas City maker of bourbon balls wants them ‘out of the Christmas tins’ for a year-round treat

By Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga

Published December 9, 2022

Click here to read complete article.

Excerpt:

Lisa Fitch is a proud Kansas Citian with Midwestern roots, but there is one Southern holiday candy that holds a special place in her heart: bourbon balls.

The chocolatey, boozy sweets, which are often eaten or given as gifts during winter holidays, originally hail from Kentucky. But Fitch remembers making them as a child with her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother even had her own bourbon balls recipe.

“It is a specific thing and it's a family recipe, so we made it for years,” says Fitch. “We'd made it for friends and family for many years. And then, all of a sudden, it started going beyond that.”

Canvas Rebel: Meet Lisa Fitch

Published November 17, 2022

Click here for complete article.

Excerpt:
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience – The process and outcome of successfully adatping to difficult or challenging life experinces. Over the past 2-1/2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, many small business owners, myself included, have had to master the fine art of adaptation, pivots and changes in order to stay afloat. Our survival as a small business owner, was in large part due to the fact we were able to continue operating digitally. Our store is online. We have never had a storefront (brick and mortar) and all our production occurs from a commercial kitchen, so we were able to continue production without interruption, while bringing in consistent orders, especially during the ‘stay-at-home’ order, when online shopping surged, especially over the holidays. However, shipping became a logistical nightmare, especially for us since our product is perishable and time sensitive. For the first time, we offered free delivery for our customers, for a limited time.

With the ongoing COVID-19 cases, as well as many other factors, we have had to contend with disruption of supply chain issues, ever increasing costs of goods and making the hard decsion to adjust prices, while creating new product offerings. For financial heatlh of the business, critical evaluation all costs and updated price sheets to reflect increasing raw material and paper packaging product price hikes, as well as delivery and fuel surcharges has been imperative.

We are still here and the biggest kudos goes to our customers who have made the conscious effort to support and buy local from small businesses like us. We are more than grateful for their trust in our commitment to offer a personalized ‘customer first’ service, as well as handcrafting a high-end, quality product – For this, we have been able to build customer loyality and an ever increasing following.