Sambuca is an Italian spice liqueur, where the main flavor is anise, which is obtained from star anise. Sambuca was developed by Angelo Molinari in 1945. Angelo ran a coffee bar in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 1930, but after World War II he moved back to his birthplace in Civitavecchia. In…
Estonian company BR Imports brings Famosinha de Minas cachaças from Brazil and it is apparently the only country in Europe which offers this product. BR Imports import Brazilian products to Estonia, including coffee, açaí (a Brazilian snack made from the açaí palm) and alcohols. The company also ran a café-restaurant Cafe…
The Hope Distillery is a young distillery from Tallinn, founded in 2022. The founder and master distiller is the Danish gentleman Steen Lerche-Jensen. While he was living in London, he got acquainted with the world of gin and from there, through twists and turns, ended up founding a distillery in Estonia.…
In addition to its flagship product Unicum Zwack, Hungarian Zwack company has created a comprehensive range of other liqueurs, herbal liqueurs and palinkas (plum spirit). Traditional Unicum and plum-flavored versions I have already reviewed, but there is also a version flavored with Arabica coffee beans. The coffee-herb liqueur called Barista is…
Alongside the traditional Unicum Zwack herbal bitter, the Budapest-based Zwack distillery has also produced a few slightly lighter versions. Szilva, which means plum in Hungarian, a fruit grown in abundance in the country, has been chosen to bring a new aroma to this most famous Hungarian herbal spirit. In the preparation…
Licor 43 is the most famous and best-selling Spanish liqueur. It was developed in 1946 in Cartagena, southeast Spain. The recipe was created by Diego Zamora's family, who still own and produce the liqueur. As its name suggests, the liqueur contains 43 different herbs, spices, flowers, roots and fruits. The main…
At the end of the 18th century, Emperor Joseph II of Hungary suffered from a troublesome stomach ache, for which the emperor’s court physician, Dr. Zwack, developed a remedy. After tasting the medicine, the emperor declared: “das ist ein Unikum!” (“This is unique”). New liqueur was born, which was named Unicum.…
The Benriach distillery is not very well-known in this northeastern corner of Europe where I live. Heart of Speyside is BerRiach's "entry-level" product, it has no age statement, it is an affordable and in that sense a malt whisky that is certainly very suitable for beginners. The manufacturer must have had…
999 (The Nines) is a herbal liqueur made by the Lithuanian company Stumbras. The traditional 999 liqueur was made with a total of 27 ingredients. 9 flowers/leaves, 9 herbs/fruit and 9 roots/plant bark. As is often the case with the successful herbal liqueurs, the producers release different versions of it with…
Pisco is the national drink of Chile and Peru and its production process is similar to the fruit brandy produced in many Eastern European countries. However, pisco is made from grapes and most typically from muscatel type varieties. Pisco is naturally produced by several different wineries in Chile and Peru, but…