I have made several fruit mashes/distillations using both local fruit and locally produced fruit purees. It is more "crafty" to use whole fruit. If your goal is to become a producer of that fruit spirit then you should invest in the equipment to process that fruit. If, like us, you are a whiskey maker who wants to occasionally make a fruit spirit my, recommendation is to use a puree. Like cooking a big meal, making the mess is the fun part but cleaning it up is not as much fun. this is especially true if you do not have the proper equipment. We found that concentrates are more difficult to get flavor from because of the evaporation process.