Mentzendorff Kummel Liqueur | 50 cl

Product Information

Golf is a sport with the power to make you the hero of your own story or send you into the depths of despair. Kummel is a herbal liqueur flavoured with caraway seeds, cumin, fennel, orris and other herbs. The origins of this liqueur's name lie in the generic names for the key spices with which it is flavoured. In German, caraway seed is called Kümmel while cumin is Kreuzkümmel. Fill the bottle of infused spirit with about 440 ml of your premade simple syrup, close the bottle and let rest for 1 day in your refrigerator. Initially the kummel has lots of flavor from the spices, it is very sweet and has some sharpness from the alcohol. However, the longer the kummel sits the more that alcohol smooths out. If you have a sweet tooth, you will like the recipe as is but for me the next time I make it, I will only use 3/4 or half as much sugar. Since I don’t have a still, I started looking for kummel recipes online that use maceration (soaking botanicals in alcohol) instead. While Google came trough and gave me some results, none of the online recipes were exactly what I was looking for. However, I came across a note about an old French distillers recipe book that included kummel. There was no mention of a title or author so it took awhile to locate but eventually I found the source: Culture de la Vigne: Traitement Pratique des Vins: Vinification - Distillation by Raimond Boireau (1876). The book includes five recipes for kummel (pp 451-453): One with just caraway, one with caraway essence, and three that use caraway with a small amount of other spices. Based on these recipes I decided to make one bottle (750ml) of about 40% ABV kummel that was 30 parts caraway, 2 parts coriander and 1 part fennel. Recipe for EZ Homemade Kummel

Although kummel's origins are thought to be Dutch, Russia is now the largest producer and consumer of kummel. It also remains popular in Germany, particularly Berlin. History of kummel At Brooklyn’s Maison Premiere, the liqueur appears in the High Chicago, a vegetal and savory drink that doubles down on kümmel’s herb-and-spice notes by partnering it with Suze and Greek mastiha. “This is an expression of sun-kissed beta-carotene plants and vegetables and colors,” bar director Will Elliot notes, in reference to the spectrum of spirits in the mix, from Greek mastiha (distilled from tree resin) to apricot eau de vie. Some historians [ which?] state that Lucas Bols (1652-1719) first distilled kümmel liqueur in the Netherlands in 1675. [1] [ bettersourceneeded] It was then taken [ by whom?] to Germany and to Russia; the former is now the principal producer and consumer of kümmel. I doubt the young master would approve of all these ghastly middle-class johnnies enjoying his tipple, but then again, with all that kummel he put away, I don’t think he’d notice. Pink Gin though is a little different and a refined take on a set of classic ingredients loved by golfers.Comment: Considering this comes from the same distillery as the Mentzendorff, it’s a completely different animal, reminding me more of the German style. After 3 day filter the spices from the alcohol and pour the infused spirit into a clean 750 ml bottle that has a cap or closure. You can filter the spices with a simple mesh strainer or a coffee filter. Since I have a V60 for making coffee at home I use that. If you use a paper or cloth filter, remember to wet it before hand, or the filter will soak up you alcohol.

Allasch is a variety of Kümmel; it is also a caraway liqueur of around 40% ABV, usually flavoured with bitter almonds, anise, angelica root and orange peel. A charming and evocative scene of drinking kümmel occurs in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's television miniseries, "Berlin Alexanderplatz" (1980), where the character Franz Biberkopf speaks in the voices of glasses of kümmel and three beers in a philosophical dialogue as he evaluates the taste and downs each drink in turn. If you live in an area where 190 Everclear is not available you can also use 400 ml of 151 Everclear (75.5% ABV), or 600 ml of 100 proof vodka (50% ABV) with the same amount of spices. The maceration won’t be as intense and you will not need as much simple syrup to bring it down to proof. Kummel, also spelled Kümmel, is a botanical liqueur flavored primarily by distilling caraway and then sweetened. But, as it turns out, you do not need a still to make a fairly simple and delicious version of kummel at home. Whether that is due to a decision by the company to remove distribution in the U.K. or if the product itself is no longer to be produced at all is not known, and the details behind it seem to be extremely vague.We say: Dry and Martini-like. Assertive kummel flavours pervade a punchy mix of rum and coconut water. We say: Medium-dry, herbal, fruity, refreshing and delightfully different. Best served as an aperitivo.

