Liquor stores and distilleries are still deemed essential services across New York state, and one of those businesses open is the Albany Distilling Company. The distillery is taking lemons and quite literally making them into lemonade, selling craft cocktails to go and that's not all. 

They've got a mission to help service workers who are on the front lines of fighting COVID-19.

"You order online, we have a website set up you can shop our entire bottle shop and the cocktails to go," said Jennifer Parsley, Albany Distilling Company's bar manager. "You pay right online, you just come in, and it's ready to go. We can bring it out to your car, you pop in and grab it, but either way, it's nice and easy."

Parsley says they are selling their Brooklyn Bourbon, the Sorrel punch, a smoked Manhattan, vodka gimlets, and the cranberry grapefruit cobbler.

"We picked some of our most popular cocktails and we decided to bottle those. We have five options right now and we're doing them in four-packs so people can choose to mix and match," Parsley.

What do the cocktails require when you take them home? Not much. Some of them should be given a shake, but otherwise are ready to consume.

"It's really their choice; they can drink it straight from the bottle, they can throw over some ice, they can chill it and pour it into a glass, whatever they fancy," Parsley said.

While it's not the traditional bar service they're used to, Parsley says it's been great to see both businesses and patrons, making the best of an unprecedented situation. She says lots of their regulars have been incredibly supportive of the changes.

"We're in a challenging time right now and we're kind of forced to make things work," Parsley said.

One of those other challenges is supply shortages. Last week, the company made hand sanitizer, offering anyone with one of their bottles a chance to come in and fill them. Now, while they await a new shipment of ethanol, their plan is to produce more exclusively for essential services like hospitals, nursing homes, fire and EMS, and other public-facing organizations facing shortages for free.

"It's important because we're producing for the people that are still in the workforce right and providing services to everyone at home and we wanna make sure everything is as sanitary as possible to prevent any future spread," Parsley said.

While the state liquor authority laws could change on a week-by-week basis, right now Albany Distilling is planning on offering these cocktails to go for the foreseeable future. Starting soon, they will also have standard shipping offered on their cocktails and bottles.

Adding, "We're adapting to changes in legislation as quickly as possible and plan to begin shipping next week."

They say you can check their website and social media for updates.