On a frigid, snowy afternoon, a family gathered at a distillery in Boulder to bottle over 400 bottles of vodka, in the spirit of their product’s grassroots and disciplined atmosphere.

Andrew Mattson and Noah Hampton — two active-duty members of the U.S. Marine Corps of just 21 years old — have worked together to create Pentilla Vodka, an affordable liquor that’s distilled 34 times, creating for an exhilarating taste and even more exhilarating backstory.

The two Marines met while on deployment in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021. Both men — barely old enough to vote — were there during the Kabul airport attack, where ISIS-K suicide bombs killed 170 civilians and 13 members of the U.S. military at Hamid Karzai International Airport, just days before the U.S. planned to evacuate.

After returning to the states and being stationed in California, the duo became close and decided they needed to take life by the horns and create something that would cement their legacy.

Mattson ruminated the idea of creating both a vodka and, later, a non-profit. He ran the idea by Hampton, who immediately jumped on board.

“What seemed like the craziest idea in the world became realistic in a matter of weeks,” Hampton said.

Mattson, who lives in Colorado, met with Seth Johnson, owner of JL Distilling in Boulder, to create Pentilla Vodka.

Regarding the business of liquor, Mattson saw a problem he wanted to solve.

“There’s a lot of not-so-great liquor for really expensive prices,” he said. “So, we came here, met Seth and came up with a solution: create really quality liquor for an affordable price.”

“You can find anything in life in three different ways. You can find it cheap, fast or good. Normally, you can only get two of those at once. With Pentilla, you can get all three,” Hampton added.

The vodka — priced at $24.99 a bottle — doesn’t kick aside quality to keep prices low, though. To do that, Hampton and Mattson do the distribution and bottling themselves, with the help of their family.

“You could pay someone to automate the process. You could pay someone to come do what we’re doing here today,” Hampton said. “But, to keep our costs low for the consumer, we handle that ourselves.”

The family bottled the vodka for over two hours on Saturday during a “bottling party,” the second batch the team has created since starting in August.

The product will be distributed to a few local stores and bars and sold online, with plans to grow.

They connect their dedication and resilience to their time in the military.

“Discipline in just getting up every day and going after it,” Hampton said. “Most small businesses fail because someone is not really willing to put in the work when it gets hard. So, discipline is the number-one thing we have. We’ve been taught that from day one of stepping into boot camp.”

They also say the courage to start something, perseverance and maturity as the main tools the military has given them.

Bootleggers, Rocky Mountain water and sugarcane

The history behind Pentilla stretches further than the creators’ Marine background.

Pentilla Vodka carries the surname of Mattson’s great grandfather, John Pentilla, a Finnish bootlegger who transported handcrafted vodka from Finland to Sweden and Norway, according to Mattson.

With gaining popularity, Pentilla started raising the suspicion of authorities. He then fled to America with his wife and changed their last name to Mattson.

“When I tell people the story, they say ‘that’s a great piece of fiction. How’d you come up with that?’ and I tell them, no, that’s the real history,” Hampton said.

Using the classic recipe, the duo crafts a crisp, sweet vodka from Rocky Mountain water, Louisiana sugarcane and Finnish roots.

More than alcohol

More than two of 10 veterans with PTSD also have substance use disorders, according to the National Center for PTSD.

Both Hampton and Mattson are aware of the stigma following veterans and alcohol abuse.

“We don’t believe alcohol should ever consume your life,” Hampton said. “We understand the stigma with alcohol and veterans. We want to help break that, too.”

While the creators’ passion is in vodka, they want to turn their abilities and experience into positive support for veterans, as well as others.

The two plan to start the Pentilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that will bring new-age ideas to both PTSD support and adjustment disorders.

“There are a lot of groups out there meant to help veterans with PTSD. Sometimes that’s all you can find, but there’s other groups of people out there that need PTSD help. People from abusive childhoods or victims of violence,” Mattson said. “Those people may not know where to get help and when they try, they may only find support groups for veterans.”

Pentilla Foundation looks to make help accessible for all.

“Speaking of myself, as someone that’s gone to veteran support groups, it can be this endless loop. It’s confusing,” Hampton said about receiving help from groups.

“Fitness really helped bring me out of my dark stages after deployment. We’d like to provide affordable gym memberships for people… We’d like to have service dogs at support group meetings to help distract from those negative thoughts. Just different ideas to help people see a light at the end of the tunnel.”

These ideas are just a few that the 21-year-old duo — wise beyond their years and experienced in tragedies unfathomable to some — have cooking for the future.

“We’re just trying to create a product that people can love. But, we’re also trying to help out others, too,” Hampton said.