We say: If you like Aviation's then this caraway influenced sour may appeal. It's powerfully flavoured so also consider serving in an old-fashioned over ice to allow dilution to tame the flavours.

Combier Kummel Details

We say: Not so far removed from an Aviation. Depending on your grapefruit juice, this particular Weekly Special may be very slightly on the sweet side but it's fantastically aromatic and characterful. If you find too sweet, then slightly up the grapefruit juice. Some of the most memorable days golfing generally involve spending far too long in the clubhouse where friendships are forged, and very often Kummel is the catalyst to those friendships… and so on that basis, we think it’s a tradition worth protecting. Remember, always drink responsibly and for those who don’t drink alcohol, we’ve included an awesome non-alcoholic drink that will leave you feeling fresh and ready for your next round. ALCOHOLIC GOLF DRINKS Kummel E A Simmons considers kummel in 1874's The American Bar-Tender as, "the favorite liqueur of Russia; the best is made at Weissenchein, in Esthonia." For golfers, Kummel evokes a sense of nostalgia, a decorative compliment to the familiar scene we all love about Golf. Sitting out on the terrace while the sun sets, with the dappled light transforming the links into a watercolour of rumpled fairways and long shadows whilst you sit there sharing a constant series of well-worn stories. That’s the real essence of golf clubs in Britain – where camaraderie trumps playing-ability.

Remote Areas - Northern Ireland, the Scottish Highlands & Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man and The Scilly Isles Delivery Service Our advice would be to bag a bottle for yourselves, sit on it, and enjoy a vintage drop in years to come. There are two main brands seen in the UK’s golf clubs – Mentzendorff and Wolfschmidt, and I took the opportunity to compare them, along with an expression from Combier, which is made in the same distillery as Mentzendorff’s. Mentzendorff Kummel. 38%. The perfect digestif, Kummel offered medicinal benefits as well as libation, but how this drink has come to be all but a golf club speciality is also shrouded in mystery and folklore.

Kummel is a caraway-flavoured liqueur – the UK uses the Dutch spelling without an umlaut (it’s kümmel in Germany); the word simply means ‘caraway’. Production methods vary slightly by brand – using Mentzendorff as an example, alcohol made from sugar beet is double-distilled in a pot still with caraway seeds. After the second distillation, sugar is added and the mixture is watered down to 38% abv. It is then left to rest for two months in stainless-steel vats before being bottled. Kummel is therefore similar to taffel Akvavit, except that the latter is aged in oak casks. Kümmel (also spelled kimmel, or kummel) is a colorless herbal liqueur flavored with spices and herbs—most notably, caraway seeds and cumin, which impart a distinctly savory-spicy flavor. Lore has it that the liqueur was created by Dutch distiller Lucas Bols in 1575. It’s here in Holland that it was encountered by Peter the Great in the last decade of the 1600s, while he was illicitly gathering intel on Dutch shipbuilding methods. He apparently enjoyed it so much that he brought it home with him to Russia, where it ultimately became a mainstay. Kümmel began to further establish itself in Eastern and Western Europe in 1800s, when one family in Riga, Latvia—then under Russian rule —decided to go commercial with its traditional recipe; today that brand, Mentzendorff Kümmel (now produced in France by the Combier distillery) remains one of the most popular producers of kümmel, along with Combier (France), Gilka (Germany) and Wolfschmidt (Denmark). The leading brand is made by Mentzendorff. Ludwig Mentzendorff, the company’s founder, was originally Prussian and the kummel came from Riga. He became naturalised in Britain in 1860 and nowadays, the liqueur is distilled in France to the old recipe. The company still exists, though their main business is now importing wine – they’ve been sole British agent for Bollinger since 1858. Kummel lingers on as an obscure speciality except, oddly, at golf clubs. It is as much part of the culture as plus fours, personalised number plates and rightwing politics. It is known as “putting mixture” and served just before going out on the course to relax golfers. Kummel seems to have taken off in 1930s as golf clubs spread over the British countryside. Nobody seems to know why. My theory is that as most golf clubs are relatively recent creations, their normally nouveau-riche founders were aping the habits of older institutions, including drinking kummel. Nobody likes a bit of invented tradition more than golfers. We say: The powerful flavours of kummel and maraschino liqueurs are tamed and harnessed in this sour.