Laird & Company sits on a sprawling campus in Colts Neck, New Jersey (not Tinton Falls as sometimes listed), and holds the distinction of being America’s oldest licensed distillery. The Laird family has been making applejack since 1698 when Scottish immigrant William Laird first started distilling apples in Monmouth County. That’s over 325 years of continuous operation by the same family – nine generations to be exact. The current facility produces applejack, apple brandy, and various fruit brandies using both traditional pot stills and modern column stills, with some spirits aged in charred oak barrels for decades. The story reads like American history itself. William Laird’s descendants kept the operation running through the Revolutionary War (George Washington reportedly requested the recipe), Prohibition (they survived by making apple concentrate), and two world wars. Robert Laird and his son Larrie Laird now run the company, maintaining recipes and techniques passed down through centuries while modernizing production. The distillery sources apples from orchards across the Mid-Atlantic, fermenting the juice before double-distilling it in copper pot stills that have been in use for generations. What started as a colonial farm operation has evolved into a serious production facility that still honors its roots. Visiting Laird & Company feels like stepping into living history rather than a trendy craft distillery experience. You’re touring a working production facility where they’re making spirits the same way their ancestors did three centuries ago, just at a larger scale. The tasting room showcases their range from young applejack to 12-year-old apple brandy that sells for serious money. This isn’t bourbon country, and it’s not trying to be – it’s the epicenter of America’s original spirit, made by the people who literally invented it.