Highlights
- Cole Cameron bottled his first commercial batch of Nopal, a prickly pear distillate, in 2025 after navigating local and federal licensing.
- Cameron grows 500 opuntia cacti on a 1-acre Scottsdale nursery and distills the spirit at a South Phoenix warehouse using a 300-gallon pot-still system.
- Nopal retails for $35 and is available at Tops, Trevor's and major retailers; Cameron's Desert Botanical Distillery also produces a mesquite pod liqueur called Madera.
- An Arizona-sourced gin is in development under the Desert Botanical Distillery banner.
A Scottsdale cactus grower has turned a 1-acre opuntia nursery into the production base for Nopal, a prickly pear spirit that retailed for the first time in 2025 and has already worked its way into cocktail programs at Tell Your Friends, Course and Cocina Chiwas.
Cole Cameron, a 40-something distiller who previously worked as a fashion model, semi-pro football player and commercial plant grower, launched the project after concluding that prickly pear cacti on his Scottsdale property could yield a viable spirit. The source article, published by Phoenix Magazine, details his process: Cameron harvests paddles from his personal stock of 500 cacti and runs them through an apple chipper. He heats the resulting sludge to 160 degrees F, adds enzymes to release fermentable sugars, and incorporates a touch of local honey before pitching distiller's yeast. Fermentation runs three weeks, producing a mash of 15 to 20 percent ABV.
Cameron then distills the liquid twice to 65 percent ABV at his South Phoenix warehouse using a 300-gallon pot-still system. The nascent spirit rests in stainless steel for two to three days to shed volatiles before being proofed down to 40 percent ABV and hand-bottled in what Cameron describes as "Nordic round"-style vessels. He designed the label himself in Adobe.
The path to market required clearing a thicket of local and federal licensing restrictions. Cameron told Phoenix Magazine he was drawn to prickly pear in part because opuntia are more renewable than agave, the plant behind tequila.
Under his Desert Botanical Distillery banner, Cameron also produces Madera, a mesquite pod liqueur, and has plans for an Arizona-sourced gin. Nopal is priced at $35 and is available at Tops, Trevor's and major retailers.
Who is behind Desert Botanical Distillery?
Cole Cameron, a former Arizona State University student and one-time commercial plant grower, operates Desert Botanical Distillery out of a South Phoenix warehouse. Cameron grows the source cacti on a 1-acre Scottsdale nursery stocked with 500 opuntia plants and handles bottling and label design himself.
The gin is in development with no release date disclosed.
Sources
Every factual claim in this article traces to one of the sources below. See how we work for the editorial process.
- Phoenix Magazine retrieved 02/09/2026 22:29
Authored by The Scottsdale Signal. Drafted by AI from primary-source material under our beat-specific editorial guides; reviewed by humans before publish under our five-gate process. Sources retrieved at 02/09/2026 22:29. Every claim traces to a source.
